Oct
14
Winter is quickly approaching and with it comes ski season. Whether you are a beginner or an expert, it is important to be prepared before you hit the slopes. Skiing can leave your body in rough shape if you are not properly equipped. The following tips will help you prepare for the impending ski season and make your skiing days more enjoyable.
Schedule regular adjustments with your chiropractor before the season starts. This will help to keep you muscles, spine and ligaments in top shape, making a minor tumble less likely to leave lasting pain. Read more
Jun
1
Why Chiropractic and Recreational Sports Go Hand in Hand
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Everyone knows that the recreational sports you love to participate in eventually will not love you back. Whether it’s a fall, a slide, a bump, or a break, its inevitable your recreational sports choices will leave its mark.
What many people don’t know is that there is someone who can help with the aches and pains associated with these mishaps before, during and after they occur. Your regular doctor may be able to patch you up a bit, but he won’t be able to help much with the structural issues that your accident has afforded you.
If you want help at the structural level, its time to give chiropractic a try. Read more
Nov
19
How to Use Chiropractic Care to Reduce Skiing Injuries
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With the arrival of snow, many people are hitting the slopes. Before you join other enthusiasts on the black diamonds, you may be wondering if there is a way to stay safe and reduce skiing injuries. Since over 50% of ski injuries involve the neck, back, and knees, chiropractic care can definitely help keep you healthy, happy, whole and skiing this season.
1. Preventive care – They say “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” So it is with chiropractic care. The best way to reduce skiing injuries is to take care of yourself before you ever set foot on the mountain. Chiropractic care specializes in helping your joints function at their greatest potential. This in turn keeps your supporting muscles, ligaments, tendons, and nervous system working in top condition. You want everything working smoothly before you go. A smoothly functioning body leads to minimal stress for your joints, muscles, nerves, etc. which translates into two key benefits on the slope.
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Aug
26
How Chiropractic Care Can Help Kids With Football Injuries
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Football is obviously a rough sport, and many parents choose to withhold their children from this intense of physical contact until their bodies have matured and developed. However, now parents have been looking towards chiropractic practices to keep their kids safe and healthy playing football. The health of the spine is the number one goal of chiropractic care because it is the base of the entire nervous system, and football puts more stress on the spine than needed at such an early age.
This type of health care is done for preventative purposes, and can benefit a child later in life. Football is a game of almost constant contact, and although the hits aren’t as forceful as in NFL games, they can still do damage on the spine. Constant pressure on an undeveloped spine like this can lead to misalignment of the spine, a weakened nervous system, and a later development of scoliosis or arthritis in severe cases.
As a preventative care, chiropractors urge child- athletes to come in before any injuries occur, and not to wait for something to happen. A precursor to injury, chiropractors can teach young football players how to properly warm up and cool down for practices and games. The adolescents can also benefit by learning better posture exercises, and core stability for added protection. With these, kids can gain strength, speed, and protect their spines and nervous systems more efficiently.
Parents can breath easier knowing that their little athlete’s back is being regularly checked up on, and if injury occurs, a professional will be able to handle the situation and prevent future injuries. Football should not be taken lightly as it is a demanding and rough sport, but there are also many positives that come out of the game. Pads are not always all the protection a child needs, and chiropractic care can add more comfort and help for young football players.
Jun
23
Want to improve your soccer game? Give chiropractic care a try. The benefits of chiropractic care for treating bone and muscle injuries, and improving the performance of professional athletes is becoming well known. Soccer players are especially poised to reap the benefits of a chiropractic alignment or therapy because of the physical nature and demands of the sport. There are several ways that chiropractic care benefits soccer players.
Integrated Approach
Chiropractors consider the holistic relationship between all of the body systems. Likewise, soccer players rely on the strength of their bones and muscles, the endurance of their respiratory system, the speed of their reflexes and the efficiency of their cardiovascular system to keep them in top shape during a game. Chiropractic care addresses all of the areas required for top soccer players through an integrated approach to medicine that recognizes the connection of the body systems.
Treating Injuries
Injuries in soccer are common; stress injuries in particular are everyday affairs on the soccer field. When a player relies on pain killers to treat pain, he runs the risk of exacerbating the injury because he is only addressing the symptoms rather than the injury itself. Chiropractic treatments provide pain management as well as treatment for the injury itself. Chiropractic care for soccer players provides relief as well as recovery from injuries.
Improving Reflexes
Though much of chiropractic care focuses on joints and muscles, some research has shown that chiropractic medicine also have benefits in the nervous system. The nervous system interacts with the musculoskeletal system during the reflex actions required to guard a goal and measure a kick. Proper alignment promotes the flow of nerve messages and oxygenated blood throughout the body.
Lower Body Focus
Most soccer injuries occur in the lower half of the body including the knees, ankles and shins. Chiropractic medicine is especially effective in treating these problem areas for soccer players. Lower body alignments and massage are simple and routine procedures than can be tailored to a soccer player’s specific injuries or ailments.
Musculoskeletal Maintenance
Even without injuries, soccer players who receive regular chiropractic alignments report fewer injuries and pain as well as more comfort during playing time. The more comfortable a player feels, the better his performance during a game.
