Ask almost any professional athlete if they use chiropractic to enhance their sports performance to get that “extra edge” over their opponents and their answer will be YES!

Some of the more notable athletes who have actively and publicly promoted the use of their chiropractor are: Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, Michael Jordan, Dan O’Brien, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Evander Holyfield, Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith and Tom Brady. Not a bad bunch of athletes!

You may be thinking how can chiropractic help me with my sports performance? There are two main ways:

1. Better alignment = greater function = better performance = less likely to injure yourself.

Your body is much like a car. A car’s performance is very dependent upon the car’s alignment. If your wheel is not aligned properly it will hamper your car’s fuel efficiency and overall performance.

You are also likely to notice problems elsewhere in the car, such as: trouble with the steering, braking issues, tyres wearing out faster than they should, handling issues and your suspension may need to be replaced. Your body is no different. Only your body is much more complex than a car!

Poor posture/alignment puts added pressure and stress on the muscles and joints and can result in stress/overuse injuries.

For example, if your hamstrings are chronically tight due to a compensation for a lower back problem , you are more likely to tear/injure your hamstring when you are playing sport and need to perform a quick sprint. You can massage the hamstring over and over but it is only the compensation from a low back problem so it will
never fix the underlying problem.

2. Physiological function

“Posture affects and moderates every physiological function. from breathing to spinal pain, headache, mood, blood pressure, pulse and lung capacity are among the functions most easily influenced by posture.”
~Journal of Pain Management~

Therefore better posture can be beneficial for breathing, pulse, lung capacity, heart function and many other health related issues. If you can achieve better lung and heart function than that will be extremely beneficial for sports performance.

HOW CAN CHIROPRACTIC HELP?

At Oxenford LIFE Chiropractic we take a holistic approach to helping you. Assessing your entire spine, rather than just looking at your neck in isolation.

We do this through assessing and correcting your posture, balance, alignment and overall spinal health. This takes pressure off the muscles, ligaments, discs, and nerves of the neck and allows the body to heal naturally. Much like putting out the fire instead of turning off the fire alarm.

Correcting your spinal alignment with chiropractic care can help you get relief as well as helping prevent the problem from returning in the future.

By ensuring your spine has great alignment it also takes pressure off your nerve system. Your nerve system is responsible for sending and receiving messages from your brain and body. A clear communication pathway between the brain and body allows your body to heal and function at its very best.

OUR CHIROPRACTIC METHOD

Our chiropractic method focuses on correcting spinal alignment and posture for people of all ages using spinal adjustments, postural exercises, spinal tractioning and ergonomic advice. This gives you control in your own healing process and helps you get better results faster, while preventing the problem from returning again in the future.
Even after the first adjustment, people will often notice improvements in their pain, posture and movement.

POSTURE AND NERVOUS SYSTEM FUNCTION

The nervous system (brain and spinal cord) is our communication pathway throughout our whole body. It helps to regulate and control every action in our body. It is extremely important that our nervous system is working at its optimum if we want to function well and live a healthy life.

Because our spine encloses and protects our nervous system, it can have a direct influence on how well our brain, spinal cord and nerves are functioning.

If the alignment of the bones in our spine start to lose their ideal position or become dysfunctional it can impact the nervous system negatively.

Improving spinal alignment and posture helps your body to function and feel its best while reducing the likelihood of encountering injuries and greater problems in the future.

PREVENTION

At Oxenford LIFE Chiropractic our goal is to fix bodies and help prevent injuries from returning. Ultimately, we want to help your body work better so you can enjoy life uninhibited by pain. Once posture is corrected, it is recommended to keep it in good shape. Similar to continuing brushing your teeth once a cavity has been fixed by the dentist. This is best managed through a maintenance/wellness adjustment and exercise protocol, along with our advice around day to day living.