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.

Perform various exercises to strengthen your body at least four weeks before the season begins.

Make sure your ski equipment is ready for another season. Have it inspected and any worn or damaged bindings replaced.

Before your first time on the slopes, make sure to stretch your body. This will keep your body limber and prepare it for action – much like you would stretch before beginning a long run.

Make sure you are dressed appropriately. Layers are the best way to go and you should always have a hat and goggles. Sunscreen is a must because the glare of the sun off of the snow can quickly burn any exposed skin.

Wear a helmet for added head protection – but remember that a helmet will not prevent all head injuries, so ski accordingly.

Know where you are going to ski – plan your trail ahead of time and let someone know where you will be skiing.  If something happens, it will be much easier for a search party to find you.

Finally, if you are new to skiing, take lessons before you attempt to ski alone. Make sure you know how to ski – never attempt to ski without knowing how to do it. Even a few tips could save you weeks or even months of pain and doctor’s visits.

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.

A chiropractic doctor is concerned with the way your body works as a whole.  His primary focus is to be sure that your support system (your skeletal and nervous systems) works to its best capacity.  To this end, a chiropractor performs manual adjustments, primarily to the spine, to provide optimum alignment and support.

Now you sports fans may be wondering what this has to do with you and your victory scars.  Well, over time, the bumps, bruises, scrapes, and falls that you suffer in pursuit of your sport will cause minor misalignments (some less minor than others) to your support system.  These add up and begin to make your body less effective at performing the tasks you love.  You may find that you develop new aches and pains, and certain activities are less comfortable than they used to be. You may even consider stopping the sports you once loved.

Here’s where the chiropractor comes in handy.  You come in sporting your latest victory injury and your chiropractor fixes the underlying problems it caused in your support system.  This keeps your body primed and aligned, ready to go for your next chase at glory.  So, why do chiropractic and recreational sports go hand in hand?  You hurt ‘em we heal ‘em. And help to keep you in the best possible shape all the time.

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.

Diminished risk of injury resulting from a fall or other incident.

Improved prognosis in the event of an injury.

2. Curative care – Of course, sometimes things just happen.  Skiing is a high energy participatory sport which inevitably means you can get injured.  Chiropractic care will be there for you during your recovery to help you get everything back into proper alignment and working order.  Several of the more common ski injury symptoms include inflammation, sensitivity, discomfort, and muscle injury.   Normal spinal function as a result of corrective chiropractic care will help restore range of motion, reduce inflammation and swelling, help restore proper nerve function, and speed up your recovery. Chiropractic care after receiving an injury can help you get back on your feet while reducing the lingering effects of a skiing injury.

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.

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.]

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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).

Emmitt Smith retired from playing professional football and is the running back who holds the record for the most yards in the history of the NFL.  He began receiving chiropractic adjustments in the mid-1990’s and attributes much of his longevity and performance in professional sports to regular chiropractic care.  Terrell Owens even flew his personal chiropractor to his training site to help him recover from his injury and prepare for the Super Bowl.

Lance Armstrong has won the premier Tour de France bike race seven years in a row.  Dr. Jeff Spencer, the chiropractor who traveled with Lance for years said, “My job with Lance and the team is to optimize the neuro-musculo-skeletal component of their training and, in the event of a crash, minimize down time and get them back in the race as quickly as possible.”

When speaking at the International Chiropractors Association’s 10th Annual Symposium on Natural Fitness in 2002, Arnold Schwarzenegger credited chiropractic care for helping him achieve success as a bodybuilder and maintain a rigorous filmmaking schedule, saying, “Chiropractic is about health and fitness.  Chiropractic is about natural, preventive health care.”

Dr. Robin Hunter, the official chiropractor for the 2002 U.S. Winter Olympic Team said, “The fundamental principles of our profession apply so well to athletics.  Correcting biomechanical faults and misalignments, and treating injuries with hands-on work, so that the athletes can return to play faster and better, is what sports chiropractic care is all about.”

A study conducted by the New Zealand School of Chiropractic at the University of Auckland confirmed the performance improving aspect of chiropractic care.  Volunteers who received cervical (neck) adjustments improved their reaction time by nearly 15% while those who rested instead improved their reaction time by only 8%.  This substantial difference occurred because chiropractic adjustments remove interference to the nervous system, optimizing communication between the brain and body to reduce reaction time.

Just think about how improved reaction times can benefit you.  A few milli-seconds can make the difference for you achieving your personal and athletic goals, as well as everyday situations such as slamming on the brakes in traffic to avoid an accident.  So be sure to optimize your performance with chiropractic and keep your spine and nerve system healthy for a lifetime.

Source: Dr. Eric Plasker

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?

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.

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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]

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