SPORTS INJURY CLINIC

Chiropractor for sports injury in Parramatta and Strathfield. Former Olympic Chiropractor from the Sydney 2000 Games

Sports Injury Clinic Parramatta & Strathfield

If you’ve ever had a sports injury that stopped you from playing your favourite sport, you’ll know it’s not fun. Whether you play weekend sport socially or compete at the professional level, getting back in the game is the most important priority post injury.

Here at New World Chiro Parramatta & Strathfield, we often hear patients ask ‘can chiropractic help sports injury?’ The answer is yes.

Our clinic has a long history of helping patients improve their sporting performance as well as aiding their recovery after injury. Dr. Rosemarie Jabbour (Chiropractor) proudly worked as one of the Sydney Olympic Team chiropractors during the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

(02) 9687 4011 BOOK ONLINE

Why Choose Us?

We treat a wide variety of sporting injuries

Your recommendations may include several treatment options, helping you heal faster

Benefit from our 25+ year’s experience – you’re in good hands

Former Olympic chiropractor – Sydney 2000 games

Services can be claimed back on health funds

Read on to discover more about how chiropractors help treat sports injury!

sports-injury-clinic-sports-chiropractor

If you want to find out more about how chiropractors help with sports injury, the information below is for you. You can read about the many benefits of chiropractic for sports performance and the different treatment options often used.

Sports and Chiropractic?

Chiropractors who help treat sport injuries provide care, rehabilitation and performance optimisation for the neuromusculoskeletal system for athletes.

Both chiropractors and sports chiropractors often work on troublesome areas like the wrist, elbow, shoulder, hip, knee and ankle.

Depending on your injury and how you sustained it, we make recommendations on the types of therapy that may be required to help you not only feel better, but function better. We also aim to release tension from poor posture and so much more. That’s why chiropractic is great for sporting injuries and to maximise biomechanical performance.

There is a whole branch of chiropractic that focuses on offering effective treatment for the painful strains and sprains that come with a sports injury.

It’s common for many professional athletes to visit a chiropractor before a game to prep their joints and muscles and reduce the risk of injury.

At the 2009 world game, held in Kaohsiung, Republic of China, there were 1,514 chiropractic treatments to athletes and support staff 1.

Famous Athletes Who See a Chiropractor

There are many famous athletes and sports stars who regularly receive chiropractic care. Some of the more famous examples include:

Tiger Woods (golf)
Arnold Schwarzenegger (body building)
Jason Day (Australian golfer)
Lance Armstrong (cycling)
Matt Banting (Australian surfer)

They have all spoken on how chiropractic care has helped them in their careers.

Sports Treatments

Treatments are usually multi-modal and incorporate components of passive and active care to address both the acute inflammatory pain phase and the rehabilitation or prevention phase.

Chiropractic may help with the 3 P’s. That is:

Pain
Posture and
Performance

Generally speaking, chiropractic addresses the 3 P’s through the application of a combination of treatment and technique options including (but not limited to):

Chiropractic adjustments (manipulations and mobilisations)
Soft tissue therapy, massage and stretching techniques
Rehabilitation and therapeutic exercises
Overall biomechanical improvement (including orthotics)
Taping, strapping and bracing
Ice and heat therapies
Electrotherapeutics
Dry needling
Gait retraining
Nutrition
Footwear/ergonomic/training advice and
Exercise/cross training programs

We can discuss these with you (we don’t provide all these treatment options however) and may provide recommendations/referrals for treatment, as required.

Benefits of Chiropractic for Sports Performance

There are many ways chiropractic may help with sports injury. A great example of this is in hard-contact sports where recurrent painful conditions like shoulder instability are a real nuisance. That’s why many football teams, for example, have a chiropractor on staff.

Common benefits of chiropractic for sports injury include:

Prevention of injury in the first place
Enhanced performance by improving biomechanics and function
Ease muscle stiffness and pain
Increase flexibility and pain-free movement
Nutrition and dietary advice
Rehabilitation and performance optimisation of the neuromusculoskeletal system
Injuries are often examined from every possible angle to assess the best techniques to restore natural functionality and balance back to the body.

Chiropractic is a drugless, non-invasive and surgery free first line of treatment for many common sports injuries.

If chiropractic or other physical therapies aren’t suited to treating a specific injury, patients may be referred to other healthcare practitioners more suited to addressing the injury in question.

