By: Adam Renelt, DC
Updated 4/16/2024
Did you know that many top athletes incorporate chiropractic care to help them stay at the top of their game? In fact, many professional organizations (and the Olympic team) have a team chiropractor available for their athletes to utilize. For some people, chiropractic care isn’t the first option people think of to improve athletic performance. Often, an athlete first visits a chiropractor to help recover from an injury. In fact, the first time I ever went to a chiropractor was following a high school football injury. However, many athletes will continue chiropractic care after recovering from their initial injury when they realize chiropractic care may be able to improve their performance and decrease the likelihood of a future injury. In fact, after my initial adjustment gave me relief from my lower back pain, I continued to see a chiropractor and, eventually, I decided to pursue chiropractic as a career.
Why Chiropractic Care for Athletes?
Let’s look at one of the main reasons that athletes visit a chiropractor: to recover from an injury. It is common for an athlete to be injured during training or competition. The type of injury may depend on the sport. Contact sports, such as football, soccer, or basketball, can may result in neck/back pain, sprained ankles, shoulder pain, injured knees or even concussions. Repetitive movement sports, such as running, swimming and golf may result in overuse injuries such as tendinitis in the shoulders/arm or lower body. Many times, chiropractic care can help an athlete to recover from such injuries. Also, we can provide education to help reduce the likelihood of a reinjury. Sometimes, chiropractic care can help an athlete to continue to be active for practice or even competition while they are still recovering from their injury.
Why Continue Chiropractic?
Once an athlete has started chiropractic care they may notice other benefits that help them to perform better at their sport. Chiropractic adjustments have been shown in studies to improve reaction time and accuracy and may help improve balance. Other studies have found that after an adjustment, muscles may be able to contract with more strength than prior to the adjustment. Improvements in balance, strength and reaction time are a benefit in most sports (and to people in their daily work or personal lives). Noticing these positive changes often leads to athletes continuing care even once they are no longer injured.
Our Sioux Falls Office
The benefits of chiropractic care are available to athletes of any age or level, not just professionals. I see many local youth, high school, and adult athletes from a variety of sports in our Sioux Falls chiropractic office. Some choose to have a regular appointment when participating in sports and others schedule an appointment if they are having symptoms that affect their peak performance. If you or your child have an injury or would like to explore the benefits of chiropractic care to try to help improve performance or enjoyment of a sport, please contact our office. We would be happy to meet with you, evaluate your situation and give you our recommendations for chiropractic care.