Cheerleaders Can Greatly Benefit From Chiropractic Care Before And After Injury

Posted on: 28 January 2016

Cheerleaders may be attractive girls who are in short skirts with pom poms in their hands, but they're much more than that. Cheerleaders are athletes, just as much as the football players on the field that they're cheering for. While cheerleaders may not have always been recognized as athletes, the public has come around in recent years. Because cheerleaders are athletes, they are susceptible to injuries. In fact, the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research found that cheerleaders account for over 70 percent of catastrophic injuries at the college level, according to data from the 1982-83 school year, and this number is only increasing. With cheerleaders being prone to serious injuries, can chiropractic care help?

Chiropractic Care Can Help Improve a Cheerleader's Range of Motion.

As a cheerleader, it is crucial to be able to move in various ways. Flexibility is key to being a quality athlete. By improving your range of motion, you can help prevent the occurrence of cheerleading injuries. At the same time, if you've suffered an injury, improving your range of motion through chiropractic care can help relieve some of the pain that you may experience as a result of the injury.

Chiropractic Treatment Can Help Reduce Injury Pain.

For cheerleaders, hamstrings are one of the most common parts of the body that are injured. In addition, they can be pretty painful. Luckily, chiropractic therapy can help. The results from a 2011 study showed that chiropractic treatment has the ability to effectively alleviate pain that cheerleaders experience when they injure their hamstring.

Chiropractic Care Helps to Avoid Injury.

You don't have to have an injury to undergo chiropractic treatment and reap the benefits of it. This is particularly true with cheerleading, which is considered a high-impact sport that involves a lot of strenuous tricks and pushing the body to the absolute limit (if not beyond the limit). Chiropractic treatment can assist in loosening up muscles, which makes them more flexible and pliable, thereby reducing the risk of injury.

Chiropractic Treatment Can Improve Physical Strength.

Cheerleaders require extensive strength in their upper and lower bodies in order to pull of the stunts and acrobats that they do. The cheerleaders who are on the lower part of the pyramid need a strong grip in order to keep the girl's up top safe. One study has shown that cervical spine manipulative therapy (SMT) can result in as much as a 16 percent increase in grip strength after three therapy sessions. Although the study was not actually performed on cheerleaders, if SMT can improve a judo athlete's grip strength, it can likely have the same effect on cheerleaders.

Whether you've suffered a cheerleading injury or want to improve your balance and performance as a cheerleader, contact a local chiropractor today to learn more about how chiropractic treatment can help you. 

For chiropractic care, contact an office such as Health Atlast Fountain Valley.

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