When someone hears the word chiropractor, what images come to mind? Maybe adjusting someone’s neck, maybe it’s an older fella using a towel to pull someone’s head off, maybe it’s the sound of the adjustment, or maybe you picture a witch doctor turning plants into potions. It’s normal to have some confusion here. I’ll be honest, I’m a chiropractor and I know there are a ton of techniques that I’m not familiar with. That being said I’m a sports chiropractor who does things a little different than the traditional chiropractor. It doesn’t mean one is better than the other, it’s just… different.
Traditional chiropractic care focuses on joints. When there are joints in your body that aren’t moving appropriately a traditional chiropractor will adjust those joint to help increase the motion at that level. Also, because the spine is the foundation of the rest of your body most traditional chiropractors focuses solely on improving spine function. This is great because a recent study came out that showed treating the spine only for an extremity complaint made 40% of the patients better even without touching the extremity.
A sports chiropractor focuses on the joints and the muscles surrounding a joint. This consists of various movement analyses, soft tissue techniques like GRASTON, rehabilitation exercises, and adjustments. With active individuals we realize that a lot of injuries happen to places other than the spine. So we work on treating a lot of these areas efficiently. We also realize that most active individuals including athletes require a little more treatment due to the nature of what they’re doing day to day. That’s where addressing the muscles helps in assisting their progress.
This is definitely not a bash at one style or another, but just a differentiating way in which these two types of chiropractors function. When I was exposed to chiropractic, it was with a chiropractor who practices similar to how I practice now. So when I’ve seen the most benefit from that type of care, I want to give my patients the same benefit.
