While traditional chiropractic can treat structural dysfunctions and elicit wellness through manipulation techniques, Sports ChiroTherapy also adds muscle trigger point techniques and movement assessment. The trigger point therapy offers quick pain relief, while the functional movement assessment corrects movements that may contribute to pain and dysfunction.
Traditional Chiropractic
Chiropractic treatments focus on the dysfunctions of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems (1). Dysfunctions in these systems will inevitably affect the rest of the body and general health. This allows for a hands-on holistic approach in treatment.
A lot of the times traumatic injuries, repetitive work, and awkward postures can lead to pain by causing inflammation and dysfunction in different parts of the body. These dysfunctions limit an individual’s ability to move freely, to carry out daily activity, and to do so pain-free.
Chiropractic adjustments (spinal manipulations) can restore mobility of restricted joints and relieve chronic pain issues through structural symmetry, muscle efficacy, and neuromuscular medicine. Chiropractic is a drug-free approach to health and wellness that works well to complement other forms of medical treatment.
Hanson Muscle Therapy (HMT)
Hanson Muscle therapy, HMT, is a trigger point and acupoint based treatment that offers quick pain relief to pain rooted in muscular imbalance. Muscle imbalance happens when there is an uneven pull on a joint structure, creating a site of excess tension. This tension is not only painful but throws the rest of the body out of balance. This paves the way for more structural dysfunctions and further sites of tension.
Once the sites of greatest tension are identified, the HMT practitioner will work to release those points (which can be a bit painful) and offer instant pain reli
ef once released. Muscular imbalances are fairly common and may result from athletic activities, repetitive work, and even movement patterns. By adding this modality to the Sports ChiroTherapy program, the patient is offered instant stress relief and will feel the positive results after just one visit.
Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA)
This modality offers a movement-based diagnosis of pain cause and origin. The origin of pain, where it is in the body, is only one part of treating it. It is the movement patterns and habitual behavior that led to the pain that is the true target of this assessment.
When pain is present, we engage in movements that minimized pain and discomfort. This change in movement patterns recruits compensatory mechanisms in muscles that can result in muscular imbalance and structural misalignment. Muscular and structural dysfunctions, in turn, place a great deal of stress on specific joints. Musculoskeletal structures that aren’t meant to carry that much stress. These other structures can get worn-out, tired, and injuries during the compensatory process. SFMA aims to diagnose these detrimental movements and compensatory mechanisms to prevent further injury and offer long-lasting pain relief.
To learn more about the benefits of Sports ChiroTherapy, visit Santa Cruz Core today!
References:
“Patients.” American Chiropractic Association > Patients > Why Choose Chiropractic? >www.acatoday.org/Patients/Why-Choose-Chiropractic/What-is-Chiropractic.