When a patient enters our office, it is because they are in pain. Usually, that pain prevents you from doing something you love. If your back hurts, you can’t work in the garden or head out to play golf with your friends. Let’s first discuss where the pain comes from, and what we do about it at Cardinal Chiropractic and Sports Recovery.
Pain (if it’s from the joints and muscles of the body) usually comes from some sort of trauma. That trauma could be a macro-trauma, like a car accident or major slip/fall, or a micro-trauma. Micro-trauma is a repetitive stress injury. A great example is computer use by a desk worker. Day after day, for hours at a time, a desk worker positions themselves hunched over a computer. The bad posture causes wear and tear on the muscles and joints. It’s not enough degeneration to cause a problem on day one, but after a few years, that constant slow trauma can cause some major pain.
Over time the muscles get tight and the joints get stiff. And if the muscles are too tight, they can’t focus on stabilizing the joints. The result is a loss of range of motion and flexibility. This causes pain. This is when you show up in our office.
So what do we do about it? We employ the concepts of Reset, Correct, and Reload!
The first step is to increase your range of motion and flexibility. We help the joints move better and loosen up the muscles. Chiropractic adjustments, manual therapy, massage, dry needling, and stretching are all great examples of treatments designed to increase motion. We employ them effectively every day to help our patients. This step is called RESET.
We couple RESET with CORRECT. Correct stands for corrective exercises designed to help with the stability and motor control of the body. During a typical visit, we provide treatment to increase flexibility and then help our patients with exercises designed to increase stability. Most of these exercises fall under the umbrella of functional rehab and exercises, meaning they help restore some form of movement needed for human function.
Between Reset and Correct, most of our patients experience significant improvements. But that’s not enough. It’s not enough to get temporary improvement, we want a permanent solution.
This is when we utilize RELOAD. Reload is some form of resistance training that puts the body under tension. And when we do that, the body adapts – getting stronger and more resilient. I want my patients to become stronger, more resilient, and better able to prevent back pain in the future.
