Imagine being in the final mile of your invigorating evening jog when pain begins to radiate throughout your back and legs. Have you pushed yourself too hard the past few days? Do you need more sleep and rest? Did you stretch well enough? Or maybe the pain is coming from a deeper issue, hidden inside your body, in need of attention for recovery.
Athletic injuries are often caused by pushing your body beyond its limits. Many athletes rely heavily on chiropractors to enhance their performance, aid in faster recovery after injury, and to help prevent injuries from ever occurring. Chiropractic care helps optimize musculoskeletal function, improves an athlete’s range of motion, reduces pain in critical areas of the body, and so much more.
Whether you are a talented, rising professional athlete or the unofficial star MVP of the local high school football team, chiropractic care provides drug-free solutions to help athletes perform at their absolute best. Unlike taking pain medication, through chiropractic care, the risk of drug addiction or chemical damage to the body is eliminated. Chiropractic adjustments enable damaged muscles to relax, thereby helping the pain from an injury to fade. Chiropractic care even provides athletes with a natural remedy for a variety of symptoms like headaches, muscle spasms, insomnia, aches and pains, stiff muscles, injuries, and more.
A Chiropractor for Every Level of Athlete
Whether you are a former athlete, wannabe athlete, passionate amateur, or dedicated weekend warrior, having a chiropractor who is committed to your health and success can help take your game to the next level.
Did you know that experts estimate that 90 percent of professional and Olympic-level athletes utilize chiropractic care to enhance their performance outlook – from reducing injury risk to improving sleep patterns? Chiropractic care is considered essential for many athletes and teams. So much so that every National Football League (NFL) team, many Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) golfers, Major League Baseball (MLB), and National Hockey League (NHL) teams have chiropractors on their staff not only to keep athletes performing at their best, but also to help prevent injuries outside of games – during practices, workouts, etc.
Common sports injuries seen by chiropractors include Achilles tendon issues, calf and hamstring pulls, golfer’s elbow, groin strain, back, neck, and shoulder pain, thigh injuries, and more. Even Olympic athletes employ personal chiropractors who oversee conditioning before competitions. Some of the most famous professional athletes in sports rely on chiropractic care to maintain their bodies in optimal shape, ensuring quick and comprehensive recovery. Well-known athletes from a wide range of sports, including Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, and Venus Williams, among others, rely on chiropractic care to help them perform at an unparalleled level.
Chiropractic for Athlete Injury Prevention
Chiropractors are undeniably valuable to all athletes when it comes to preventing injuries. Biohacking, or personal improvement to modify aspects of biology to improve health, performance, and well-being, becomes valuable in addressing issues with the body that may predispose an athlete to an avoidable injury. We all want faster, more natural resources to feel our best. Because of this, biohacking has become a hot topic for athletes looking to incorporate or further utilize chiropractic care into their routine.
Biohacking is the art and science of modifying your internal processes to take personal control of your biology. This proactive health approach focuses on performance, longevity, and resilience. Biohacking looks at areas of your day-to-day such as sleep optimization, nutrition and fasting, neurofeedback, various light, sound, and frequency therapies, exercise, body movement and recovery technology, supplements, and nervous system regulation. Biohacking uses cutting-edge science and long-proven knowledge to optimize your body and brain. What is something critical to an athlete that can often be overlooked? The importance of the nervous system! This is where chiropractic care comes into play.
Chiropractic enhances an athlete’s biohacking strategy through nervous system optimization, improved brain-body connection, enhanced mobility and recovery, increased energy, and mental clarity.
Growth Opportunities for Chiropractic Care in the Sports Industry
The sports industry’s thorough integration of chiropractic care demonstrates its real value and importance to athletes. Chiropractic care within the sports industry further enhances international events and investments, increasing the economic opportunities and growth of the industry.
From the beginning, chiropractic’s fundamental principles and techniques have focused on the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of neuromusculoskeletal disorders. Doctors of Chiropractic (DCs) can treat athletes suffering from concussion-like symptoms, including neck discomfort, headaches, and dizziness. The preventive nature of chiropractic interventions helps decrease injury rates and improve the long-term health of athletes seeking career longevity and a greater quality of life upon retirement.
Financially, chiropractic care within the sports medicine sector can help attract international attention. By demonstrating how chiropractic care can exponentially enhance athletic performance and injury management, teams can prove their dedication to sports excellence and innovation. Care for professional athletes attracts major sporting events, resulting in increased economic opportunities, job creation, and the overall expansion of the sports industry. Incorporating chiropractic care into sports medicine benefits individual athletes and contributes to the overall growth and success of the sports industry.
