How To Prevent Sports Injuries In Teenagers & Adults

As your local chiropractic professionals, we believe it takes an athlete to treat an athlete.

We are exactly that at Journey Chiropractic. We offer chiropractic services, rehab and sports medicine services, athletic injury prevention, and much more. In today’s blog, we’ll be honing on the latter of those three services — how can you prevent sports injuries?

Too often, folks turn to a sports medicine clinic like ours only after an injury has occurred. And, as most athletes who have experienced the thralls of rehabilitation can attest, for every week of training an athlete misses, it typically takes twice as many to catch up!

Hence, the importance of preventative sports medicine and athletic injury prevention in teenagers and young athletes make themselves clear. The key is, don’t miss training!

In the following article, we’ll go beyond surface-level tips you might be expecting, like “make sure you stretch!” or “eat and sleep well!” While such basic measures are, of course, necessary, we want to take a deeper dive. So let’s go!

Warming up (and cooling down) is so much more than mere stretching. Simply put, the body has to be prepared for performance before it can perform safely. “Cold muscles are hurt muscles,” it’s been said, which is why we’d always recommend beginning physical activity with at least a 15-minute warm-up that includes both stretching and dynamic movements.
Functional Training – Too often people think about training in static ways. It’s easy to get too invested in just one thing, whether it’s free weight training or running long distances. And while such ventures are not problematic in and of themselves, it’s important to establish a balance between strength, biomechanics (how our bones interact while performing a movement), and flexibility if you want to be fit and firing in your sport of choice. Functional training is about ensuring you perform dynamic exercises tailored to the movements of the sports in which you compete, leading to improved stability, strength, endurance, and performance.

Best Ways To Minimize Back Pain In Your Everyday Life

Have you ever heard the phrase “sitting is the new smoking”? Well it is true, humans sit more than ever. Our bodies were made to move, not to live in stagnation. Most of us work a desk job sitting for 7+ hours. This posture can lead to a variety of abnormalities which eventually can be a cause of pain in the back.

When seated our hip flexors are in a contracted state, there is usually forward head posture, rounded shoulders, and tense low back muscles. There are several different exercises, postural awareness, and ergonomics changes that can be implemented to prevent, manage, and improve pain from chronic sitting.

First, it is important to become aware of how one is seated. Making sure to keep your shoulders back and head in line with your shoulders. Often times, people are slouched over which can be a possible cause of headaches. It is also important to not sit on a wallet or have crossed legs. Over time, this can lead to one hip being higher than the other which can put pressure on the nerves of the low back and lead to pain. Muscles that most likely need stretched are hip flexors, pec major, and SCM all of which stretches can be googled for. Muscles that possibly need strengthened are are glutes, and rhomboids. Be sure to check in with your chiropractor/healthcare provider before implementing any new exercises or stretches. If the office space allows, it is also helpful to get a standing desk or to sit on an exercise ball. Take walks during breaks, get outside, stretch every 30 minutes and take deep breathes. All of these things can help rewire and reignite the brain/ body.

Remember our bodies are designed to move. A healthy spine leads to a healthy life. Get up, move your body, go see a chiropractor, get some sunshine, and the conquer the day!

Is Chiropractic Care Safe & Effective For Children?

Most people have seen a chiropractic adjustment performed on an adult, consisting of pops and cracks. An adjustment on a child often looks much different. Most pediatric adjustments have no more force than what it takes to bruise a peach. The adjustment also will not usually cause a popping sound. Infants and most children under the age of 3 do not need a physical force to be adjusted.

Why might a child need to get adjusted? The first and the most important reason is to make sure their nervous system is free and clear from any interference. A lot of times childbirth can be traumatic and cause various misalignments in the child’s body. For example, if the child was forcefully removed from the vaginal canal with forceps it can be very traumatic to the neck. It has been found that ear infections could possibly be correlated to this type of birth. This is why it is important to have a baby checked by a chiropractor as soon after birth as possible. There are various research articles and case studies mentioning how chiropractic can help with a variety of childhood issues such as colic, constipation, breast feeding, ADHD, sleeping through the night, developmental delays and much more.

There are many different chiropractic techniques with various research and case studies correlating to them. Some of the techniques include: ICPA, network spinal, craniosacral, Webster, and activator. All of these techniques are low force and some even use a handheld instrument. It can be helpful to check into what technique a chiropractor uses or find a pediatric specific chiropractor. Making sure a child’s nervous system is clear of interference gives them the best chance at growing up disease free!

How Often Should You Go To A Chiropractor?

The frequency of visits is going to depend from person to person. This will depend on a couple factors such as: severity of condition, amount of time the condition has been present, and how well the body responds to adjustments. Each person requires a specific care plan and therefore the amount of visit and frequency will vary anywhere from twice a week, every other week, once a month, etc.

The severity of a condition refers to what state the body is in? Has the patient had many injuries? Do they have neurological findings? Is there degeneration or change in the tissue? All of these different factors, and more must be considered to determine how severe a condition is. Usually the more severe, the greater amount of visits are required.

Another consideration is how long has the condition been present. It is important to realize as we age we experience various traumas through our life. No matter how big or small our nervous system keeps records of them. These traumas can add up and outwardly express as postural imbalances, neurological deficiencies, muscular tightness, etc.

Finally, how well a patient responds to adjustments is another determining factor in frequency of visits. This can be effected by stress, hydration, medications, and joint mobility.

As a patient progresses through stages of care and achieves specific outcomes the frequency of visits will change. How long this takes again varies from patient to patient. The number of visits can also increase if someone has a major change in their life such as an accident or large stressor. The good thing is after receiving consistent chiropractic care people usually tend to bounce back to their precious state faster after an injury or trauma.