Increasing Sports Performance with Chiropractic

We treat many athletes in our Depew, NY clinic, because chiropractic is a great way to increase recovery times and enhance performance. Almost every professional athlete uses chiropractic care to keep themselves running at maximum efficiency, and the US Olympic Team has an entire crew of chiropractors for their athletes.

In a 2011 study, researchers evaluated the results of chiropractic treatments on 18 professional judo athletes in Brazil. Half of the athletes received chiropractic adjustments of their cervical spine. The other 50% got a fake treatment. Since judo heavily relies on the arms and hands, researchers assessed athletes' grip strength with a device that calculates muscle force.

After 3 treatments, those in the chiropractic group had significantly increased grip strength. While the chiropractic group boosted their grip intensity by about 15%, the athletes in the placebo treatment group had only improved by about 5%. The study came to the conclusion that chiropractic enhanced grip strength in these athletes.

While more research is required to understand all the advantages of chiropractic on athletic performance, this study is promising. A 2010 study revealed that chiropractic care lessened the danger of lower-limb injury in football players. Regardless of whether you’re trying to heal from an injury or you’re just looking to augment your performance, Dr. Palmer can help you be your best.

Give our Depew, NY office a call today at (716) 668-2225 for an appointment.

Botelho MB, Andrade BB. Effect of Cervical Spine Manipulative Therapy on Judo Athletes' Grip Strength. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapies. 2011; 35(11):38-44.

Hoskins W, Pollard H. The effect of a sports chiropractic manual therapy intervention on the prevention of back pain, hamstring and lower limb injuries in semi-elite Australian Rules footballers: a randomized control trial. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2010;11:64.