How Baseball Players Can Benefit From Chiropractic Care
When you're a baseball player, you use a variety of methods to keep your body limbered up for the season. Extensive stretching routines, a methodical workout regimen, and even frequent massages and physical therapy sessions can all help your body perform when it counts. Another approach that you can take is to see a chiropractor. This type of practice can be beneficial for all baseball players, given the toll put on their bodies over the course of a long season. In college and beyond, your team may have a partnership with a local chiropractic clinic that you can go to; for youth baseball, parents should strongly consider this form of treatment for their baseball-playing adolescents. Here's how players can benefit from chiropractic care.
Help With Flexibility
In sports such as baseball, flexibility is important for multiple reasons. It permits players to lessen their risk of injury, while also promoting better performance. If a baseball player's back isn't flexible, he may be unable to swing with full power or throw with full power. Similarly, a lack of flexibility means that a player may have to alter his mechanics, which could increase stress on certain muscles and lead to an injury. By identifying problematic areas in the patient's back, a chiropractor can perform as many adjustments as are needed to help the player experience greater flexibility.
Relief From Repetition-Based Pain
Many baseball players get sorer as the season progresses because of the repetition of their sport. For example, the countless hours that a catcher spends in the crouching position can put incredible strain on his lower back and potentially even push some of the discs in the lower back out of alignment. Frequent adjustments for a catcher can help to keep the discs in alignment, which can prevent the baseball player from developing severe back pain that can be enough to keep him out of the starting lineup.
Improved Balance
When a person's back is out of alignment, his or her balance may be off. This can be a concern for a baseball player, who relies on a high degree of balance to excel on the field. If a hitter's balance is off, for example, he may struggle with swinging the bat; if a pitcher's balance is off, he will likely have trouble throwing strikes. A chiropractic assessment can identify imbalances and a series of subsequent adjustments can eliminate this performance-affecting balance for the player.
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