Chiropractic and Soft Tissue

Some chiropractors treat soft tissue in addition to adjusting the spine and other joints. Soft tissue therapy is often used to help with pain and whole muscular-spinal health. The soft tissues in our body include muscles, ligaments, tendons and other connective tissue such as fascia. These tissues can be quite sensitive and when put under pressure/stress, injured or subjected to repetitive movements, may lead to feelings of pain and reduced range of motion.

Soft tissue therapy involves direct physical action on the muscle and other soft tissues of your body. Remedial massage is the best known example of soft tissue therapy.

What Sports Injuries Can Chiropractic Help?

Chiropractors may be able to assist in treating acute, subacute or chronic sports injury, depending on the type of injury and treatment requirements.

Common types of injuries include:

Back, hip and leg pain
Muscle strain and tightness
Postural misalignments
Disc injury
Soft tissue injury
Ankle and knee injury

Chiropractic aims to identify the underlying cause of any problem. We don’t want to just treat your symptoms. Rather we want to address the cause. Otherwise your pain may come back.

That’s how chiropractic is different to western medicine. We take a whole of body approach to musculoskeletal health challenges.

We profile the most common sporting injuries treated in clinic below.

Knee Injury

CHIROPRACTIC FOR KNEE INJURY: PATELLOFEMORAL SYNDROME

One of the most common sources of knee pain arises from the kneecap or patella. Patella related pain may also be called patello-femoral pain, patella tracking problem or chondromalacia patellae.

The pain is caused by injury and inflammation of the joint-cartilage covering the kneecap on the inside (behind the kneecap) and the thigh-bone (femur). It’s commonly caused by repetitive movements, running, increased activity, direct injury and/or associated joint dysfunction.

It’s a common injury in runners (runners’ knee) and footballers, but may affect anybody.

Common symptoms of patellofemoral syndrome:

Knee pain (inside, back and front of knee)
The pain gets worse when weight is placed on the leg
Activities that may bring on knee pain include walking up or down stairs, kneeling, squatting, or prolonged sitting with bent knees
A feeling that your knees may give way
Swelling
Restricted movement
It may affect people of all ages but tends to be more common with age

How may chiropractic help knee pain?

We’ll examine your knee, spine, pelvis and lower limbs. Your examination will look at your overall alignment, including your feet and if there is a need for orthotics. Chiropractic may be used to target areas of restricted movement in and around the knee to improve function. We may also recommend rehabilitation exercises, knee bracing, taping or ice therapy.

Hamstring Injury

CHIROPRACTIC FOR HAMSTRING INJURY

A hamstring injury, one of the most common muscle injuries, refers to a strain or tear to the tendons or large muscles at the back of the thigh. Common causes of injury or pain include running, strenuous movements and degenerative postures over time. Hamstring injuries commonly affect runners, skaters, football, rugby, and basketball players.

There may also be a nervous system component to hamstring injuries. The sacral plexus, a nerve plexus that provides motor and sensory nerves for the posterior thigh, exits the lower spinal cord. From here, it supplies the muscles, joints, bones, ligaments and other structures of the leg, including the hamstring, with nerve supply. Nervous system irritation at this level may change the way your hamstrings fire, making you more susceptible to a hamstring injury.

How may chiropractic help hamstring injury?

Chiropractic for hamstring injuries may include adjustments to address tightness in surrounding joints (lower back and hips), muscle work to release tight muscles and break up scar tissue, and stretches to increase flexibility.

We may also check to see if you have other muscular or postural imbalances that may make you more prone to hamstring injury.

Ballerinas and Dancers

Chiropractic for Ballerinas and Dancers

Our clinic often helps ballerinas and dancers to overcome musculoskeletal imbalances, using chiropractic or massage. Some of the common injuries we see include:

Neck injuries (often presenting as a headache)
Temporomandibular joint (jaw or TMJ pain)
Injuries from a chin stand
Ankle injuries from a bad landing
Wrist injuries from a lift
General wear and tear to the spine and joints

Dancers injuries may or may not be isolated to a single body part. An injury in one place, though, may result in a change to biomechanics thus impacting overall performance. A holistic approach is often best in these cases, and different health practitioners may work together to provide better treatment outcomes.

Lower Back Pain

Chiropractic for Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain is a very broad category of injury and may arise from a sporting injury or something else. Up to 80% of the community will experience lower back pain at some point in their lives².

