How Chiropractic Care can Improve Your Training

Whether your goal in the gym is to lose weight, gain weight, tone up, bulk up or just overall fitness – it is important you utilise your time effectively. Sometimes we are unable to perform at our best due to pain, decreased mobility, poor balance or reduced strength.

Pain:

We’ve all experienced it – some worse than others. It can have a detrimental effect on our ability to function properly. Pain is usually the result of an underlying dysfunction already occurring within the body. A dysfunction in your spine or limbs tends to occur when we stray from optimal postural alignment. Postural alignment is important in all areas of functional movement and therefore has a significant importance when training. Doing incorrect movement patterns while lifting, squatting or running can lead to overactive or tight muscles and underactive ‘lazy’ muscles that can pull the body out of balance.

Mobility:

Decreased mobility is becoming increasingly prominent in society due to the increase in technology and time spent on our backsides. Having a slouched posture leads to structural imbalances including decreased shoulder mobility, changing the recruitment of muscles in the neck and shoulders. A study found that increased thoracic kyphosis (slouched posture) was associated with a reduction in the peak shoulder angle during arm elevation, this leads to actually overusing the shoulder blade, requiring more energy expenditure. This unfortunately can lead to impingements, tendonitis and instability of the shoulder joint. Having proper spinal and shoulder mobility is important to reduce the risk of injuries.

Balance:

Balance & proprioception are the body’s ability to sense movement within our joints and where we are in space. The proprioceptive system is made up of nerves in the muscles and ligaments around joints, which can sense stretch and tension, passing this information to the brain which responds by signaling the muscles to either relax or contract in order to produce the desired movement. Having a functioning proprioceptive system enables the individual to perform at their best. When this system is not functioning optimally, people are more likely to sustain an injury, re-injure or have decreased coordination during activity. Research has shown us that a dysfunction in the spine, in particular the neck, disrupts the brains ability to sense what is going on accurately in the rest of the body.

Strength:

Strength is so important for a healthy lifestyle, we are constantly lifting things, moving things and carrying things. Functionally, strength is a part of our everyday lives, not just when we are trying to impress at the gym.

Chiropractic research has found that the brain changes the way it controls your muscles depending on the function of your spine.

Chiropractic works on the basis of the nervous system and having a properly working nervous system puts the body in optimal shape. Chiropractic adjustments performed on various body parts work to activate the nerves responsible for causing contractions of the muscles. These contractions work the muscle, thus causing our muscle strength to increase. Chiropractic adjustments help with alignment of the spine and pelvis, making movement easier and decreasing the chance of sustaining an injury or re-injury. This is important in training, because if you contrinue to work out on unbalanced muscles, chronic wear and tear and damage to the area will occur.

Chiropractic care can play a role in preventing injuries by improving proprioception and increasing accuracy of the brains control over the muscles.

As Chiropractors we focus on influencing the bodies function by structural corrections and having musculoskeletal systems as stable, strong and mechanically prepared or training and competition,
At Carter Chiropractic & Dubbo Acupuncture we use an individualized approach to each patient in order to gain the best results.