If you’re an athlete, you need your body to perform at its peak every time. When your balance is a bit off, or your reflexes aren’t as sharp as they could be, your game suffers. This is true whether you’re a weekend warrior or an Olympic-caliber athlete.
Since sports are played in the moment, there is no do-over or second chance for the current event. You need to give your best every time. At Integrative Chiropractic Health & Wellness, we bring a similar level of dedication to our work and specialize in helping athletes with post-injury recovery, injury prevention, and performance enhancement.
Strains, Sprains, and Other Athletic Injuries
No matter which sport you enjoy, the chances are good that there are times when your body doesn’t enjoy it quite as much. Plantar fasciitis, elbow tendonitis, and ACL strains can require weeks or months of downtime and lost practice opportunities. Mild post-event aches and pains might seem like a small price to pay until you consider how they can subtly rob you of energy and reduce your strength for a day or two after every event.
Some common athletic injuries we see in our practice include:
- Shin splints
- Ankle sprains
- Lower back strains
Although these all might seem like reasonable consequences or minor injuries that will improve without treatment, that is not always the case. Shin splints can sideline you for weeks, stealing valuable practice time and increasing the likelihood of reinjury due to physical deconditioning. A sprained ankle might feel less painful or look less swollen after a few days or weeks, but the ligaments that have been torn need specialized care to optimize healing.
Although you won’t experience the dramatic “pop” or knee instability of a torn anterior cruciate ligament or ACL, an untreated sprained ankle can change the way you move for the rest of your life. Whether you realize it or not, you may begin to favor the leg without the sprain and move with uneven and unhealthy weight distribution.
A Chiropractic Perspective on Athletic Injuries
Chiropractic care can address the needs of athletes by focusing on the heart of movement issues: the spine. Whether you’re jumping, running, or standing tall on the winner’s podium, your spine impacts your performance. This is because your spine houses your spinal cord and the delicate nerve connections that carry information-rich neural impulses between the outside world and your brain. In other words, your nerves bring movement and sensation to life.
Subluxation
In the chiropractic realm, the term subluxation refers to any misalignment in the spine. Even if you’re not an athlete, it is impossible to prevent your spine from eventually becoming misaligned. Any spinal subluxation impinges or impedes the free flow of nerve knowledge throughout your body.
How Chiropractic Care Can Help
Chiropractic care includes spinal adjustments in which one of the Drs. Russell gently coaxes your spine into a more neutral position for optimal nerve performance. Since your nerves are also responsible for helping your heart beat, your lungs inflate, and your intestines digest food, restoring proper spinal alignment can also enhance your overall health.
Holistic Approach
Chiropractic care is, by design, a holistic approach to healthcare. In addition to optimal nerve function restoring whole body function, our Hoover, AL chiropractic team focuses on your overall health. Our consults always include a detailed health history because we believe your health today is the product of every health-related event in your life.
Our team also provides comprehensive testing and physical examination. We analyze your body from 23 angles and take 41 measurements for a detailed portrait. We also take digital X-rays and perform postural, neurological, and functional orthopedic assessments.
You’re at the Center of Your Care
If you’ve sought care before for an athletic injury, you might have felt some temporary relief from prescription pain medications or surgery. We believe that such interventions are not inherently wrong. We do think that there is so much more to healthcare and that care always begins with you.
When you come to our office, we never subject anyone to “treat and street,” where we throw some pills at you and quickly send you on your way. We assess your body, learn about your health goals, and enlist your help to get the most from your physical, mental, emotional, and social life. Whether prescribed exercise or nutritional recommendations, we give you the tools needed to maximize your performance on and off the playing field. If you’re ready to experience what chiropractic care can do for you, then send us a message online or give us a call at 205-637-1363.
