Sport and keeping your body on track
Neck sore this morning? Low back tweaking? Didn't quite sleep right and dragging your feet to get through the day?These are all too common a feeling for those of us who participate regularly (or in fact, have in the past) in contact sport, whether that be rugby, boxing or Brazillian Jiu Jitsu.
Most of us start in these sports for similar reasons - to increase physical fitness, aid in losing weight, learn a new skill, socialise or just have a competitive nature. But what I have noticed through time doing these sports and observations in practice is that that we often don't consider at the time the impact of the cumulative and repetitive trauma these activities can have on our mid- to long-term health of our bodies and nervous system - along with our ability to keep training as often and for as long as we want!
For example - take that neck pain this morning... Most likely that is a sign that the joints/muscles around that area are inflamed, especially if you've fought your way out of a strangle, or ran in to another human who wants to stop you in your tracks. That inflammation is a normal response. It is your body healing. Your muscles tighten up a bit to protect the healing tissue in the joint. When this is repeated over time, the inflammation becomes chronic, the joint almost stops moving altogether, limiting range of motion, putting extra stress on other tissues to compensate for this tightness and sending an overall stress signal to the body telling us we are still injured. Over time, this can cause changes to balance, co-ordination and strength, as well as the body (and mind) feeling overly stressed, affecting sleep and recovery.
Check out Luke Mulvhill's blog on chronic stress and if you're a bit like me and geek out on this stuff, here's ten minutes of easy reading with your morning coffee.What starts off as local neck pain/stiffness after training, over time soon becomes an ache or stiffness in the shoulder and can progress to pins and needles or tingling in the hand, maybe accompanied by a loss is strength.
Fortunately, I have seen how these initial issues can progress over time and have had experience in helping people manage these issues at every stage. Here's a link to some basic neck exercises we advise our clients to start with when dealing with acute or recurring neck issues.
Just lately there appears to have been an influx of clients coming through the door who are either still training/competing or are still feeling the effects from when they were in their day to day lives - usually around the mid twenties to late 30s mark as the stress load in life starts picking up a little with new houses, kids, starting a businesses.
While we can't control the unfortunate occurrences of landing awkwardly and blowing out a knee or shoulder, chiropractic can most definitely help to get and keep the joints moving in your spine and help reduce the chronic inflammation and stress on your nervous system. It's more the the rule than the exception that those who have had the kind of history we share sleep better, recover better, feel more alert and more in control of their bodies again when they choose regular care as part of their maintenance routine.