Why professional athletes use chiropractic

Chiropractic is becoming part of more and more professional sports organizations. Every NFL team has a chiropractor on staff, 27 of the 30 MLB teams have a team chiropractor as well as most NBA teams. It seems that chiropractic has become a vital part of the team that takes care of the team as it were. Let’s take a look into why this is and why athletes who haven’t considered chiropractic might want to take another look.

Sports injuries

To start, it’s important that we look at a professional athlete’s goals in relation to healthcare. They usually want 2 things: to keep playing (don’t get injured) and to get back to playing as quickly as possible (quick recovery from injuries). The reason that this is important lies in the comparison between a professional athlete and someone who works in, let’s say HR or teaching. Now the job really doesn’t matter as much as what “going to work” means to these different groups of people. For most people, going to work means going to the office and sitting in front of a desk, working for a few hours, maybe reading the 3rd status update that your sort-of friend on Facebook has wrote that day (“At work *sad face*,” “Can’t wait for lunch! #TunaMelt,” “My boss and I are both wearing blue shirts! #Twinsies”), maybe playing some Clash of Clans on your phone (are you still working on getting dragons? It takes forever)... don’t worry, no one’s judging you. This is basically what’s referred to as active daily living, well that and any exercise you do, hobbies, chores, etc. Most treatment plans for common injuries involve returning an individual to pain free, active daily living. On the other hand, going to work or active daily living for a professional baseball pitcher involves catapulting a ball of cork, yarn and cowhide at speeds that would get you a ticket on pretty much every public road ever. Now while the amount of force translated to that ball is immense and inspiring at times, the ball isn’t the only thing that gets a tremendous amount of force driven through it. During the pitch, the pitcher’s shoulder goes through distracting forces that are basically ripping the upper arm away from the torso while the elbow faces an angular velocity that often tears the ligaments that fight to hold it together (This commonly ends up in Tommy John surgery for those of you hip to such things). And that’s just one pitch. Multiply that by a game, a season, a career. This is what we call repetitive stress which leads to repetitive stress injuries (I know, it’s original). Now I’m not trying to downplay the issues (or repetitive stresses) that are unique to an office worker, they are much more common and can still result in catastrophe but that’s not what this article is about. I just want to point out the, probably obvious, differences. In order for an athlete, like the pitcher we have been discussing, to remain injury free and combat the repetitive stresses that are a fundamental part of their life, they must be biomechanically sound.

Biomechanics. Fancy word? Yes. This is with regard to structure and function and how they mutually affect one another. A pitcher needs good pitching mechanics in order stay out of injury. This means he will need proper alignment of the shoulder and elbow joints (to name a few) as well as the ability to maintain near optimal angles in order to reduce the stresses placed through these joints. This will require unrestricted motion in these segments as well as the ability to stabilize while moving. When a pitcher can not maintain alignment and the correct angle due to a restriction or the inability to stabilize, mechanical advantage is lost and the stress put on the joint will increase to disastrous results. It may happen immediately or it may take time, but without correction an injury is all but inevitable.

Sports and chiropractic

Chiropractic might be best known for treating things like back pain but the actual, official position on chiropractic by the Association of Chiropractic Colleges is “The practice of chiropractic focuses on the relationship between structure and function...” A chiropractor’s training puts him or her in a unique position to be able to assess the biomechanics of athletes. Research studies (like this one and this one) have begun to stack up in support of chiropractic care for athletes citing benefits for both injury recovery and injury prevention.

The reasons for these benefits lies in many factors however some of the most fundamental reasons go back to the elements we discussed earlier: stability and mobility. When full mobility is lost in a joint the body will compensate to get the job done. This means sacrificing stability in nearby joints to accomplish the same end result motion. A loss of stability leads to undue stress on structures surrounding the joint and most commonly, injury. The connection between increased range of motion and chiropractic care is probably not unfamiliar to anyone who has ever gone to a chiropractor. How many times have you been adjusted, got up and thought “Wow, I didn’t know I can even turn that far!” I’ve heard it time and time again. All of this is why a sports chiropractor is part of many athletic healthcare teams. From the weekend marathoner to the professional baseball player, they know the advantage.

I’ve been lucky. I’ve had the privilege to work with people of all types with many different occupations. Everything from teachers, doctors, nurses, nannies, HR reps, excavators and athletes from the high school level all the way up to MLB. It’s these experiences as well as the current research that I call upon to discuss the above. I’m open to all questions and comments, please feel free to leave them below!

Phillip Gamble, DC
Chiropractic Physician
White Oak Family Wellness
405 Illinois Avenue #2b
St. Charles, IL 60174
Phone: (630) 442-0057

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