By Narda Sigala
Chiropractic Care for Athletes
When it comes to being a professional athlete, many people will think that the training is where the magic happens and what happens in the training room is what sets you up for success.
However, many athletes believe that recovery is the key ingredient to maintaining health, preventing athletic injuries and sustaining peak performance. According to the American Chiropractic Association, about 90% of professional and world class level athletes see the benefits of chiropractic care and use it for enhancing performance and preventing future injuries.
An Athlete’s Testimonial
In this blog, we will be speaking with Macy Tarlton, a professional bobsledder on Team USA, about how chiropractic care has impacted and improved her athletic performance. As a professional athlete herself, she shares her perspective on the importance of choosing the right team for your recovery.
The Importance of Choosing the Right Team
Many people believe that chiropractors are for adjustments and adjustments only. While spinal adjustments are a huge part of chiropractic treatment, it is incredibly important for athletes to have a sports knowledgeable chiropractor on their team of healthcare providers.
“When I was growing up in sports, I was used to seeing chiropractors or physical therapists. I had always done sports so it was a natural thing,” says Macy Tarlton, a professional bobsledder on Team USA. “It wasn’t until my early 20’s though, that I realized the true importance of having the right team of healthcare providers that would be able to keep me at the top of my game”
For athletes at all levels, it is incredibly important to pick a team of healthcare professionals that you can rely on and trust that they will continue to help you grow as an athlete.
Growing Up as an Athlete
Growing up Macy was involved in sports and had been an athlete her whole life, she had a strong background in Olympic Weightlifting prior to finding her passion for bobsledding. She has won 2 gold medals for Olympic Weightlifting at the National level. She continues to use her background in weightlifting to continue to build strength and maintain mobility in her new sport.
“There are a ton of chiropractors out there and they all have their own specialties, so when I found Dr. Addison, a chiropractor who specializes in sports chiropractic and is knowledgeable on injury prevention, it felt like a no brainer to make sure I had him on my team of providers,” says Tarlton.
When you’re an athlete at the top of your game, you need to make sure your providers are at the top of theirs!
Revamping Your Team
As an experienced athlete trying to enter the world of bobsledding, she felt unprepared for what the training demanded of Tarlton. Going from being an olympic lifter to a bobsledder, injuries like peroneal or foot tendonitis and constant knots in the calves muscles were a brand new obstacle for her. This was one of the biggest reasons that pushed her to revamp her team of healthcare professionals.
“One of the reasons why Addison Chiropractic and Sports Clinic was great, because of how many different therapy modalities are available. I also didn’t see too many providers that had all this knowledge about sports medicine and injury prevention like Dr. Addison,” says Tarlton.
Dr. Addison’s knowledge of sports medicine and Tarlton’s athletic intelligence, created a perfect team to be able to keep her in top shape in order to compete at the best of her ability for Team USA.
“He would be like ‘Let’s look through the whole kinetic chain and make sure every part is working as a whole instead of waiting for different injuries to surface’, and that changed my expectations because now it was about constantly feeling my best on the track.”
The doctor and patient relationship is incredibly important when it comes to professional sports athletes. It is imperative to have a good sports chiropractor that will be able to not only assess an athlete as a whole, but also be able to treat them.
What is a Good Sports Chiropractor?
For many athletes, it is easy to see an injury for what it is and work on fixing that specific area. The difference at Addison Chiropractic and Sports Clinic (ACSC), is that our chiropractors look at the person as a whole. Professional athletes are consistently pushing their bodies to extremes and defying expectations, so it is important to have a chiropractor that understands the different connections throughout the body that could affect or improve athletic performance.
It is incredibly important for athletes at all levels to integrate chiropractic care into their training regimen to prevent sports related injuries. At Addison’s, we feel that all athletes are deserving of care that allows us to enhance their athletic ability and heal sports related injuries, regardless of what level they are at.
Aligning the Goals Between Patients and Chiropractors
Despite Tarlton having previous experience in the world of sports chiropractic care, she felt that the treatment at the clinic was unique in the way that they always backed her goals through chiropractic treatments. Whether Tarlton was coming in for a chiropractic adjustment, for soft tissue techniques, physical therapy or just a physical assessment, she was assured that her athletic performance was in top shape.
When Tarlton first started coming to ACSC, she was somebody that wasn’t a professional bobsledder yet, she was just getting started in the sport and trying to make Team USA. Her biggest goal leading into this new sport was to make the team. For Tarlton’s chiropractic journey though, making the team wasn’t the only goal. Her goal through chiropractic care was to be able to sustain health and prevent injuries through a whole season.
“That was always the goal, to be able to holistically stay healthy and that way if I did make the team, I could sustain that throughout the season and be at the top of my game at the same time,” says Tarlton.
When a professional athlete gets their eyes set on a goal, it is important that those goals are not only understood, but that they are supported through the right treatments.
Shifting Goals and Treatments
Once she completed her initial goal and made Team USA, she knew that her chiropractic journey would shift and the people at ACSC would continue to provide treatment and care with her goals in mind.
“Our races are won by tenths, hundreds and even thousandths of a second, so for me it is incredibly important to be able to communicate with a chiropractor who knows my goals,” says Tarlton. “I need a chiropractor that is able to give me the edge that could not only make or break a good race, but can also keep my body healthy in a holistic and consistent manner. “
Intentionality Behind Every Appointment
When it comes to being an athlete at a professional level, your priorities tend to adapt. The priorities go from being a part of the sport to having your whole life revolve around the sport. There is more care and thought put into your daily life than there previously had been.