[Received a sports injury this summer? Ready to take your soccer game to the next level? Maybe its time you tried Watts Chiropractic. Helping kids and adults take their soccer game to the next level with chiropractic care.]
Apr
28
Winning often comes down to reacting faster than your opponent by only a few seconds. In the quest to beat the competition, there is hardly a sport which hasn’t been tarnished by allegations of participants enhancing their performance with steroidal drugs. Yet, there is a chemical-free way you can improve your game that does not have the serious side effects of steroids. Whether you are a top athlete or are working on integrating some healthy activity in your life, chiropractic care can help keep your spine balanced and your nerve system functioning at 100%, improving your performance dramatically.
Famous athletes who are chiropractic advocates can be found in nearly every sport, such as Emmitt Smith and Terrell Owens (football), Lance Armstrong (cycling), Arnold Schwarzenegger (bodybuilding), John Stockton (basketball) and Evander Holyfield (boxing).
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Apr
15
Children and Sports Injuries: Why Chiropractic Care Can Help
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Throughout the U.S., about 30 million children and teens participate in organized sports every single year. Just over 3 million injuries occur each year, which cause some time lost in participation.
All sports have the risk for injury. But how a child recovers depends on the injury he or she sustains, and what type of program he or she is put on for recovery.
For a severe sprain or broken bone, the road to recovery is clear. But how about for the twists, strains, bumps and bruises that may have an unnoticed affect on how well a body recovers?
That’s where chiropractic care comes into the equation.
As a general rule, when a child is growing at a rapid pace, he is more susceptible to injury at the bone growth sites – heel, knee, back, hip, shoulder and elbow. Growth occurs at the upper and lower end of the bones within these areas. Eventually the cartilage like cells that make up this bone growth will harden into bone mass. But as growth occurs, these areas are softer, and more susceptible to breakage.
A child also faces a variety of strains to the muscle area, just by doing the things kids normally do.
The goal of chiropractic care is to lessen the likelihood of injury. A chiropractor can provide adjustments, stretches and therapeutic exercises that a child can perform before, during and after sports activities to lower the risk. He can also coach a child on proper nutrition, proper training, proper equipment, and the importance of warm ups. A child may listen to someone in authority, especially if it impacts the way he plays and the chance of him moving into a more competitive environment.
Ready to make a difference to the athlete in your life?
Mar
24
As the weather warms here in Denver, many of us are digging the golf bag out of the garage or basement, and heading to the driving range to get ready for a summer of golfing. Hitting the driving range is a great way to start. But did you know another to-do on your list should be to see your chiropractor?
Around 75 percent of golfers on the PGA and Senior Tours receive regular chiropractic care. And according to some reports, up to 85 percent of all injuries on the tours relate to the spine. While you may not play as frequently, or swing as hard as the pros do, you still are at risk of developing spinal problems every time you head out onto the course.
A golf swing twists your body in ways you never do during other activities. And because you can easily swing 120 times or more during a single afternoon round of golf, hunch over the ball before each swing, and carry around a heavy golf bag across one shoulder for several hours, your body may soon start telling you something is wrong. From lower back pain, to shoulder and knee injuries, correct the problems early before they manifest into bigger issues.
If you see your chiropractor regularly, be sure to talk about your normal activities. If you golf once or twice per week, let him know. The more he understands about what you do, the more he can create a program that works best for you, and keeps you healthy and safe from potential injuries.
Not only can he provide you with regular chiropractic adjustments to keep your spine balanced and aligned, he can also provide you with specific stretching and strengthening exercises that will help keep you in top shape, and ready to face your next golf game in the best shape possible.
Oct
20
Chiropractic Care and Sports Programs Go Hand In Hand
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High level athletes in nearly every sport have chosen to make chiropractic care a part of their training and a part of their lifestyle. Dr. Jeff Spencer was the team chiropractor for the USA Cycling Team that won 7 Tour de France victories, an unprecedented run in one of the world’s most 
grueling sports. Dr. Greg Kempf from Cleveland, Ohio, has been providing chiropractic care for the Cleveland Browns since 1999 and the Cleveland Cavaliers for the past five seasons. He regularly travels with the Browns and occasionally with the Cavs. On game day, it is not uncommon for Dr. Kempf to adjust 35 of the 55 members of the team prior to the game.
Some of the top athletes in the world have publicly praised their chiropractors as both their saviors in times of injury, as well as keys to their reaching their full athletic potential. Dr. Spencer, for example, was featured in an article in Esquire Magazine adjusting Lance Armstrong and he was also mentioned in one of Lance’s books. When Emmitt Smith retired as the NFL’s all time leading rusher, he graciously thanked God, his family and his chiropractor, Dr. Greg Parker, for supporting him in his stellar career.
But the advantages don’t stop with top athletes, Olympic champions and the professionals. It can have a profound impact on amateur and youth sports as well.
Chiropractic gives athletes the competitive advantage that they need to compete at the highest level, and for the duration of their event. No wonder youth sports programs around the country are making chiropractic care available to all of their athletes. This is especially important to college bound athletes who are considering scholarships, as colleges want to invest in healthy kids rather than risk their dollars on young athletes with chronic injuries.
Are you ready for chiropractic care for the athlete in your life?
[Taken from The American Chiropractor, October 2009]
