Sports and Chiropractic

Many musculoskeletal complaints arise from injuries sustained in sports. Each year we see athletic performance draw closer to the limits of human potential. Understanding the biomechanical principles involved helps us to prevent injury and restore functional integrity and stability through rehabilitation. While our lever-like extremities transmit forces and motion at a distance, they also favor musculoskeletal injuries by amplifying forces acting on the body's neuromusculoskeletal system.

The sheer volume of time put into training by professional athletes is often quite remarkable. For example, runners may compete and train over 200 miles per week, swimmers may spend four or five hours in the water daily, and the acquisition of skills for an event such as a pentathlon may utilize even longer periods per day. Thus, the exploitation of athletic prowess can easily be disrupted by major and minor injury problems.

There are good reasons why the athlete should seek a sports chiropractor for the treatment and rehabilitation of a sports injury. Active people are physically and emotionally different from sedentary ones. Most physicians have not had special training in sports medicine or rehabilitation. Consequently, even outstanding physicians who don't treat athletes regularly often make mistakes in the diagnosis and treatment of athletes' neuromusculoskeletal problems.

It is also observed that the cumulative effects of constant athletic small stresses over a long duration can give rise to the same difficulties as severe sudden stress. Spinal injuries in sports constitute only about three percent of all athletic injuries. Thus, we are the best prepared to manage the various joint and musculoskeletal injuries that occur in and away from the spine.

While conditioning is emphasized in athletics, the motivation is frequently on winning, rather than on prevention of injury. While this seems illogical, our staff at Life Quest Chiropractic and Rehabilitation handling athletic injuries understand how to properly evaluate and provide services. The development of cooperation between family physicians and our office helps to reduce the problem of conflicting opinions, often delivered to an already confused athlete. The typical family doctor has little knowledge of the practicalities involved in specialized sports injury management, and should accept logical procedures and recommendations when explained by our office.

Life Quest's approach toward athletic injuries has demonstrated that everyone is better served by having the injured player promptly and ably treated, thereby obtaining recovery before irreparable damage is done. We become not only the doer, but also the teacher. With our special interest in athletes we are prepared to handle their injuries, and in turn pass information on to other physicians as needed. It must be recognized that in the management of athletic injuries, the patient must get complete recovery, or he or she is no longer an athlete. The following concepts (the "Five A's") utilizing chiropractic treatment have proved to be of great value:

1. Accept athletics. Life Quest recognizes the value of competitive athletics; that is vital to the patient to be restored to competitive athletics. If we fail in this, the patient-doctor relationship suffers and rapport is lost. The doctor who depreciates the player's ambition should not be treating the athlete.

2. Avoid expediency. Outside influence must not be permitted to outweigh sound chiropractic judgment. Many pressing factors will try to influence the decision of treatment and return to play. All concerned are extremely unwilling to believe that the player is really hurt. The athlete's desire to compete, the fear of "failing" teammates, the parents' desire to see their child excel, the coach's hope that the player is not really hurt, all must be ignored if the proper conclusion is to be reached.

3. Adopt the best method of treatment. Our evaluation of the nature and extent of injury is the controlling factor in the choice of treatment. If we really believe that one method is distinctly better than another, we recommend it and then carry it out. This is an entirely objective decision.

4. Act promptly. A definitive decision on the proper method of treatment is made at the earliest possible moment, and then carried out. Delay has been conclusively shown to be the difference between success and failure of treatment.

Services Offered

• Treatment and care of Extremities Injuries such at tendonitis, sprains, muscle strains, plantar fascitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, rotator cuff injuries, osgood schlatter's disease of the knee, shin splints, bursitis, foot, knee, shoulder, and wrist pain, etc.

• Treatment of TMJ Syndrome. Popping, clicking, grinding, locking, pain in the jaw or mandible.

• Soft Tissue Mobilization. Utilizing a multitude of different Soft Tissue Techniques is an extremely effective technique that aids in the removal of scar tissue and myofascial adhesions in both acute and chronic cases thereby increasing range of motion and decreasing pain in the muscles with an immediate and lasting effect.

• Rehabilitation of injuries using a variety of exercises ranging from body weight movements to weight training to ensure a full and lasting recovery.

• Custom orthotics using Foot Levelers custom-made shoe inserts to correct biomechanical faults, like flat fee or fallen arches, that may be causing foot, ankle, knee, hip, or low back pain.
  

• Nutritional support for creating the best environment for healing of injuries and maximum athletic performance.

"I am very fortunate to have, so-to-speak, my in-house chiropractor, Dr. Franco Colombu, as my own personal chiropractor. So, I visit Franco regularly, and he comes over to my house. He adjusts my wife, my kids, me, everybody gets an adjustment. And we feel always great when Franco leaves. Even when I have athletic injuries he's always there for me, and helps me. So it's really terrific, and I know that first hand. That's why I always will be traveling around, all over the world, talking highly about the profession of chiropractic. You chiropractic doctors are really miracle workers, and that's why it's really great to have you here, part of the Arnold Classic. Because, like I said, the Arnold Classic and Fitness Weekend are about health and about fitness and preventive care."

"If it were not for Chiropractic, I would not have won the gold medal."

Arnold Schwarzenegger

"Being a chiropractic patient has really helped me immensely."

"...lifting weights and seeing a chiropractor on a regular basis has made me a better golfer. I've been going to Chiropractors for as long as I can remember. It's as important to my training as practicing my swing.�

"Chiropractic care works for me."    Tiger Woods

 "You obviously can't compete at your fullest if you're not in alignment. And your body can't heal if your back is not in alignment. It was the holistic idea that I liked about chiropractic and that is what track and field is about. Every track and field athlete that that I have ever met has seen a chiropractor at one time or another. In track and field, it is absolutely essential. Chiropractic care is one of the things I think that no one has denied or refuted." Dan O'Brien, Olympic Decathlete

A research study conducted by Drs. Anthony Lauro and Brian Mouch, published in the journal of Chiropractic research and Clinical Investigation, 1991, indicated chiropractic care can improve athletic performance by as much as 16.7% over a two week period. The report also concluded that subluxation-free athletes react faster, coordinate better, execute fine movements with improved accuracy and precision, amounting to an overall better athlete.

It is for these reasons, and many more, that nearly every professional and semi-professional sports team employs the services of a Doctor of Chiropractic.  We encourage you to give chiropractic sports injury management methods the opportunity keep you and your athletes in peak condition.