Sports Injury Treatment
Participation in sports or exercise is an important step in maintaining your health. Exercise strengthens your heart, bones, and joints and reduces stress, among many other benefits.Unfortunately, injuries during participation in sports are all too common. Often these injuries occur in someone who is just taking up sports as a form of activity, doesn’t use proper safety equipment, or becomes overzealous about the exercise regimen. But even experienced athletes can get injured. The most common of these type of injuries that chiropractors treat effectively are rotator cuff and muscle tears, frozen shoulder, tennis elbow, carpal tunnel, back strains, hip injuries, groin pulls, knee injuries, tendinitis, ankle sprains, heel spurs, plantar fasciitis, and toe pain. Chiropractors treat every joint in your body, not just your spine.
Diagnosis
Sports injuries are most often diagnosed from the history of the activity that brought on the pain, along with a physical examination. In some cases, x-rays are necessary to rule out a fracture. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diagnostic ultrasound are also used in finding soft-tissue injuries, like tendinitis and sprains. The doctor of chiropractic does a thorough orthopedic, neurologic, and muscular examination before deciding a treatment plan.
Treatment Plan
After discussing and explaining examination findings, the doctor of chiropractic will decide on the most effective plan to get you well. Your treatment can involve one or all of the following:
Rest
Generally no more than 24-48 hours of rest and/or immobilization is needed, depending on the severity of the injury. In most cases, the sooner the person becomes active after an injury, the more rapid is the recovery. Your doctor of chiropractic will guide this process, as too early a return to activity, choosing the wrong type of activity, or excessive activity can be detrimental.
Ice or heat
Ice or heat can be helpful with pain reduction and tissue healing.
Compression or bracing
Compression or bracing of the area may reduce the amount of swelling from the injury. Your doctor of chiropractic will determine if this will be beneficial in your case.
Elevation
Elevation of the injured arm or leg above the level of the heart can be helpful in reducing swelling.
Joint mobilization or adjustment
The chiropractic adjustment is what we do best and can be the most powerful treatment for pain reduction, return to function and a more rapid recovery. Your doctor of chiropractic will determine if this procedure will be helpful in your case.
Gua Sha
We use this technique with most sports injuries, and especially with patients that have tried everything else. Gua Sha is a traditional Asian healing technique that is one of many manual therapy approaches, such as Graston, that use special instruments to massage skin and connective tissue. This technique is frequently used with world class athletes at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. It is very effective in breaking up adhesions and scar tissue that build up in injured tissue. Gua Sha stimulates faster recovery time and reduces the need for medications. We usually combine it with traction and other soft tissue procedures for fantastic results with many chronic conditions that were thought to be permanent.
Cold Laser
Laser therapy has been adopted as an essential pain management tool by athletic trainers in most major league sports franchises in the United States, as well as by many Olympic teams. Also known as soft laser, this quite gentle treatment uses low level lasers to stimulate damaged tissues, enhancing the progress of healing and providing relief from pain and inflammation.
Ultrasound Therapy
Ultrasound therapy has been used for many years as a treatment for sports injuries. It uses soundwaves to reduce inflammation, break up scar tissue, and relax muscles.
Stretches and Exercises
We put each patient through an exercise routine specific to their injury and their physical condition. These programs may involve passive and active stretching techniques, isometric strengthening, elastic bands, and light weights. We also give lots of homework! We show you how to do exercises at home everyday.
Posture and Balance
We promote the importance of strong posture to maintain an active, pain-free life, by encouraging you to choose the habits that will help your body work better for longer. Stronger posture helps back and neck pain, and also helps you feel better in general as you breathe deeper, reduce stress, and have more energy. Health isn’t just about not being sick, it’s about feeling energetic, having a positive outlook and enjoying life. Posture exercises are focused, controlled-motion exercises designed to get muscles and joints moving symmetrically and with full-range for improved strength, balance, stability, and flexibility. We show you how to use exercise balls to get you moving again, but most posture exercises can be done anywhere and do not require expensive equipment.
Gait Analysis and Orthotics
If related to your condition, we check the way you stand, walk, and run and help you to correct your gait. We can fit you with custom orthotics (shoe inserts) if you need them, to help you to recover faster and to restore normal function and body biomechanics.
Prevention
In many cases, sports injuries can be prevented. Proper conditioning and warm-up and cool-down procedures, as well as appropriate safety equipment, can substantially reduce injuries. Understanding proper techniques can also go a long way toward preventing injuries.