Why Amateur and Professional Athletes Utilize Chiropractic Care to Stay On Top of Their Game

Did you know that all National Football League (NFL) teams, every Olympic and Pan-American Games, all Major League Baseball (MLB) teams, most Pocono Turfgrass Association (PTGA) golfers, most National Basketball Association (NBA) teams, and most National Hockey League (NHL) teams have chiropractors on their U.S. medical team?

Almost all athletes want to improve on basic things like increasing speed, increasing strength, and improving balance. But when it comes to the fine margins between success and failure at an elite sport level, it is acknowledged that psychology has a huge part to play. Research has shown that goal setting is one of the most effective and powerful technique for enhancing performance.¹ Goal setting gives direction both in the short term and long term goals.

These goals can be broken down into three categories:

1. Outcome goals
2. Performance goals
3. Process goals

Outcome goals means their end goal. Is their end goal to score a goal during their soccer tournament from mid field? Is it to be able to do takedown moves and to escape from bad positions during a brazilian jiu jitsu competition? Is it to coordinate and throw a football with accuracy and speed as a quarterback?

Performance goals are goals with helping an athlete make improvements over a period of time. Now that the athletes know what their outcome goals are, they should go to a chiropractor to assess their posture, balance, coordination and spine. If almost all professional athletes are going to get regular chiropractic care, then why aren’t you?

Process goals are the aspects a competitor should be concentrating on when carrying out a specific skill. For example, if a badminton player is trying to react faster to a shuttlecock or birdie, then their hand and eye coordination needs to be fast. But what if they keep training over and over and over again and they’re noticing that it’s barely improving? It’s time to see a Chiropractic Biophysics chiropractor in Boise or in Nampa to help concentrate on that specific skill. In the Journal of Athletic Training, Moustafa et al. performed a randomized controlled trial where they concluded that restoring the cervical (neck) sagittal alignment in the athletic population had a direct influence on their pain, disability, autonomic nervous system dysfunction and sensorimotor control. Therefore a healthy curve in the neck is essential to an athlete’s overall health and performance. Their neck is the bridge connecting their brain to their body. Good health as an athlete depends upon the signals from their brain getting through to their organs and it starts with ensuring they have a healthy neck curvature.

When athletes have healthy curves in their spine, they may notice faster reaction times, improved posture, improved balance, and improved coordination with their body. In the competitive sports realm, we often hear them try to “push through it and just tough it out”; however, if they’ve been trying to do that and their goals are not being met, then the chance of them giving up on competing competitively is high.

Chiropractic care is so important to amateur and professional athletes that oftentimes they see their chiropractor before and after practice/competitions to ensure that their body is healing properly. Remember that the ability to react quickly is important for athletes. In fact, a sudden delay in reaction time can make a difference between whether they win or lose. As a result, athletes are required to respond to situations quickly and effectively to make the right decisions and initiation actions.

At Modern Chiropractic Center, our chiropractors check every athlete’s balance, posture, spine and coordination during their initial examination. We will note things like if the athlete was swaying with their eyes closed, was able or not able to balance on one leg, whether they’re more dominant on one side of their body vs the other, and see how their posture may be affecting their athletic goals/outcomes.

Chiropractic care may help to reduce the risk of injuries, accelerate recovery time and improve health and performance through enhancements in range of motion, flexibility, balance, muscle strength and other key factors. Adjustments help restore functionality of the spine and nervous system to ensure optimal well-being and inevitably fuel competitive athletic performance.

Chiropractic plays an important role in preventive, maintenance or injury specific care, and contributes to enhanced clinical outcomes and high patient satisfaction levels among all athletes. Mechanics of the spine are so important that just a small or minor change in body posture may create a significant different in body movement. Maintaining flexibility as an athlete is one of the most critical components and it requires all the joints to work in unison for optimal performance.

1. Simões P, Vasconcelos-Raposo J, Silva A, Fernandes HM. Effects of a Process-Oriented Goal Setting Model on Swimmer’s Performance. J Hum Kinet. 2012 May;32:65-76. doi: 10.2478/v10078-012-0024-6. Epub 2012 May 30. PMID: 23486284; PMCID: PMC3590857.
2. Moustafa I, Youssef ASA, Ahbouch A, Harrison D. Demonstration of Autonomic Nervous Function and Cervical Sensorimotor Control After Cervical Lordosis Rehabilitation: A Randomized Controlled Trial. J Athl Train. 2021 Feb 4;56(4):427–36. doi: 10.4085/1062-6050-0481.19. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33543266; PMCID: PMC8063661.

If you are looking to improve your sports performance or to reduce occurrences of injuries give chiropractic care a try. Contact us at Modern Chiropractic in Boise or Nampa to schedule an appointment today!