The Elite Athlete - What’s known about sports performance
Proactive Athletes
The individuals who have taken the proactive steps towards true health and overall physical well-being know full and well the benefits that chiropractic care, and the maintenance of the spine and nervous system it assures, can have on us physically; even if you’re not an elite athlete, Chiropractic can play a huge role in our performance and longevity in sports.
All athletes want to find something that they can incorporate into their routine to give them the leading edge in recovery and performance. Lots of these individuals spend countless hours improving their muscular performance and mental acuity, but a stand out few, elite athletes, such as Tiger Woods, Usain Bolt, Cristiano Ronaldo and Michael Jordan, understood that healing comes from the inside out; and that this process is controlled, coordinated and regulated via a fully functioning nervous system.
Performance will always be #1 at high levels of sport. However, when performing constantly at a high level, injuries occur. When the occasional injury occurs, many athletes already under regular Chiropractic Care have even better results recovering from their low back pain, neck pain, disc injuries, muscles aches & pains, etc.
The maintenance of the Spine
Our spine has 3 main roles: It keeps us upright, it allows us to bend/twist/rotate, and most importantly it is what protects our spinal cord - which acts as the highway for information from the brain to the body. Our nervous system (brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves) is what controls and coordinates all of the functions of our body. When we have a less than optimal functioning spine, we are going to be limited in one, if not all of those roles of the spine. Let’s take a look into how proper spinal function can improve one's performance.
A study was conducted to assess how corrections to one's spinal structure can impact muscle excitability and force of maximal contraction. The individuals who had specific chiropractic adjustments showed the ability to contract their muscles harder as there was an increase in descending cortical drive tracts (how the brain ‘talks’ to muscles). There was also an incidental finding that there was a decrease in fatigue levels following a Chiropractic Adjustment as well! Studies have also shown an increase in proprioception (knowing where our joints are positioned in space), potentially improving our spacial awareness and associated reflex, reaction and coordination.
What makes sense to you?
So what does this mean for sporting individuals - Does it make sense that being able to recruit muscles faster and harder following Chiropractic Care would aid in sporting performance? Would this aid in explosiveness and maximal force of contraction during sporting endeavors? Is it possible that having clearer lines of communication from the brain to the body helps you fatigue less and perform better for longer? Also, if we have improved proprioceptive sense, would be less likely, or more likely, to have injury? The research indicates so!
All of the above are difficult questions to answer definitively, but the athletes seems to know!
“I’ve been going to a Chiropractor for as long as I can remember. It’s as important to my training as practicing my swing.”
- Tiger Woods.