LEARNING

The Athlete’s Choice for Sports Care

Many amateur and professional athletes are sidelined with injuries that could be avoided. Others sit it out on the bench because their injury has not responded to ordinary treatment. Still others are playing at less than peak efficiency simply because their structural system is not in balance. Progressive coaches, athletes, and doctors are realizing that pain killing drugs are not the answer. They merely cover up the symptoms, deceiving the athlete into actions which could make the injury more serious.

Chiropractic’s approach to health, probably more than any other health profession, closely relates to the needs of the sports participant. Most sports involve body contact, fast starts and stops, and positioning that places an unusual amount of strain on the back and structural system. Doctors of Chiropractic consider a person as an integrated being, giving special attention to the spine, joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments, and nerves. Chiropractic is a natural health care method that stresses the importance of keeping all the systems of the body functioning efficiently so the player enjoys peak performance, a minimum injury risk, and fast recuperative powers. Many world class and Olympic athletes, as well as professional stars and teams, have retained sports chiropractors to provide care. Lance Arm Strong, Tiger Woods, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Joe Montana, Nolan Ryan, Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jubbar, and Carl Lewis all utilize chiropractic care. The Players Association of the NFL has officially incorporated sports chiropractors as a regular part of care. Chiropractors have been selected as attending doctors at the Olympic Games and at national and world championships in track and field, cycling, volleyball, power-lifting, aerobics, and triathlons.

The beauty of chiropractic is that it is not only drug-free and surgery free care, but also preventative and performance enhancing care. Maintaining proper alignment will allow athletes to be prepared for their sport. Many of the greatest athletes in the world are adjusted before competition as a “tune-up” in an effort to place their bodies in a state of peak efficiency. Following competition, they are adjusted to enhance the recuperative process after the stress of their particular event. When asked about chiropractic’s effectiveness, Roger Craig, formerly of the San Francisco 49’ers, stated, “We won four Super Bowls in the 1980’s with it, so it must be doing something right!”

Coaches Corner – Wrestling

Even though information abounds on diet and nutrition, many times athletes and coaches miss the mark on putting this information to practical use. Nutrition combined with proper training makes a difference in performance. This is especially true in wrestling. Wrestlers often lose weight to get to a weight class that they feel is ideal or necessary to make the team. Too often wrestlers lose weight by sacrificing muscle and end up weak and burned out at the end of the season.

I encourage wrestlers and their parents to use the knowledge of the doctors at Holmes Spine and Sport and set up an appointment to have a specific weight loss program designed with the wrestler in mind.