For Tarlton, her focus shifted from being on the track to include intentionality behind her time before and after the track. As a professional athlete, her time spent before and after training sessions are an integral part of her overall health.
“It was always a top priority for me to be healthy and for the most part injury free. The great thing about the care at this clinic was that it was innovative and dedicated every time,” says Tarlton. “My treatments shifted with keeping my goals and current state in mind, even if it was me coming in once every two weeks, once a week or even twice a week.”
Trusting The Process
For athletes of all levels, there is both a mental and physical aspect to their sport. To do your best and continually push your athletic performance, there is a lot more mental energy involved than most people would think. Many say that competitive sports are actually closer to 75 to 85 percent more mental than they are physical.
For athletes, it is important to have good mental health and work on continuously working on it to be able to perform well. It is often a bad mental day or a rough mental spot that results in athletes getting in their heads and affects their overall performance. So to be sure of who is on your chiropractic team and have full trust that they have you healthy, allows for athletes to focus on what is important.
“Having the right chiropractic team allows me to be able to come in and express frustrations or be able to communicate that training isn’t the best right now, that my body is aching, that things are flaring up really badly or even just thoughts of I don’t know if my body is ready or right for the sport,” says Tarlton.
The Nervous System at Elite Levels
When it comes to both sports chiropractic and sports medicine, having trust in your team is important. Tarlton’s ability to confide in Dr. Addison allows him to be able to see the connections between her mental ability and her physical abilities. A big part of chiropractic education and sports medicine is understanding and being able to help the nervous system function in a way that allows for improved performance.
“The nervous system is such a huge part of all sports, but me specifically, I am such a fight or flight type of athlete,” says Tarlton. “That’s why it is always awesome to be able to come in and communicate everything and be able to reset that system or try a new therapy or modality that could be the missing piece.”
The Mental Benefits of Chiropractic Care
When providing chiropractic care for athletes, it is important to understand the perspective of athletes. A good professional athlete is an athlete that has fine tuned the way that their mind and body work together. They are able to get into the right headspace and achieve optimal performance.
“It is a huge factor for me to able to treat my body as a machine, and keep it pushing through tune ups, but I think being able to trust and believe that my chiropractic provider has me covered and my recovery works, has done such good for my mental aspect,” says Tarlton.
Due to her trust in Addison Chiropractic and Sports Clinic, she can continue to give her all on the track and trust that her healthcare professionals will keep her body going.
Addison’s Approach to Sports Performance
At Addison Chiropractic and Sports Clinic, we feel that the title of sports chiropractors is more than just healing sports injuries. It’s about using chiropractic care to enhance athletic performance.
The Physical Aspect of Athletic Performance
At the clinic, we take sports chiropractic seriously. By having an established patient-base of athletes at all levels and innovative care for the sports industry, we have various therapies and treatments to benefit all athletes. Seeing the athlete as a whole allows them to not only relieve pain, but also allows them to:
- provide physical therapy or soft tissue therapies
- prevent injuries and help injured athletes
- improve joint mobility and range of motion
- improve athletic ability
For any kind of athlete that is looking to recover from athletic injuries or an athlete looking to prevent sports injuries, we have a number of different therapies and treatments to help. As well as an expansive knowledge of sports chiropractic and sports medicine, we have many therapies such as:
- Deep Tissue Laser Therapy
- Shock Wave Therapy
- Ultrasound Therapy
- Frequency Specific Microcurrent Therapy
- Stem Therapy
- Cold Laser Therapy
The Mental Aspect of Athletic Performance
As stated previously in this blog, competitive sports have a very big mental aspect to them. For an athlete, being in a bad or low mental state could have a very detrimental affect on their sports performance. This puts them at a higher risk of obtaining a sports injury. As well as having a low mental state, this can cause unnecessary stress that can lead to a decrease in the quality of your physical activity.
When it comes to the neurological side of sports medicine, the chiropractors of Addison’s Sports Clinic have been using Frequency Specific Microcurrent (FSM) therapies to provide pain relief and provide injury recovery to athletes. However, the protocols are not just for physical injuries, they can also provide mental pain relief. Some examples of what FSM can treat in athletes seeking relief are:
- Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness
- Stress and Anxiety
- Sports Performance Anxiety
- Post Injury Anxiety
- Brain Fog
- And many other protocols provide a sense of relaxation, mental stability, and even confidence in a patient’s athletic performance.
Book An Appointment Today
At Addison Chiropractic and Sports Clinic, we have 2 knowledgeable sports chiropractors who are able to provide both relief to sports injuries and set you up to prevent future injuries. By both providing knowledgeable treatments and using innovative therapies, our chiropractors are able to provide holistic healing to athletes at all levels. Our understanding of sports chiropractic and sports medicine allows you to give your all to your sport and trust that we have got your back. Fill out the form below or call us at (678) 809-5773 to begin your healthiest sports journey today!
Narda Sigala is a journalist and photojournalist. Narda studied at Kennesaw State University and received her Bachelor of Science in Journalism and Emerging Media with a minor in Professional Writing. She is currently pursuing a Masters in Professional Writing and will be going into the Journalism Industry. When she is not writing, she can be found at the gym. She is a nationally ranked powerlifter and competes with Cherokee Barbell.