Chiropractic Treatment For Athletes: Why Professional Athletes Use Chiro

Did you know that many professional sports teams have chiropractors on staff? Sports chiropractic is a specific subset of general chiropractic care. Read on as a local Burnsville, MN chiropractor discusses chiropractic care for athletes.

What Is The History Of Chiropractic Care In Sports?

The risk of injury is an ongoing concern for athletes, particularly those who are involved in contact sports, such as soccer, football, and hockey. Chiropractic care has proven to be extremely helpful in both preventing and treating many of the musculoskeletal injuries that pro athletes often sustain.

Chiropractic Care In Football

Here in America, every single team in the NFL has a chiropractor, under the oversight of the Professional Football Chiropractors Society, or the PFCS, for short.  The PFCS team chiros usually provide between 30 and 50 weekly treatment sessions when the team is in season. That totals up to about 28,880 adjustments in football season, which is about four months.

Chiropractic Care In Hockey

Hockey is another close contact sport, and is likely tied with football and rugby for being the most intense and, well, rough on the body. Hockey also has its own chiropractic organization, the Professional Hockey Chiropractors Association, or the PHCA. The group includes not just chiropractors for the NHL, but also several other professional hockey leagues, such as the ECHL (East Coast Hockey League) and the SPHL (Southern Professional Hockey League).

Chiropractic treatment was first introduced to professional hockey leagues in 1996, when Dr. Alan Palmer began treating players from the Phoenix Coyotes. Palmer then went on to found the Chiropractic Association for the Elite and Professional Athlete (CEPA). This was done in collaboration with the head trainer for the San Francisco Giants. There were three goals:

• To develop a professional network of chiropractors for sports teams to work with, both at home and on the road.
• To provide further specialized training for chiropractors who wanted to work with athletes.
• To help chiropractors learn the ins and outs of working with professional sports teams, including working with team doctors, trainers, and therapists, so the overall approach was coordinated and cohesive.

Do Athletes Go To Chiropractors?

Very much. Although every sport is unique and requires a slightly different skill set, the types of injuries often seen in athletes are often musculoskeletal, and may benefit from chiropractic treatment. 

Here are a few stats: 

• In the 2014-2015 season, every single NFL team had a team chiropractor.
• 30 of the major league baseball teams had official team chiropractors
• A 2006 study of NCAA college athletes revealed that 39% of respondents had sought chiropractic treatment within the past year. 
• During the 2017 World Games in Wroclaw, Poland, 16 percent of the athletes received chiropractic treatment. (It’s worth noting that the World Games includes non-contact sports, such as archery, billiards, and canoe polo. These are less likely to result in the type of musculoskeletal issues that benefit from chiropractic treatments than contact sports, such as football and soccer.)
• Official chiropractors accompanied the U.S. Olympics teams to several Olympics games. 
• Chiropractors first started treating Olympic athletes at the 1976 games, which took place in Montreal. 
• The first chiropractor to be officially appointed to a U.S. team was George Goodheart, who accompanied the U.S. team during the Winter Games in Lake Placid, NY.
• Costa Rica’s Life University opened a 4500sf chiropractic center in the country’s Olympic Committee Compound, specifically to service athletes.
• According to the American Chiropractic Association, about 90% of pro athletes use chiropractic care. 
• Many professional athletes have spoken publicly about their use of chiropractors. That list includes such star players as Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, and Venus Williams.

In addition to the team-provided chiropractors, many athletes also hire their own chiropractors.

Joseph Horrigan, DC, Diplomate of the American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians, explained it fairly clearly in a 2022 interview with Southern California University Of Health Sciences, stating that: “Education and training in chiropractic sports medicine is mandatory to understand the many parameters of the sport, injury patterns, physiology and biomechanics of the sport, environmental factors, nutrition, and sports psychology.” 

What Credentials Do Sports Chiropractors Need?

Generally, chiropractors that specialize in sports chiropractic must complete post-graduate studies, and will typically have a diploma or certificate granted by an accredited agency. To be affiliated with a specific team, chiropractors must also pass that team or league’s vetting standards. 

Contact your Burnsville, MN chiropractor for more information.

What Are The Benefits Of Chiropractic Care For Athletes?

Chiropractic treatment can be extremely beneficial for athletes. Those benefits can be loosely grouped into three categories: healing from injury, preventing injury, and improving performance.

Here are a few examples of each:

Healing From Injury: Chiropractic treatments can help athletes recover from a variety of injuries, helping the athlete get back onto their respective field, slope, or rink as soon as possible. As with all injuries, proper treatment during the healing process often reduces the likelihood of the injury recurring. 

Some of the issues sports chiropractic can treat include the following:

• Sprains and Strains
• Knee Injuries
• Shoulder problem
• Back pain
• Neck pain
• Sciatica
• Shin splints
• Tendinopathy
• Tennis elbow
• Sprained ankle
• Back injuries
• Groin injuries
• Repetitive strain injury
• Plantar fasciitis
• Disc herniation
• Joint dislocation
• Golfer’s elbow
• Inflammation
• Muscle strain

What Are The Findings Of Chiropractic And Sports Performance Research?

Several studies have been done on the benefits and effectiveness of chiropractic care in treating athletes. 

Chiropractic Treatment May Help Prevent Injuries

Chiropractic care isn’t restricted to healing from injuries. It can also help prevent them! 

Here are a few of the ways it can help:

• Realigning The Spine
• Improving Strength And Flexibility 
• Correcting Misalignments
• Improving Range Of Motion
• Improving Posture
• Reducing Pain

Ask your Burnsville, MN chiropractor for more information about how chiropractic treatments can help prevent sports injuries. 

Chiropractic Care Helps Improve Performance

The data on this is compelling enough to make any athlete take notice. 

• One study showed athletes had a 6.12% performance increase after receiving chiropractic treatment.
• A separate study by Palmer College of Chiropractic found that athletes experienced a whopping 30% improvement in hand-eye coordination after 3 months of chiropractic care.
• A 2023 study found that “In addition to treating existing injuries, chiropractic care plays a crucial role in injury prevention, biomechanical optimization, and long-term physical maintenance for athletes. It has been demonstrated that chiropractic interventions, such as spinal manipulation and soft tissue therapies, are effective in the prevention and treatment of sports-related injuries, such as muscle strains and joint sprains.”

Of course, one doesn’t have to be a professional athlete to benefit from chiropractic treatments. Thousands of people seek treatment every day for various reasons, including neck and back injuries, pain relief, and a myriad of other issues.

Conclusion: Chiropractic care has been used by athletes for decades to help prevent injuries, recover from injuries, and improve performance overall. The practice has proven so beneficial that it is now fairly standard for professional sports teams to employ official chiropractors. 

Make An Appointment At Our Burnsville, MN Chiropractic Office

Are you interested in learning more about chiropractic treatment? Are you an athlete, or perhaps the parent of an athlete, who is looking to prevent injuries and improve performance? Please feel free to contact us here at Amesbarry Chiropractic, your Burnsville, MN chiropractic care center, anytime. We always have your back!