Professional athletes push their bodies to the absolute limit when playing their sport. Athletes exhibit a wide range of injuries as they subject their bodies to high-impact collisions, sudden twists and turns, and explosive movements, causing misalignments in the spine over time that contribute to higher risks for injury. As more athletes and professional sports leagues begin to explore alternative means of injury recovery and rehabilitation, chiropractic care remains a cornerstone of injury prevention and performance enhancement for professional sports teams worldwide.
From football to tennis, athletes are utilizing chiropractic care to maintain their musculoskeletal health and stay in the game. Here, we will explore how professional sports teams utilize chiropractic care to keep their athletes healthy and maintain performance levels throughout the season and beyond.
The Role of Sports Chiropractors
Sports chiropractors do much more than “cracking backs” for relief. When dealing with the world’s elite athletes, chiropractors take great care and consideration in delivering the best possible treatment. Sports chiropractors are highly skilled healthcare professionals with specialized training in assessing, diagnosing, and treating musculoskeletal conditions in athletes. With a deep understanding of biomechanics, kinesiology, and sports physiology, sports chiropractors can effectively meet the unique needs of professional athletes, allowing them to stay in the game and excel in their sport.
Professional sports leagues such as the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), and National Hockey League (NHL) usually have an on-site chiropractor on their athletic staff to treat athletes on the bench during games. As one of the most body-intensive sports, the NFL currently employs the highest number of chiropractors, utilizing chiropractic care in all 32 teams. In today’s age of professional sports, the demand for chiropractors is steadily growing as more athletes discover the benefits of chiropractic care.
Preventing Injury With Chiropractic Services
As athletes experience a variety of twists, collisions, and strains throughout their careers, injury prevention is essential in professional sports. During practices, games, and everything in between, athletes are encouraged to visit their team chiropractors for regular adjustments and evaluations for potential musculoskeletal imbalances that may impact their performance or cause injury.
Chiropractors mainly focus on the musculoskeletal system, emphasizing spinal function, alignment, and how it affects connecting limbs and tissues. NFL athletes such as Tom Brady, Christian McCaffrey, and Jerry Rice attribute much of their success to chiropractic care, citing great value in chiropractors’ benefits to professional teams. After athletes experience a brutal hit, twist, or abnormal movement during contact sports, sports chiropractors can immediately analyze and evaluate them on the sidelines, make adjustments, and work with their designated sports medicine teams to prepare them for game readiness.
Services Provided by Sports Chiropractors
On top of prevention, sports chiropractors employ a series of treatments that aid in preventing and enhancing athletic ability. Using therapeutic approaches to maintaining professional athletes’ musculoskeletal health, sports chiropractors reduce the risk of injury that can derail an athlete’s season. To maintain peak athletic performance in professional athletes, chiropractors may employ therapies to aid in these areas:
Spinal alignment and biomechanics: The spine plays a significant role in maintaining athletic performance. From gait and posture to maintaining balance and equilibrium during movement, chiropractors emphasize the spine’s role in sports performance and restore proper alignment for bodily optimization and efficiency.
Neuromuscular function and coordination: The nervous system plays a prominent role in the proprioception of the body and the way athletes experience feelings of pain. Spinal misalignments can compress nerves in the back and spine, interfering with their ability to transmit signals to and from the brain and muscles. When these nerves experience pressure, they can often cause pain to athletes and distort the body’s proprioception, the body’s sense of spatial awareness. In athletes, this can affect the way they carry out specific actions when playing a sport, causing a lost sense of balance, discomfort, and impaired reaction times. Chiropractic adjustments and massage therapy can help alleviate nerve compression, allowing the body to interpret the body’s signals and operate efficiently and properly.
Muscle activation and relaxation: Excessive muscle tension can restrict movement and cause interference within the body’s nervous system. Chiropractic adjustments and manual therapy can help relieve tension, allowing the muscles to carry out normal functions such as throwing a ball, running, or swinging a bat or racket. By combining spinal and muscular health, athletes are able to generate more power and force when playing their sport and prevent further injuries.
Integrating Sports Chiropractors into Sports Medicine
As professional sports teams emphasize the importance of healing and recovery, many athletes advocate for chiropractic care integrations as part of their sports medicine teams. Athletes sustaining debilitating injuries often turn to chiropractic care as an alternative to career-ending surgeries or medications. Chiropractic care’s holistic and non-invasive offerings bring hope to professional athletes, providing new avenues for injury rehabilitation, treatment, and prevention and allowing them to return to the sports they love.
Currently, all major sports leagues employ sports chiropractors as valuable members of their sports medicine teams. Chiropractic care gives athletes a second chance following career-ending injuries. As a result, many athletes have advocated for the use of chiropractic care in professional sports, including:
Tiger Woods: After enduring six spinal surgeries to manage back pain and ruptured discs, professional golfer Tiger Woods returned to his sport in peak condition. He credits chiropractic care with helping him maintain his swing and keep his competitive edge after surgery.
Evander Holyfield: Receiving adjustments before and after each fight, boxer Evander Holyfield claims that most boxers use chiropractic care to keep their edge in the ring.
Michael Jordan: As one of the greatest professional basketball players of all time, Michael Jordan attributes part of his successful career to chiropractic care, stating that “ever since I went to a chiropractor, I have improved by leaps and bounds.”
Get Professional-Level Chiropractic Care With Denver Integrated Spine Center
By providing diversified care and alternatives to surgeries or medications, chiropractic care allows athletes to stay in the game longer, maximizing and sharing their talents with teammates, coaches, and fans. Whether you’re training for your next athletic endeavor or are on the path to becoming a professional athlete, Denver Integrated Spine Center offers comprehensive chiropractic care to meet the needs of all patients.
Located in Denver, Colorado, Denver Integrated Spine Center offers personalized, full-service chiropractic care. It allows patients to return to their sports or activities as the best possible version of themselves. For more information or to schedule an appointment, visit our website or call (303) 758-9000.