Do you want a competitive edge?
If you do anything physical…and yes, I DO mean anything, you need to be under Functional Chiropractic Care.
It is critically important that anyone who engages in athletic-type activities be under regular Functional Chiropractic Care for a multitude of reasons. It’s mostly about balance, stability, and coordination, but to put a finer point on it, it’s really all about brain function.
One of the many jobs of your brain is to control muscle tone. In a perfect world, under normal conditions, the brain acts as a balance between muscles being tight and loose; the brain maintains a happy medium between the two. When you want to move your arm, the brain will act to contract a set of muscles on one side of your body, while relaxing the muscles on the opposite side; when this is working correctly, you can flex your biceps. If this mechanism was not in place, you would either not be able to move your arm at all, or your arm would be stuck in one position while the muscles battled It out.
When we are put under stress, our brain is sometimes so busy dealing with everything associated that stress, that it sort of looses track of what it’s supposed to be doing, and fails to maintain the balance. The muscles on one side of the body are allowed to be contracted just enough to throw the balance off, and this is where your injuries happen. And let’s face it, athletics, and competition in general, are very stressful.
Your body doesn’t like to be improperly balanced; in fact, your eyes like to be level with the horizon. You may not notice a difference, but your brain sure does, and it will do whatever is necessary to make that happen. Your brain will start to compensate for the imbalance by recruiting other muscles to keep the body where the brain thinks it should be; a “snowball effect” begins. One thing leads to another, and pretty soon, your pelvis is torqued, your knees feel unstable and they hurt, your leg muscles are all knotted up, your feet start to hurt, your low back begins to ache, you start to throw out you shoulders, you get headaches…and so on.
Here’s an example…
You’re a football player; even if you’re the best in the game, you know you’re gonna take a hit and go down. If you are regularly adjusted, completely balanced, and your stability and coordination are intact, you’re still gonna take the hit, but you’re more likely to just fall over without sustaining any major damage. If, on the other hand, you are not regularly adjusted, and your balance, stability, and coordination are less than optimal, you won’t just go down, you will crumple on the side of brain weakness…and you’ll get hurt because your muscles weren’t balanced and able to protect you.
Did You Know…
Every time a football player gets tackled, the effect on his body is basically the same as being involved in a Motor Vehicle Accident?
Why is all of this so important? Because, it applies to anyone who engages in physical activity. No, a ballet dancer is not likely to be staring down a defensive lineman, but when she attempts a pirouette (one of those dancer spinny things), goes to plant her foot for stability, and her leg muscles aren’t balanced and strong, if she doesn’t fall, she’s surely going to twist an ankle or blow out an ACL. Or, how about that full contact sport of golf? Yes, golfers have the same risk factors because they rely on pelvic torque and rotation for power. If their balance, coordination, and stability are off, their score will go up because their swing will be off due to the imbalance, and they’re more likely to injure themselves during the swing.
Pick an activity, any activity, and the rules are still the same:
Gymnastics / Cheerleading / Dance
Martial Arts
Football / Basketball / Baseball
Hockey
Bowling
Rowing
Yoga
Hunting
Swimming
Racquetball
Hiking
Bicycling
Rock Climbing
Sex…Yes, I said sex!
Sex is quite physical; and I guess that some might consider it a sport? The rules still apply. Sex is very physically demanding, and let’s face it, many people who engage in sex aren’t in shape, let alone athletic; imagine the number of sprains & strains and other injuries sustained during sex that never get talked about. Balance, stability, and coordination along with strength, are all important, and if brain function is not optimal, you’re chances of injury increase, and you’ll most likely feel it the next day…and I’m not talk’n in a good way. Now, it’s certainly not the same as being in a car wreck, but you still don’t need the sort of damage and irritation to your system.
Now, we’ve only been talking about the musculoskeletal aspect of the body, we haven’t even begun to discuss the rest of the body as it relates to brain function and athletics. You have an entire cardiovascular system that is controlled by the brain. You have lungs, kidneys, a liver, a spleen, and a few other things in there as well, that all rely on proper brain function to work. The human body is a vast rabbit hole of complex processes and systems, that takes about ten years to learn, and a lifetime to master. We’re here to be your guides…your “coaches” when it comes to not only protecting yourself, but also gaining a competitive edge.
A special note about youth sports
Parents; please be careful with any child you have in any athletics. A human body under the age of 25 years is not fully developed, and is wide open to injury. Many of the injuries we see in children are due to this lack of development; they’re simply not able to perform the tasks that adults expect of them.
For example…
These little twelve year-old gymnasts with low back pain; children should not ever have low back pain! The issue in question is that these young athletes are being asked to do things that their bodies aren’t capable of doing yet. When they are asked to flex and bend as a gymnast, they must use a group of internal muscles which aren’t designed to support these movements. The core muscles that are designed for these actions, aren’t strong enough yet. The strain is simply too much for their bodies to handle, and injuries occur. The same holds true for the JV Football players; even though some of them are pretty big, they simply haven’t developed the core muscles needed for the riggers of the game. It’s not a question of working out more, it’s a question of letting your children grow up, and allowing their bodies to develop on schedule; let’s worry about toning the correct muscles when it’s time.
As a side note, children under age 25 should not be lifting weights! Their shoulder musculature isn’t developed enough to handle the weight loads.