Did you get hurt playing sports or was it just an old injury coming back? How many times have you googled a “sports doctor” looking to find treatment? If you spent time searching, you likely know what’s hot, what’s not, and are likely looking into treatment options and specific techniques and skills used by the doctor who claim they treat sports injuries!
What are sports injuries and how they occur?
If you think sports injuries are injuries sustained by just playing sports alone, you are wrong. Many of us have these injuries and they are actually typically are repetitive strain injuries. This is essentially when a person does an activity or movement over and over again to a point where the tendon, muscle, ligament has either become inflamed and/or sustained some sort of microdamage. In addition to this, posture affects the function of our body and poor posture can increase the intensity of our microtrauma, resulting in an injury.
Injuries within sports are mostly repetitive in nature, however, they can also be traumatic where a sprinter sprains “rolls” their ankle, a football player takes a big hit, a cyclist falls off the bike and lands on there wrist, elbow, or shoulder. You get the point by now, so what can you do to avoid these injuries and treat them?
Prevention is key
Cross Training – I don’t know of any single better way to keep yourself active and fit while reducing the risk of injury. Cross training is essentially playing a sport or doing another activity other than the activity you do frequently. So for someone to be a boxer, you may want to play touch football or basketball. Cross training gives you the opportunity to heal certain areas of the body by avoiding repetitive use or overuse injuries.
Active Rest – Again, staying active is essential but resting is important too! Take a walk, do some yoga, or even a light jog. Active rest means that you are staying active but doing a lower level activity to allow the body to heal.
Supplementation – There are very few athletes out there who don’t take some sort of supplement to aid in there recovery or training! I recommend you look into high quality supplements. They are not regulated by the FDA so with vitamins, you pay for what you get!
Posture and Soft Tissue – Keeping a good symmetrical alignment is important to keep a well balanced body and treating the soft tissue is not only is helpful in this regard, but think of all the muscle damage and lactic acid that builds up as a result of training. Having someone work on your muscles can keep you healthy both in the short and long term.
So What to look for when finding a Qualified Practitioner?
Making sure a doctor of Chiropractic is qualified to treat your injuries is important! Too many individuals market themselves as a sports Chiropractor or that treat sports injuries when in fact they do not! Look for specific certifications or credentials such as the following;
ART – Active Release Technique
Graston Technique
Kinesiology or Kinesiology taping
CSCS – Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist
CCSP – Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician/Practitioner
DACBSP – Diplomate of American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians
ACRB – American Chiropractic Rehabilitation Board
NKT – Neurokinetic Therapy
FMS – Function Movement Screening
These are some of the primary credentials you should look for when you see a doctor of Chiropractic for sports injuries. The CCSP, DACBSP, ACRB are really the ones who have done a series of classes and had to pass a board examination (and DACBSP had to do a bit more!) in order to become a sports Chiropractor. When all said and done, these are NOT weekend courses and these credentials supersede the others.
Do you have a sports injury or have trouble finding a qualified professional to treat them? Let us know, we have a whole network of doctors around the country!