If you’ve made it this far already, there’s a high probability that you already know about CrossFit. The high-intensity workout regime that is a combination of core training, gymnastics, weightlifting, and cardio isn’t for the weak.
With some of the complicated and advanced techniques required to complete CrossFit training, the door opens up for the possibility of a plethora of injuries and issues happening to your body.
Some of the problems that could arise from high-intensity training include:
- Disc problems from repetition
- Pressure on the lumbar spine
- Sacrum issues
- Spinal misalignment
- Inflammation
Any of these can put you out of the game for anywhere from a short amount of time up to weeks or even months. It depends on your pain tolerance level and what you’re willing to work through. Even if you are as tough as nails, you shouldn’t be trying to complete these workout with underlying medical concerns.
What you should be doing is going to see a qualified chiropractor to find out what is causing the pain or discomfort. By identifying the root of the problem, he or she can start a proper treatment plan to get you back to feeling like a 100% athlete again in the shortest amount of time possible.
That’s a whole lot better than just ignoring the problem. It’s not going to go away. In fact, if you continue to try and do your workouts without treatment, you could cause yourself permanent damage.
What a Chiropractor Can Do To Help
Chiropractors are already educated and trained in the field of providing pain relief for their patients in areas of the back, neck, and pelvis. They know how to properly work within the neuromusculoskeletal system including the tendons, ligaments, muscles, bones, and nerves. Adjustments are made to relieve discomforts caused by disc problems, the spine being out of line, and a variety of other nerve issues. The range of people that they can treat on an individual basis varies greatly from one person to the next. Not all patients are going to have to same level of physical activity in their daily lives as someone that trains with CrossFit.
More than just understanding how to get relief for the everyday patient that walks through the door, doctors of chiropractic care can tailor the treatment plan to fit people that specifically do the high-intensity CrossFit workouts. It is going to require a chiropractor that has continued their education in treatments because those are the ones that know about the trending CrossFit workout and what it can do to the body.
Instead of handing out medication, telling you to quit working out, or suggesting a surgery that would put you out for several weeks or even months, chiropractors take a less invasive approach to healing your tired body. You will get the adjustments you need to get your body in line, and your chiropractor will advise you on what movements you should be avoiding until things heal up properly. That doesn’t mean you won’t ever be able to do those parts of the routine every again. You just have to give your body a break sometimes to heal before blasting it with more work.
You will have a better understanding of what’s happening inside of your body where you can’t visually see it after visiting a chiropractor. He or she will also tell you if there are any modifications that you should be making to your routine to correct existing problems or prevent future ones from occurring.
Getting a Better Crossfit Workout
When your body is suffering from injury or discomforts either related to your workout regime or otherwise, you aren’t going to be able to perform as well as you would like to. You first need to get these problems cleared up, and then you can get back to your desired level of intensity. A chiropractor knows the adjustments necessary to put you on the path to optimal CrossFit completion in no time.
Overall Enhancements in Athletic Abilities
It’s no secret that CrossFit requires the combined use of the nervous and brain system to complete the workout correctly. Basically, your brain is sending a message to your nervous system to carry out the various moves associated with your fitness plan. It doesn’t necessarily matter how much strength you have in your muscles. It matters more how well this communication within your body happens.
Chiropractic care can help by improving the activation of these muscles through treatment of the nervous system. Adjustments are made to ensure the nerves that are required to send and receive these messages are operating at full functionality. That is how you get to those peak performance levels that you have been envious of because of your aches and pains. It also lowers the risk of injury in the future.
In the event you have any existing injuries, imbalances, or distortions in your posture, a qualified chiropractor knows how to repair these problems. It may take a few visits to fix the problem entirely, but as long as you are seeing your chiropractic doctor regularly, your athletic abilities are going to improve.
Improvements In Flexibility, Range of Motion, and Mobility
To do your CrossFit workouts at optimal performance, you need to be healthy, fast, and mobile. As a dedicated athlete, if any of these things are off, it’s not going to keep you from hitting those moves. You’re going to work through the pain to get the job done. The only problem is, your body isn’t prepared to take on the impact. As a result, it’s going to overcompensate in other areas to protect whatever parts that aren’t doing their job. Then, guess what’s going to happen? Further injuries on top of the weak areas you are already dealing with.
The main reason for mobility to be off is because of misalignment in your posture, and that leads to overcompensation. A poor posture may include a head that sits more forward than it should or on a tilt, or one shoulder that’s raised higher than the other. If you can’t visually see these problems when looking in the mirror, you might be able to tell that they are present by feeling pain or discomfort in the low back, knees, shoulders, or hips. A chiropractor can also take a quick look at your body and be able to point these conditions out.
In the beginning, these problems are considered to be acute or secondary problems with the nervous and spinal systems. Unless you visit a chiropractor and get them taken care of though, they aren’t going to go away. In fact, there’s a good chance they are only going to get worse. Soon you will be dealing with chronic pain throughout your body and getting through your CrossFit workouts is only going to get more difficult. For more severe conditions it could make them impossible.
The chiropractor will take a look at where the injuries or issues are, and they will put a treatment plan in place starting that very day. By making small adjustments to the spine, neck, and nervous system each time you go, the problems will eventually subside, and you will feel better than you ever have before.
Greater Recovery and Stress Management
One of the hardest things for a CrossFit athlete is sitting on the sidelines watching their workouts happen instead of getting in on the action. You know exactly how this feels if you’ve ever dealt with an injury or illness in the past. The most important thing is healing up quickly and properly so that you can get back in there.
Through chiropractic treatments, the health of the spine and nervous systems are the primary focus. The nervous system is the control system for the entire body, and a trained chiropractor knows how to ensure that it is fully functioning to get you the best workouts. You may have to take a break for a while if you have a serious spine or neck injury, but your chiropractor is going to work with you to get your entire body healthy once again.
Crossfitters and Chiropractors as a Dynamic Duo
Regardless of what level of CrossFit you are at right now, you can always improve with the help of regular chiropractic care. If you aren’t entirely convinced of the benefits of routine treatment yet, take a look at these statistics done for a study surrounding the combination of chiropractic treatment and CrossFit:
- After being followed for six weeks, people that did not see a chiropractor improved 1%
- Participants that went to a chiropractor during that same six-week period saw 18% improvement in their workouts
- Following 12 weeks of regular chiropractic visits, that improvement in CrossFit workouts jumped up to 30%
When it seems as though you’ve tried everything to improve your performance and you just aren’t reaching the levels that you want to, you should seriously consider visiting your local chiropractic office. Not everyone knows about this specialized treatment yet, and for now, it can be a secret tool for you to use to get to the head of the class and achieve your goals.
About Author: Dr. Brent Wells
Dr. Brent Wells is a graduate of the University of Nevada where he earned his bachelor’s of science degree before moving on to complete his doctorate from Western States Chiropractic College. He and his wife founded Better Health Chiropractic & Physical Rehab in Alaska in 1998.
He became passionate about being a Anchorage chiropractor after his own experiences with medical doctors. The goal for Dr. Wells is to treat his patients with care and compassion while providing them with a better quality of life through his professional treatment. Dr. Wells is a member of the American Chiropractic Association and the American Academy of Spine Physicians. He continues his education to remain active and updated in all studies related to neurology, physical rehab, biomechanics, spine conditions, brain injury trauma, and more.