Common causes of sports related acute lower back pain include:

Sudden injury to the muscles and ligaments supporting the back
Muscle spasms or a strain or tear in the muscles and ligaments
Spinal disc injury
Compression fractures
Sciatica (nerve pain)

For active sports people, they rely on the components of their back to work together in harmony. Traumatic injury may cause the spine to become overly compressed, leading to a disc injury and excess pressure being placed on surrounding nerves.

While lower back pain is common, the diagnosis of the cause of back pain is specific to your case. Subsequent treatment, if required, often varies from case to case.

Tennis/Golfers Elbow

Chiropractic for Tennis/Golfers Elbow

Tennis elbow, also called lateral epicondylitis, refers to pain on the outside of the arm, where your forearm meets your elbow. It’s generally called tennis elbow however can affect anyone who performs repetitive movements with their arms, regardless of whether they play tennis or not.

When your arm is used constantly, the tendons at the elbow (the extensor carpi radialis brevis muscle) may develop small tears. The more you use your arm, the worse the condition may get.

Additionally, postural imbalances around your shoulders and upper back may contribute to pain around your elbow or down your arms.

Chiropractors may review your movements patterns, ergonomics and posture to determine if changes in these areas may alleviate pain and inflammation.

Tennis/golfers elbow may be treated with exercise and manual therapies.

Shin Splints

Chiropractic and Shin Splints

What are shin splints?

Shin splints are caused by stress on your shinbone and surrounding tissues that attach muscles to your bones. Problems in this area may result in inflammation and pain.\

Shin splints may develop as a result of:

Flat feet – losing arch support (overpronation)
Poorly fitting shoes that lack good support
Playing sport without warming up or cooling down properly (making you more prone to injury)
Weak ankles, hips, or core muscles

Can chiropractors treat shin splints?

In some cases, yes.

We may address issues in your legs or the way you move that could cause the problem. Postural imbalances from your hips may contribute to pain or dysfunction in other areas, like your shins. You may also benefit from custom made orthotics to support your natural arch under foot. We may help ease the pain and guide your return to sport.

Importantly, we want to rule out a stress fracture – tiny cracks in your tibia.

Gym Injuries

Workout and Gym Injuries

A gym injury can happen to anyone, no matter how experienced or fit you are.

As chiropractors, we want to assess your overall posture and look for any underlying issues that may increase your risk of sustaining an injury in the gym.

Commonly observed postures to watch for include forward head posture, uneven or lop-sided shoulders, exaggerated lower back curves and knobbly knees.

We’ll look at your spine to see how exaggerated spinal curves may increase the pressure on discs, joints, spinal nerves, ligaments and muscles. Incorrect posture often leads to changes in your natural spinal curves, resulting in different stresses by changing the center of gravity.

Now when you work out at the gym and place your muscles under weighted load, biomechanical imbalances may result in many possible problems and injuries.

For example, if you want to achieve a bigger chest but struggle with chest exercises like the seated chest-press or free weights, the reason may be caused by a stooped thoracic spine or concaved chest. Trying to work out with underlying postural problems increases the likelihood you’ll sustain an injury.

Take Action Today

All in all, sports injury management with chiropractic is a non-invasive form of treatment which may help athletes to restore their body’s strength after an injury, address pain and improve biomechanics. This helps to get you back in the game!

Each week, over 200,000 Australians regularly visit their local chiropractor

Chiropractic commonly helps many musculoskeletal issues…let’s work together to address your concern. The team here at New World Chiro is ready to help you. To book a chiropractic consultation at New World Chiro please phone or email today. We have a New Patient Consultation to get you started with chiropractic.

Commonly Treated Symptoms

Our clinic commonly helps the following challenges:

Scoliosis

Lower Back Pain

Headaches and Migraines

Neck Pain

Sciatica

References

J Manipulative PhysiolTher. 2011 Jan;34(1):54-61. doi: 10.1016/j.jmpt.2010.11.003. A report of the 2009 World Games injury surveillance of individuals who voluntarily used the International Federation of Sports Chiropractic delegation. Nook DD, Nook BC.
New Zealand Study on Chiropractic 1978.

SPORTS INJURY CLINIC

Chiropractor for sports injury in Parramatta and Strathfield. Former Olympic Chiropractor from the Sydney 2000 Games