Chiropractic Aids Athletic Performance

By Dr Deed Harrison

All 32 teams in the US National Foot­ball League have chi­ro­prac­tors on staff. So do 27 of 30 Major League Base­ball teams and most teams in the National Bas­ket­ball Association.

Ath­letes from Tiger Woods to Michael Jor­dan have pub­licly praised chi­ro­prac­tic for pre­vent­ing injuries and improv­ing performance.

What do pro­fes­sional ath­letes know that week­end war­riors don’t?

They believe that chi­ro­prac­tic gives them an edge. And stud­ies show they may be right: chi­ro­prac­tic can enhance ath­letic per­for­mance and pre­vent injuries.

In a 1991 study of 50 ath­letes, one group received chi­ro­prac­tic care; the other did not. Researchers then tested the ath­letes in 11 dif­fer­ent areas, includ­ing agility, bal­ance, per­cep­tion of body move­ment, power, and reac­tion time.

The group under chi­ro­prac­tic care improved sig­nif­i­cantly in all 11 areas after six weeks. The con­trol group mea­sured only minor changes in eight of the 11 tests.

A study con­ducted at the New Zealand Col­lege of Chi­ro­prac­tic in 2014 pro­vides a rea­son for the ear­lier find­ings. The research indi­cated that fail­ure to prop­erly acti­vate your core mus­cles dur­ing exer­cise can lead to spinal injuries.

Dr Heidi Haavik, direc­tor of research at the col­lege, says this occurs when the brain fails to pre­dict what will hap­pen dur­ing cer­tain move­ments. “There is now accu­mu­lat­ing evi­dence that chi­ro­prac­tic care may play a part in improv­ing the abil­ity of the brain to engage the core mus­cles appro­pri­ately and sta­bi­lize the spine,” she explained.

She went on to say, “Chi­ro­prac­tic care improves the com­mu­ni­ca­tion between the brain and body, and results in bet­ter con­trol of the core mus­cles dur­ing body move­ments, so that your spine is at less risk of injury.“
So if you’re a week­end war­rior, con­sider tak­ing a leaf from the pro­fes­sional ath­letes’ play­book. As Michael Jor­dan puts it, “Since I’ve been in chi­ro­prac­tic, I’ve improved by leaps and bounds, both men­tally and physically.”

Your ner­vous sys­tem trans­mits mes­sages from the brain to every mus­cle, bone and organ in your body. As New Zealand’s Haavik noted, chi­ro­prac­tic keeps the com­mu­ni­ca­tion sys­tem oper­at­ing at peak effi­ciency. That’s because it elim­i­nates spinal mis­align­ments that put pres­sure on the nerves and inter­fere with their abil­ity to com­mu­ni­cate with the body.

Pro­fes­sional ath­letes get to expe­ri­ence this through their chi­ro­prac­tic care. As an ath­lete it is a no brainer…the ath­letes who have inte­grated chi­ro­prac­tic care into their reg­i­men have an edge. If you’re look­ing to enhance your ath­letic per­for­mance and pre­vent injuries make sure you are vis­it­ing your chiropractor.

Join our ath­letes train­ing for the 2020 Olympics at Vaughan Chi­ro­prac­tic, and allow our chi­ro­prac­tors to help you find your edge.

Drs C. Gus & Jacqueline Tsiapalis

Vaughan Chi­ro­prac­tic: Cen­tre for Adult Health and Pedi­atric Development

8383 Weston Rd, Unit 108, Vaughan, ON, Canada L4L 1A6

905−850−0909