Chiropractic and Young Athletes

Ally Hajduk, age 14, said,
“Dancing can be hard on your body, especially when you’re preparing for a performance and dancing up to six days per week. When my knee started to hurt, chiropractic treatment was a great complement to my physical therapy. I was pain free in a short period of time and have avoided injury for almost a year!”

Billy Sink, age 16, said,
“I play at a very high and demanding level of soccer and it puts your body through a lot. Going to the chiropractor has helped me stay in line and relieves a lot of stress throughout my body.”

Have you ever gotten injured playing sports?  Hurts pretty bad, right?  Young athletes get injured as well but we assume they are OK because kids bounce back from injuries much quicker than adults.  It is important for young athletes to get “checked out” after a sports injury as well as a playground injury.

Headaches, low back pain, shoulder, knee, ankle injuries and even broken bones do not manifest the same as adults.

Here are 5 reasons to get your young athlete or child checked out at Vanderbilt Chiropractic

1. Dysfunctional movement patterns – When you have an injured joint or muscle your body compensates for that injury.  An awkward movement pattern leads to wear and tear on the body that can lead to early onset arthritis.
2. Pain is the last symptom to show up, and the first thing to go away. This means that the dysfunction is there before the pain shows up, unless it was a traumatic injury, and the condition can be pain free even if the dysfunction is there.
3. Kids don’t always complain.  It can be confusing to a child who doesn’t understand what is going on.  They may think it is more important to play then to possibly be taken out of the activity. Having pain does not mean they need to be benched.
4. It keeps them at their optimum performance. Take a high school football quarterback for example.  If he has an irregular movement pattern in his shoulder or elbow, then he won’t be able to throw as far.
5. Increasing frequency and intensity to become more competitive. This can help your child transition from a recreational league to a more competitive league.

Remember your young athlete is not a mini adult athlete. Girls grow until about the age of 18 and boys until about age 21. This means they still have a lot of cartilage and growth plates in their bones and not all their bones fused together either. It is important to have your child checked out regularly and especially during an injury.  Chiropractic can help sprains and strains.

Many sports do not have an “off season” such as soccer, baseball, swimming, dance etc. It is important that your young athlete have a few months break from his/her sport to allow the body time to heal and regenerate. Even if they change the sport they are active in for a time it would help. Even professional athletes have “off seasons” for this purpose.

It is  recommended that before your child begins their sport season to have a chiropractic adjustment to make sure they are starting off in good shape and hopefully this will help avoid injuries and also could improve their performance overall.