How important is a chiropractor for an athlete?

[thaigerthai]

i see a lot of professional athletes taking advantage of chiropractors a few times a month, and am wondering what is the true benefit?

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on a side note i went two days ago and now i can't even do a leg press without my whole leg up to my lower back hurting... should this subside soon?
pretty cool as well, but my chiropractor here in thailand lived in LA back in the late 90s early 2000's and worked on flex wheeler a few times. :headbang:

 

[concreter]

Saved me from the knife more than once.

 

[dfresh333]

Depends what kind of athelete. Any contact sports need it. Nerve pain was crippling me before I started going

 

[asteelz]

A good chiro makes all the difference. Have two fractured vertebrae , l3 and l4, was having all kinds of complications due to the surrounding tissues over compensating. Got hooked up wth a great dr where my gf works and have noticed significant improvements over the last 3 months even while in prep

 

[Akamai]

As asteelz stated a "GOOD" .................helps alot.

Ak

 

[doug1]

I personally think chiro's are bunk. They never alleviated my lower back pain. Nothing that a few days of rest and some aspirin didn't fix.

I say that with all due respect to previous posters, they had bigger problems than I did. But damn, I was in some serious pain also.

 

[Sir Anabolic]

I personally think chiro's are bunk. They never alleviated my lower back pain. Nothing that a few days of rest and some aspirin didn't fix.

I say that with all due respect to previous posters, they had bigger problems than I did. But damn, I was in some serious pain also.

Kind of agree with you here. Went to a chiro for L5/S1 nerve. Really felt like his services didn't account for my recovery. Honestly, I think rest was the big thing. I also found it very strange he kept on insisting to continue services (after I told him I was fine on mine own and no longer wanted his help)

 

[john161]

I personally think chiro's are bunk. They never alleviated my lower back pain. Nothing that a few days of rest and some aspirin didn't fix.

1. Florida drs ,as a whole suck. I havent seen so many guys pass med school with a D average.
2. To find a good chiro, never agree to a pre pay care plan, Those are are the Bull shitters.
3. They should say, "something like this should be between 10-20 visits". and here are the stretches you need at home, to minimize seeing us"
4. But still, they have more scholastic education than MD's and PT's.
5. If they dont use hands to adjust you the first time, and should heat or traction, or just electricty, run away. That is not chiropractic. That's a salesman.

 

[willdethronephil]

chiros aren't miracle workers guys... if you have the attitude you'll go when you get hurt you are doing it wrong. Bodybuilding consumes my life and I would be foolish to just look at things when problems come up because we all know they WILL. I have chiro adjustments every other week as well as deep tissue every other week and regular ortho exams. It has made a tremendous difference in my comfort lifting and I never get any pains that I need to rest from anymore. Chiro adjustments should be looked at as preventative maintenance. Here are some points to consider.

If you are misaligned over time your nerve stretching can be affected and for obvious reasons can cause muscular imbalances...

Over time your spine if not adjusted will begin to fuse, a simple regular adjustment one time per month will stop the fusing for life. It's the difference between being a hunched over immobile 65 year old vs living a healthy active quality of life.

 

[BillyBlanco]

They're not for me. The problems that they "fix" seem to come back. That being said, my lifting partner messed up his back competitive deadlifting. He's very cheap and hardly goes to the Dr. Now, after many years, he's literally crooked. He doesn't deadlift and sometimes even with light squats he gets sciatica problems. When I spot him on squats it's like one leg is a little further forward and no matter what I do it's like he's always off/crooked due to his messed up alignment. I really feel if he spent time with a specialist, they could've gradually worked everything back in place. Now, it's too late. One side of his body overcompensates. He'll most likely need surgery later. But that would be more of a spine specialist. Some professional baseball teams have their own chiropractors and some make their players sign contracts prohibiting chiropractors. So if it helps you, great, but pseudo science IMO.

 

[method2madness]

Myofascial Release Therapy and Deep Tissue will balance you and keep your body free of fascial and muscular imbalances. Chiropractic "care" will help you feel better if you are in pain but they are a quick fix and are truly only temporary pain relief.

What Is Myofascial Release?

 

[john161]

chiro vs medical care

Results: The greatest degree of improvement was seen within three months of the initial treatment of back pain, with a “modest advantage” seen for chiropractic care over medical care of chronic pain patients in the first 12 months. At the one- and three-month intervals, “clinical importance” was achieved with chiropractic care administered to chronic LBP patients; comparing chiropractic vs. medical care, the average difference in pain scores was 12.2 points at one month and 10.5 points at three months, favoring chiropractic care.

