Sports Chiropractic

If you haven’t seen a chiropractor or come across chiropractic before and are not sure what it’s all about, why not visit our Chiropractic page first.

The central nervous system, including our spine, is the control centre that supplies the power for all of our daily activities. Our muscular system, tendons, ligaments and joints would be useless if it were not for the power input from our nervous system. Strength, endurance, balance and posture are all dependent on this remarkable piece of engineering. All of this is no less true for people engaged in sports activities, everyone from casual participants to top-flight, elite athletes. If you’re going to compete effectively, you’ve got to be on top of your game. Your Hertford chiropractor gives your nervous system a helping hand. At Advance Chiropractic & Acupuncture Clinic the chiropractic and other supplementary techniques we use are great for promoting both joint flexibility and stability, as well as a balanced muscular system with greater endurance capacity. If you’re injured, there’s a range of chiropractic and other techniques we can offer. In short, we’ll do our best to get you fighting fit. The rest is up to you.

Keeping Up With The Competition

Any serious sports person will tell you that successful competition takes your all. It well and truly takes it out of you.

Even casual competition can push you to your limit, especially if your normal experience of activity is being chained to an office desk eight hours a day, five days a week.

Pushing yourself hard can certainly lead to injury, but that’s often not the only issue. Sometimes you’ll hit the wall. Sometimes, try as you might, you’re just struggling to get beyond that threshold of ability you seem to possess. That’s despite all the extra training and hard work you put in.

If the above is true of you, you’re not alone. It’s one reason why plenty of sports people seek out chiropractic care. We can help give you the edge in sporting performance.

Working Through That Injury

Most sports people find they overdo it at some point and injury of one sort or another becomes an issue. For some, injury together with associated aches and pains are a constant companion.

Sporting activity, especially intense sporting activity, often involves putting repeated stress on specific spinal and other joints. Slight loss of proper movement in these joints may result. Sometimes, this may disrupt the healthy function of your muscles and nerves.

If you are especially keen, you may carry on with your sporting activity, trying to work through the pain and discomfort. Often this makes the problem worse, slowing the healing process and creating the potential for further injury.

It also explains why the average chiropractor sees plenty of patients suffering with back, neck, shoulder, knee and ankle injuries, sustained in sports activities.

Chiropractic and Sports Performance: What’s In It For You?

When you visit Advance Chiropractic & Acupuncture Clinic, Hertford for the first time, we’ll assess you thoroughly. Your Hertford chiropractor has undergone a rigorous five-year, full-time training to BSc (Bachelor of Science) degree level and is highly skilled in neuromusculoskeletal medicine and spinal health.

At your first visit we’ll take a comprehensive case history. We’ll ask you about any pain, discomfort and stiffness you might be experiencing. We’ll also want to know about the sports you participate in, about your general health, medical history and any relevant lifestyle factors that may be having an impact on your sporting activities.

Your physical examination will include most or all of the following elements:

1. Postural assessment
2. Muscle length testing
3. Muscle strength testing
4. Orthopaedic testing
5. Neurological testing
6. Assessment of muscle balance, tension and tenderness through manual palpation

You will of course receive detailed feedback on our findings.

On occasion, we may need to refer you for further testing, such as x-rays, MRI scans or blood tests. We’ll let you know if this is the case and the likely cost implications. We’re also fully qualified to interpret the results of such tests.

Our chiropractic treatment techniques are ideal for:

1. Reducing pain, discomfort and stiffness
2. Reducing the stresses you are placing on your spinal and other joints
3. Improving the flexibility and responsiveness of your spinal and other joints
4. Reducing muscle imbalance and helping spinal and extremity muscles to function more effectively
5. Helping your nervous system provide the power for all of your activities, including sporting activity.

It’s not unusual for our chiropractic patients to report feeling taller, a better aligned posture, improved balance and flexibility and even fewer injuries. They also often report improved sporting performance.

If it’s Broke, Let’s Fix It: Effective Treatments To Get You Back On Track

Sometimes sports injuries are unavoidable. If that’s the predicament you are in, let Advance Clinic take care of you. Our toolbox of techniques is wide-ranging:

1. Chiropractic
2. Acupuncture and electroacupuncture
3. Chinese herbs
4. Cross-friction massage and trigger point therapy
5. Diet and nutritional advice based on functional medicine principles
6. Muscle stretching and strengthening advice
7. Postural advice
8. Injury prevention advice

The particular treatment or combination of treatments we’ll use in your case will be specific for you. We don’t take a once-size-fits-all approach. You’ll receive the specific and effective treatment that’s going to get you fighting fit again quickly.

You can see that there are plenty of ways your Hertford chiropractor can help if you are involved in sports. Whether you are feeling fine but just want to perform better, or are struggling with a niggling injury or worse, why not give chiropractic a go.