I hate injuries. No, I mean I really hate injuries!
They hurt. They can stop you from exercising, the sport you love, and even from day to day activities. They always seem to happen at the most inconvenient time (is there ever really a convenient time to be injured?). And they come with the uncertainty of how long will it take to recover.
My son has been playing basketball this winter, and he really is a good player. One reason for this is his work ethic. He works hard and doesn’t seem to ever get tired. Unfortunately, he is not built like a typical basketball player. His mom is 5 feet tall. He gets his height from her.
Even with this disadvantage, he does really well. His problem is that he doesn’t know how to give anything less than 100% and he is playing against guys that are much bigger than him. This has led to a couple of injuries.
The first one was when a giant of a kid landed on my son’s elbow when he was diving for the ball. Off to CDI to get an X-ray. Not broken but badly bruised. He missed a game and was back at it.
The most recent injury was a quadricep injury. I wasn’t at the game but I was home when he came limping in. He had gauze up his nose and could barely walk. An elbow to the face is what caused the bloody nose but after the elbow, he could barely walk. He wasn’t sure if he took a knee to the thigh at the same time or if when he fell to the ground he pulled his quad.
When I was growing up, I didn’t play much basketball. I thought that football and hockey were tough sports and if you didn’t want to play a tough sport, play basketball. Boy was I wrong. It is a physical game!
He missed the next game but we had him back to playing the game after that!
Learn more about how Valeo provides chiropractic care for your youth athlete.>>
Chiropractic Care for Youth and Adult Athletes
After years of playing sports myself, taking care of many athletes in my office and now watching my son play, I would never want to do it without getting regular chiropractic care. I believe this for a few reasons.
Reason #1 – There are too many things that happen in your body that you cannot feel.
I cannot tell you how many times I have worked on a patient who came in for routine care that felt fine until I started doing my evaluation. I find places on them that are out of alignment, that hurt to touch, that have muscular tightness that they had no idea about until I pointed it out to them.
Not always, but most times if those areas were just left alone, they would have developed into something. Sometimes something major.
By having regular chiropractic care, these areas will get addressed and can be taken care of before they lead to big problems.
Reason #2 – Recovery is much faster.
God created these amazing bodies to be self-healing and self-regulating. This happens many times when we injure ourselves but there are so many things that can be done to speed up healing. This is huge! Especially when high school sport seasons are so short.
As I mentioned earlier, I hate injuries. Why be injured for longer than you need to?
Reason #3 – You make sure it actually healed properly.
Have you ever had an injury go away on its own but then later have a new problem pop up out of nowhere? I have and I have seen it in many of my patients. Why did this happen?
The original problem never went away. Our bodies are good at avoiding pain and creating compensation patterns to avoid pain. When this happens, the compensation pattern will create its own problem that then needs to be addressed along with the original problem. Now it is even more work to fix the problem.
How do you know if you are creating a compensation problem? Most times, you don’t. Having an expert look at you is critical as they can see alignment, movement patterns, posture, and more.
Reason #4 – It helps with overall body function, not just with injuries or early problems.
The nervous system runs everything in your body. We have dentists to make sure our teeth are healthy, medical doctors to make sure our organs are working, eye doctors to keep an “eye” on our eye health. Who is looking after your spine and nerve health? Chiropractors.
“They Just Make You Keep Coming Back”
From time to time, I will hear people say that they don’t go to a chiropractor because once you go, you need to go all the time.
This is an interesting statement. While I do think it is important that a person does go regularly, no one has to do this. It is up to them whether they want to do it regularly or just when they feel something. Hopefully they realize why it is important to get checked even when they don’t feel something.
Going to the dentist, the eye doctor, the medical doctor regularly is important to maintain good health. The same is true for chiropractic.
What that looks like for everyone is different. Some people come frequently (every few weeks) and some come less often. With myself and my son due to our activity level, it is every couple weeks or even more if there is an injury.
Unfortunately, injuries can be a part of sports and taking care of your body … but there are many things that can be done to speed up healing. There are also many things that can be done proactively to avoid injuries.
To see how we can help you, call our office at 952-949-0676 to set up an initial appointment.
