When considering chiropractic treatment most people automatically think: pain relief. And while chiropractic therapy is excellent for back and neck pain relief, it can also help athletes with performance. Research is showing that athletes who utilize chiropractic care can help improve their reflexes. This article will discuss how chiropractic care helps improve athletic performance.
General thinking concerning chiropractic care is that it helps realign the bones of the spine to relieve pressure on pinched nerves and give pain relief. While this is true, chiropractic therapy has a much broader enhancement to the human body by improving the nervous system overall. When the spinal and pelvic bones are in good alignment receptors in the joints of the pelvis and spine send messages along the peripheral nerves to the central nervous system and ultimately to the brain. The brain, in turn, then sends messages along nerves to structures of the body like the muscles.
If this arc of nerve information coming from the body to the brain and from the brain back to the body is intact and functioning in top form the reflexes of everyone, and particularly athletes, respond to their ultimate potential.
Research has shown this on many occasions. A recent research study in the Journal Of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, December 2019 highlights this fact. In the study researchers applied spinal manipulative therapy to the cervical and upper thoracic spine of 11 healthy volunteers, and using electromyography, they detected improved muscle reflex responses in all the neck muscles, most back muscles and some extremity muscles.
This improvement of reflexes is particularly helpful in athletes requiring a high level of eye-hand coordination. Athletes in this category would include baseball players, tennis players, golfers, basketball players and such.
Athletes receiving chiropractic care, not just for pain relief, but to improve athletic performance by having an enhanced nervous system operating at peak performance, can gain a competitive edge over their opponents. This might be particularly important for a high-level high school athlete seeking to earn an athletic scholarship.
Many professional athletes of various sports already utilize chiropractic care for just such a reason. They have found that having a chiropractor on their healthcare team is one way to experience optimum performance their specific sport.
Athletes who consult with a chiropractor can expect the doctor to ask questions about aspects of their sport. A chiropractor will also perform an examination to determine proper alignment and motion of the spinal and pelvic joints. If improper alignment and abnormal motion are detected the doctor of chiropractic is the proper healthcare professional to perform chiropractic adjustments to correct spinal problems so as to allow that athlete to be to perform at their peak performance.
Athletes hoping to improve their performance would be wise to seek the services of a chiropractor to help perform at top effectiveness in their selected sport.
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Dr. James Schofield 