By NJ Chiropractors   and  Dr. Donald DeFabio

Published on: November 21, 2014

Football, hockey, and lacrosse are considered collision sports due to the high intensity hits that occur as opposed to contact sports such as basketball or soccer. The effects of these high intensity hits lead to altered muscle, tendon, and joint function, ultimately reducing performance.  The simple solution is two-fold:

1. Prevention strategies to reduce the overall trauma.
2. Once occurred, rapid intervention to restore function.

Prevention starts with proper conditioning, training, and use of the appropriate equipment. For example, in football, learning correct tackling techniques and using a properly fitted helmet is essential to prevention of injuries. Diet, nutrition, warm-up, and hydration also fall into the prevention category. Your local ANJC chiropractor can assist you and your athlete in these prevention measures off the field and if needed, co-ordinate on field measures with the coaching staff.

Intervention begins with preventing the everyday trauma of getting hit to accumulate whether it be from games or the repetitive micro trauma of practice and training. Regardless of the cause, repeated wear and tear on the body causes impaired joint and muscle function. Reduced joint and muscle function in the athlete means decreased performance. The solution is to maintain joint and muscle function throughout training and competition.

The athlete’s edge is to keep their bodies fine-tuned just like a car. Keep all cylinders firing efficiently, good alignment of the wheels, and filled with clean, high quality fuel. This is exactly the job of your sports chiropractor!

Today’s chiropractic physician is trained in both assessment and treatment of the athlete. First and foremost is maintaining proper joint function throughout the whole body. Any breakdown in joint, muscle, or nerve function will impair performance because the body is a system of levers moved by the muscles that are controlled by your nerves. Even a subtle, pain-free loss of motion within a joint will impact both the area locally as well as the entire kinetic chain of the body.

This concept of a whole body approach to assess and treat your athlete is the province of chiropractic. Chiropractic doctors are trained to restore and maintain full motion to all of your joints and muscles just like your auto mechanic ensures your car turns evenly right and left. Ligaments, tendons, muscles, and spinal discs are all affected by sports as well as repetitive overuse. Chiropractic doctors treat both acute and chronic injuries to these soft tissues with safe, drugless, and non-surgical techniques to keep you in the game!

When an injury occurs, you have a choice to treat your sports injuries naturally, with a holistic approach. Chiropractic doctors assess the whole body, not just the injured part to look for both collateral damage and perhaps even the underlying cause of an injury. Chiropractic doctors treat the body as a whole of interrelated parts: looking for the cause of your problem, restoring function to the joints and muscles, and enhancing communication within the body via the nervous system.

Of course, when your sports chiropractor determines that you need medical or surgical intervention a referral will be made. It is all about getting you the care you need.

Use chiropractic to fine tune your body and increase performance so you can play more, play better, and have more fun!