Happy New Year! The new year is such an interesting time of year. People get the chance to really start over. We make resolutions, work toward new goals, and get to set a new perspective for our lives. For many people, it’s also a time to work toward better health. While this generally means extremely busy gyms for the months of January and February, this enthusiasm often wanes quickly. While hitting the gym is definitely one way to get a jump start on health, but I find that most people will stop sooner than expected with their goals/resolutions due to being in pain or not feeling comfortable they way their body moves. Getting chiropractic care can help ease this process by making sure the body is moving biomechanically sound and is quite effective at helping you move pain free, stay active and keep you on track with your goals and resolutions. Chiropractic adjustments remove restrictions from the vertebrae of the spine and other joints in the body. As the restrictions are removed, it can help to alleviate muscle tension and pain from various locations in the body. The relief may be felt in the back, neck, head, joints, or elsewhere. This can help to eliminate pain, improve mobility, and bring about a wealth of other benefits to the body and mind. Because movement and activity is easier, it becomes more enjoyable. This makes it much easier to build momentum and motivation to keep going. If you need a quick jump start for the new year, chiropractic care may be your best bet. Below is an analogy why chiropractic works so well for a health and active lifestyle.
Think of your body like a car. Where the muscles are the shock systems and the skeleton (joints/bones) is the frame of the car. The job of the shock system is to absorb any force that is required to not “bottom out” on the frame of the car. Example: when you go over a speed bump, the shocks in your car are supposed to absorb that force and prevent the frame from taking any damage. This is the same job of the muscles in the body. When you perform an action, whether it is playing sports or sitting at a desk for a job, the muscles should be working to absorb the weight and stresses so that you don’t ‘bottom out” or rest on the skeleton frame for an extended period of time. The ligaments (in-between bone to bone) are not meant to take the majority of the force, their job is to be the fail safe (like a backup parachute) when the primary shock system doesn’t work properly. The intervertebral discs (IVDs) and meniscus are there to be a cushion between joints and allow easier movement.
So when you are in pain or get hurt, for the most part, the main reason is that the muscles (shocks) didn’t respond fast enough or were too weak to prevent the injury. The sympathetic nervous system is the “Fight or Flight” mechanism of the body and when you get injured it turns on to try and protect the body from any further damage. In this process the brain will shutdown/activate/tighten any muscle it needs to, to prevent damage to the frame of the skeleton and more importantly the brain and spinal cord.
The only way to turn off this “Fight or Flight” mechanism is to fix (or strengthen) the system that failed in the first place. This is the same reasons out hear people say, “I get massages, go to the Chiropractor and/or stretch all the time and it seems to help but keeps coming back.” Or “I took (said extended period of time off) and it still didn’t help and I have the same pain!”
The key component that is missing from most therapy programs is the strengthening aspect. Yes, the pain might be in your knee but more and due to another muscle (say the hip, low back, calf, etc.) that failed and didn’t absorb the force to prevent the knee from getting injured. And the only way to tell the brain to turn off the protective mechanism and say “relax” is by strengthening whatever muscles (shocks) failed and caused the damage in the first place. A sports injury specialist (like a Sports Chiropractor) is trained to identify the muscle(s) that are weak and muscle imbalances to get your back to doing what you love as fast as possible.