Enhanced Performance with Chiropractic Care
Range of motion, flexibility, and movement can be easily improved by a chiropractor, helping athletes of any sport achieve their full performance potential. Through chiropractic care, athletes often notice increased flexibility and reduced muscle stiffness. When an athlete’s body isn’t sore, they can stretch essential muscle groups more easily, helping them tremendously when it comes time to shoot some hoops, score the winning goal, or cross the finish line first.
Minimizing Recovery Time
Sprains, strains, and stress injuries can often be reversed by chiropractors who help reduce an athlete’s risk level. After an injury sidelines an athlete, the healing process can be accelerated with chiropractic adjustments and techniques. These solutions help reduce inflammation, improve blood flow, and aid in the body’s necessary internal repairs. Athletes who love their chosen sport can get back in the game quicker and minimize their downtime. Returning to a beloved sport too quickly or without an exam from a chiropractor can be dangerous and result in additional or more serious injuries.
Chiropractic adjustments help the body recover, in addition to treatments such as cold laser therapy, heat therapy, ice packs, massage, spinal decompression, and more. These types of treatments can reduce swelling and inflammation in the body, allowing it to heal quickly and completely.
Managing Pain as an Athlete
Chiropractors are trained to discover pain problem areas and to help athletes recover drug-free.
Many athletes (especially parents of young athletes) are uncomfortable administering prescription pain medication. Chiropractic care can manage pain by locating and addressing the direct cause of pain or injury without the use of potentially addictive medications. Chiropractic’s ability to improve nerve communication, reaction time, coordination, and more helps to optimize an athlete’s performance.
Instead of waiting until an injury occurs, athletes are more regularly seeking chiropractic treatments long before pain strikes. This can help prevent injuries in the first place!
If an athlete’s spine is misaligned without their knowledge, symptoms can impact their performance. These symptoms often include ailments such as dizziness, balance problems, limited range of motion throughout the body, tingling in the extremities, nausea, and more.
Enhancing an Athlete’s Sleep Health
Did you know that sports chiropractic can even help regulate essential sleep patterns, which in turn affect an athlete’s performance? Regularly seeking chiropractic care promotes natural, healthy sleep and can even help alleviate poor sleep patterns caused by pain or injury. Rest is crucial for an athlete’s performance. Fatigue is a common symptom that drives patients to seek care, and fixing your sleep issues can help provide increased energy during games.
Parker University is Your Partner in Sports Chiropractic
Whether you consider yourself an athlete or not, your health and fitness goals can be met with tailored chiropractic treatments. Your health is ever-evolving, and chiropractors are empathetic about that. Too many athletes suffer needlessly and end up taking carelessly prescribed medications that will never address or solve the root of the problem. Sports chiropractic resets the body, works out those annoying kinks in your spine, and helps eliminate the underlying causes of painful conditions.
Athletes work hard every day to improve and grow stronger, so you deserve to live a healthy, happy, productive life pursuing your passion for your sport of choice. Is it time to give your chiropractor a call? Game on! You can score big when you incorporate chiropractic as a part of your training!
Parker University DC Hybrid Program
If sports (or any type of) chiropractic interests you, Parker University is the place for ambitious learners to put their future careers in motion. With the unique opportunity to help shape the future of chiropractic care, Parker University students graduate as skilled practitioners who are prepared to make a meaningful difference in healthcare. A successful career in chiropractic requires passion. At Parker University, students graduate ready to start their DC careers with the unparalleled confidence and hands-on, real-world experiences necessary to make an immediate impact in the chiropractic industry.
Are you interested in completing as much online coursework as possible? Great news! Parker University offers a DC hybrid program for students to complete their first four trimesters through an online platform. The Parker University DC hybrid track allows students to begin their personalized educational journey online and complete non-adjustment courses, such as physiology and biochemistry, virtually. Once students progress to trimester five, they will transition to the Dallas, Texas, campus for courses in hands-on adjustment and clinical training.
What’s even better news? Parker University DC students can concurrently earn a master’s degree upon graduation at no additional cost. Parker University DC students, as early as the sixth trimester, can apply to one of Parker University’s online master’s programs to take alongside their DC coursework, with a 100 percent tuition scholarship!
Take the future into your own hands and get ready to “adjust!” For more detailed information about Parker University’s prestigious DC program, go to parker.edu.