What's the Difference?! Sports Chiropractic vs. Traditional Chiropractic
“We’re not better - we’re just different.”
I struggled to find the most precise way to illustrate the difference between what we do and what a “normal chiropractor” does until I had a phone call today with a potential patient and the phrase above just came out of my mouth without thinking.
Before I go any further it’s imperative to state that there’s NOTHING wrong with a typical 2-7 minute treatment consisting of a few targeted adjustments. Heck, a lot of people get great results from that. But what happens if they don’t? That’s where the providers here at Minnesota Movement thrive.
As Sports Chiropractors we work to solve the puzzle of WHY you’re feeling the way you’re feeling. This means a more thorough assessment as well as more thorough treatment. It doesn’t stop there. The person who has the most control of the situation is the patient - so we expect them to do some work as well in-between sessions.
To break this down we can look at all three separately..
Assessment:
Let’s say you’ve been struggling with this right shoulder pain on and off for the last 4 years of joining a CrossFit Box. Why would we ever look at your left Glute? Well of course we would start by assessing how your shoulder is moving/feeling/engaging but what if we find nothing major there? That’s where we take a peek at the whole body to see how the system is moving as a sum of all the parts. If your left glute isn’t doing it’s job, we could be compensating along a traceable myofascial line all the way across the body to the opposite shoulder. Think about a golf swing or throwing a ball. The opposite shoulder to hip have a lot of interaction and we need to assess that relationship.
Treatment:
Sure, our treatment interventions will utilize a Chiropractic Adjustment if warranted to provide mobility or pain relief. But as previous blog posts have brought up, we are a neuromusculoskeletal thing. Nerves tell muscles to fire or relax. Muscles move bones. Bones give us structure to move as levers. We must focus on all three with our treatment. This means we get to use modalities such as kinesiology tape, Graston/IASTM, Active Release Technique, NormaTec Recovery Boots, Cupping Therapy, Red Light Therapy, and Vibration. All of these have their place and knowing when to utilize one vs. the other is where we get to help you back to 100% faster.
Home Programming:
Quite possibly the biggest difference of a Sports Chiropractor vs. any other Chiropractor is the rehabilitation and Corrective Exercises. Sure, you might have been handed a xeroxed sheet of run-of-the-mill stretches from the 1990’s from another provider. But is that specific to what you need? Is it challenging enough? Does it fit your goals? These are the things we target with your movement. Not only showing you the proper form and feel of a movement, but educating the client as to why we need this for their system to function optimally. These movements we give you as ‘homework’ of sorts. If done properly (almost like a prescription with a specific dose) the idea is that we build a more mobile/stable person and this is what ‘fixes’ the issue. So yes, there is some ownership on the patient.
Maybe you’ve found yourself thinking “but I’m not an athlete” or “I don’t do sports” Well, It’s not just for athletes. It’s movement. Something we all do. Heck, if you pooped today you did an air squat. That’s great! Yes, we get to work with some awesome athletes but in our minds everyone is an athlete!