In a separate analysis that categorized differences in care by leg pain, “a potentially clinically important advantage” for chiropractic care in chronic patients with pain radiating below the knee was also seen in the first 12 months following care. In this case, again comparing chiropractic vs. medical care, average differences in favor of chiropractic ranged between 18.3 points and 21.7 points in the first year for pain, and between 9.0 points and 13.9 points over the first three years for disability, using the pain scale.

“Our study supports the generalizability of systematic reviews of the efficacy of spinal manipulation for pain and functional disability to the effectiveness of chiropractic care in clinical practice,” the authors noted in their conclusion. “In terms of relative effectiveness, chiropractic care demonstrated advantage over medical care for chronic patients in the first year, particularly for those with leg pain radiating below the knee.”

Haas M, Goldberg B, Aickin M, et al. A practice-based study of patients with acute and chronic low back pain attending primary care and chiropractic physicians: two-week to 48-month follow-up. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 2004;27:160-169.

Dr. Gray’s Comments: Most of you know that I have developed a great working relationship with the local medical community… I am not an anti-medical kinda guy. There are times and conditions when traditional medicine is the treatment of choice. However, there are also times when chiropractic should be the first treatment of choice. Volumes of research have proven this case with regards to lower back pain. There have been many recent studies showing the same superior effectiveness with regards to neck pain and headaches, as well. As we become more inquisitive about ways to decrease the cost of health care, increasing amounts of research are proving the effectiveness and cost savings associated with chiropractic and other natural, non-invasive forms of treatment.

Not sure where I heard the following comparison, but I’ve always liked it. It’s not negative towards medicine, but sheds a little light on the differences in philosophy between chiropractic and medicine:

The conflict between medicine and chiropractic can be summed up quite simply:

Medicine believes that disease causes a lack of health.
Chiropractic believes that a lack of health is expressed as disease.

Therefore, Medicine treats “the disease,” while chiropractic addresses causes for a lack of health. Medicine primarily treats the symptoms of sick people, and Chiropractic primarily tries to treat the cause which has led to the symptoms.

 

[jcc80]

I know very little about chiropractic care and how it SHOULD work. I recently quit going to one because I owe the IRS a good chunk, so the $200 a month for chiropractic had to go.

That being said, yes I signed up for a monthly payment plan, and yes, he used power tools for adjustments from day one, never by hand. My 'appointments' lasted 3 minutes at the most. Maybe 4. Sounds like I got suckered.

 

[Humana Life Group]

Keep things in alignment. Hips and neck mostly. once a week. $10 a visit.

 

[sean70ss]

Chiro

I go to one 2 times a month and i cannot say enough about great things about him. He used to be a bodybuilder and really understands all aspects of the body. If I tell him my hip is bothering me he can fix it. Gonsted I believe wha he practices.

 

[nancyfrye]

Chiropractors can usually quickly identify the mechanical issues that are causing your spine-related pain and provide some near-immediate relief with a series of adjustments.When i suffered from Neck Pain and back pain issue i consult chiropractor in Las Vagus.He is expert in treatment of Stiff back pain and neck pain.

 

[SRhealth-Rachel]

IMO the effect depends on how professional the chiro is. I'm not a professional athlete, but I have visited a blind chiro for my Cervical vertebra and lumbar vertebrae, but it seems make no difference, just feel relaxed at that time.

 

[LK3]

I went for a little while after some car accidents...

I felt it made me more injury prone.

when they checked my out they noticed I was crooked in a few different ways.

I think my body has just adapted to this. lol

 

[Pheedno]

The owner of my massage therapy school was/is a chiropractor and his explanation was basically this:

All bones are bound by soft tissue. Trying to alleviate chronic issues with chiropractic alone is asking for more injury, as the soft tissue will just pull the hard tissue back out of alignment. In addition it creates an imbalanced environment as the soft tissue issues are then encroaching on a less rigid skeletal structure the body created in order to prevent the injury in the first place. Soft tissue work, done correctly, usually alleviates the hard tissue problems.

of course this is a blanket generality and they'll be other circumstances but.....

 

[Nabz]

I went to the same chiropractor for 2 years and when my benefits from work stopped (lost my job) i decided to take a break for a while, its been 2 years and even tho I have the same benefits now, I dont go anymore.

The reason I did was because nothing hurt for those 2 years and my neck pain (very mild but annoying) went away.

I thought I would try it like the pro's to get an edge, yeah right NO DIFFERENCE whatsoever.

I stick with RMT for deep tissue massage or ART.

No disrespect to anyone that swears by them, I just dont see the return on my investment.