Here we go again…another season of working out, preparing for sports, pursuing dreams of glory. Pumping iron, training your muscles, fine tuning your nervous system…. WAIT A MINUTE?! Who said anything about fine tuning your nervous system?
I did. Me and thousands of professional athletes who know what chiropractic can do for you. It can be used to bring you up to your best ability, and to help you heal faster after the injuries. Tom Brady swears by it. Joe Montana said it kept him in the game. Gretzky, Jordan, McGuire, Holyfield, Adrian Peterson…many of the greats know it and use it. But those are the pros. What about here in Fairmont?
Overcoming Sports Injuries
Looking back, the 2013-2014 season was a tough one for many Cardinal sports. A season marked by close games and a lot of “if only”s. Many of our best athletes were injured and just never came back, or came back at less than 100%. And I will stand by this next statement 1000%. If those athletes would have pursued chiropractic care by a doctor of chiropractic experienced in treating sports injuries and athletes, many of those outcomes would have changed.
Sports Performance Training, Nutrition, and Injury
These days, sports are almost as much a part of life as breathing and eating. Sports help kids of all ages with coordination, social skills, and most importantly, help keep them off the couch and in shape. Sports give kids great role models, someone to look up to, and something to strive for and work towards. An important aspect, often overlooked, is that involvement in sports help kids get used to victory and defeat, before entering the professional world. The difference between sports can be immense (i.e. – football and ping pong) or subtle (i.e. – baseball and cricket), but there is one common factor between all sports: and that is top athletes strive for perfection in their sport, and do what they can physically, mentally, and emotionally, to get to the top.
Performance
Sport performance is the biggest and “most important” aspect to an athlete. That’s easy to see, since someone who isn’t in very good shape probably won’t do very well. Sport performance is an intricate mixture of muscular function and coordination, how well the athlete handles themselves emotionally, and how well they have prepared themselves through training and practicing.
Nutrition
Olympic athletes can play like amateurs if they don’t keep up proper nutrition. The most important nutritional program depends mostly on what sport one plays. Unless one aspect is focused on much more than others (such as building muscle mass in a weightlifter, where a more protein-rich diet may be beneficial), sticking to the three main groups (carbohydrates, fats, and proteins) will provide more than enough nutrients to get you through your activity and help rebuild muscle and restore energy afterwards.
As far as “when to eat what,” there are so many different opinions on what is right for what sport, and what is myth and what is fact, that we won’t even go that far into the details. Just know that for athletes of any kind, nutrition is vital to peak performance, and more importantly, peak recovery. Let’s take a look at what an athlete should be eating.
Sports Injuries
Injury is one of the most important parts of sports. Every sport has injuries, whether it’s a concussion in football or shin splints in cross country, and they all need to be dealt with. Medical doctors will tell you to take pills to relieve the pain, or maybe even surgery to cure the symptoms. Read that last sentence again, they are looking to relieve pain and symptoms. Chiropractic looks to deal with the cause of the pain and symptoms, and treat it accordingly.