Improving your Range of Motion with Chiropractic Care
Limited range of motion affects your ability to move freely and effortlessly. It usually occurs due to problems with the bones, muscles, and soft tissues in and around the joints.
If your joints are stiff and painful, Chiropractic care offers an effective way to relieve pain and improve joint flexibility, naturally.
Why Proper Range of Motion is So Important
A full range of motion in your joints allows you to reach your arms up high to grab an item. It allows you to turn your head to cross the street, or walk without limping. You may struggle to perform many everyday tasks, such as bending down to pick something up, or getting up from a chair.
If you have limited joint motion and ignore the symptoms, you may eventually find yourself in a “use it or lose it” situation.
It may become a chronic or permanent problem, especially if scar tissue forms around the joints.
When joint flexibility is lost, other muscles and joints must bear the load, which can lead to an imbalance and increase the risk of injury.
Diagnosing the problem and creating a treatment plan
Chiropractors understand how limited motion affects the entire body, so they provide treatment to improve flexibility and joint movement.
Whether your problem is due to an injury, poor posture, surgery, muscle spasms, or other causes, Chiropractic care offers effective treatment options.
When you visit a Chiropractor, they will evaluate three types of movement:
Active. Active range of motion measures how well you can move a joint independently.
Passive. Passive motion measures the range of motion as the Chiropractor moves your joint.
Active Support. Active Assist measures how your joints move when active movement is combined with the support of another person.
X-rays and other tests may also be recommended during your visit to help determine the cause and extent of your movement problem.
Evaluating and testing your range of motion helps your Chiropractor make a diagnosis and develop a treatment plan.
Treatment Options May Include:
Loosening Stiff Tissues
Massage dissolves scar tissue, relieves muscle spasms, and can relieve pain. It also relaxes and stretches stiff muscles, tendons, and ligaments, allowing joints to move more easily.
It also increases blood circulation, helping the lymphatic system remove excess fluid that causes swelling.
Treating Motion Restrictions with Manipulation Therapy
If your motion restriction is due to a combination of tight muscles,and joints, your Chiropractor may recommend spinal manipulation or joint mobilisation.
This treatment improves range of motion, reduces inflammation and stiffness, and relieves pain.
When the vertebrae are properly aligned, tension in muscles and soft tissues is reduced, improving range of motion.
While you may notice improvement after just one Chiropractic session, you may need to schedule several appointments to get the full benefits of care.
If you have limited range of motion in your knees, shoulders, elbows or hips, joint manipulation may be helpful to increase range of motion.
Exercise
Exercises are an important part of your Chiropractic treatment plan.
Performing the exercises recommended supports your treatment and keeps your tissues loose and flexible.
A 2009 study published in the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine compared the effects of spinal manipulation with stretching exercises, to stretching exercises alone, in two groups of golfers.
Golfers in the spinal manipulation and exercise group, improved their full swing performance after four chiropractic sessions.
Those who only did exercise drills saw no improvement in their swing.
If you have any questions or would like further guidance regarding improving your range of motion or Sports Chiropractic care, please feel free to contact us at Advanced Care Chiropractic.
We are here to support you on your journey to health and wellness.
For more information on how we can help, contact us to schedule an appointment, or give us a call on :
43 King Street,Sydney 2000 Ph: 9262 6566
24 Henry Street, Lewisham 2049 Ph: 9550 9480
Sources:
Journal of Chiropractic Medicine: Effect of Spinal Manipulative Therapy with Stretching Compared with Stretching Alone on Full-Swing Performance of Golf Players: A Randomized Pilot Trial, 12/2009
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2786229/
Arthritis Foundation: Chiropractic Care for Arthritis
American Chiropractic Association: Neck Pain
https://www.acatoday.org/patients/neck-pain-and-chiropractic/
UC Davis Health: Flexibility
https://health.ucdavis.edu/sports-medicine/resources/flexibility