How Do Sports Chiropractors Help Prevent Running Injuries?

People are obsessed with videos on Youtube of chiropractors performing alterations on poor victims who have suffered from an injury and have been forced to live life hunched over in pain only to be released from their physical prison by a bone crunching crack. And rightly so - there are few things in life more satisfying than a good back crack!

But the simple ‘back crack’ is only a very small part of a chiropractor’s job. Sports chiropractors are also trained in muscle work, such as Active Release Technique (ART) and Graston, two effective manual therapies for preventing injury and optimising performance.

Chiropractors main concern when dealing with runners is injury prevention. Some of the most common injuries chiropractors deal with in runners are plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis, IT Band Syndrome, Patella (knee) tracking problems and hip bursitis. These are all injuries that chiropractors are able to deal with as they emphasise the proper alignment of the spine and pelvis.

What Causes Improper Alignment?

Poor alignment injuries can occur for a number of different reasons; mainly running in the same direction on the same course, running on slanted surfaces such as the beach, and not replacing shoes every few hundred miles.

You can fix these errors that cause misalignment by tweaking your routine:

·         Vary your running surface – pavement, track, asphalt, grass, sand, wood chips.

·         If you run on the beach, run as close to the water as possible as the sand tends to be flattest at this point.

·         Have two of the same running shoes which you can switch between.

Misalignment is the major cause of a lot of sporting injuries as a misaligned spine creates unnecessary tension on one particular body part. If you are training for running events, then make sure you avoid the errors that can cause injury, and a trip to a chiropractor.