Volleyball Injuries: Chiropractic Treatment and Rehabilitation

Around a half-million high school students in the U.S. play volleyball. Whether the parent of a volleyball player or part of a recreational league, the goal is to be ready for the season, which means preventing and addressing volleyball injuries. It is a highly demanding sport with quick movements, jumping, twisting, diving, spiking, etc. Despite being fit and healthy, extensive training along with match play takes a toll on the body. Chiropractic can benefit volleyball players.

Common Volleyball Injuries

Why Chiropractic Works

Chiropractic treatment and rehabilitation, especially by a sports chiropractor, is recommended for volleyball injuries because it addresses acute and chronic injuries to all areas of the body. Chiropractic treats the entire musculoskeletal system. Proper joint alignment from chiropractic adjustments in the spine and throughout the body maintains the biomechanic integrity. This reduces high-impact forces in the joints. Soft tissue treatments like instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization can help resolve injuries by providing the tissues with more blood flow into the affected area allowing for faster healing. Most volleyball injuries result from overuse to the joints and muscles, resulting in repetitive strain. In volleyball, repetitive/overuse injuries are common in the knees, ankles, and shoulders. This comes from all the jumping, serving, and spiking.

Player Benefits

Body Soreness Is Reduced/Alleviated

Many athletes, including volleyball players, do not get the proper recovery time from training or playing.

• Reduced recovery periods cause body soreness and stiffness that can overlap into an injury.
• Chiropractic can reduce and alleviate body soreness.
• Chiropractic promotes faster recovery.

Optimal Performance

Studies show that athletes that receive regular chiropractic care found speed and mobility performance enhanced.

• Athletes require fast reflexes and optimal hand-eye coordination.
• Speed, mobility, reflexes, and coordination depend on a healthy nervous system.
• 90% of the central nervous system travels through the spine.
• Spinal alignment can either allow for proper nerve flow or disrupt nerve flow.
• Even when just one spinal segment is misaligned and out of place, the nervous system can impact reflexes, speed, mobility, and hand-eye coordination.
• A properly functioning spine and nervous system will ensure the player is at their best.

Faster Injury Recovery Time

Healing the body properly takes time. Just like the body needs sleep/rest to function properly, so it is with injuries.

• The issue for athletes is how much time healing takes.
• Individual athletes receiving chiropractic care have been shown to heal faster.

Mobility and Strength

A chiropractic doctor can reduce the pressure around the nerve roots that exit the spine, which will help improve player performance. This includes:

• Range of motion
• Mobility and flexibility
• Strength
• Endurance

To find out how chiropractic can help, contact Injury Medical Chiropractic and Functional Medicine Clinic. We will perform a thorough musculoskeletal and nervous system examination.

Ankle Sprain Treatment

How Many Calories Over 24 hours

Myths that offer strategies that avoid the hard work and commitment that diet and exercise demand should be avoided. Individuals cannot expect to experience healthy body composition changes by increasing/decreasing meal frequency if they are living a sedentary lifestyle. It is not important how often or what time an individual takes in calories (has a meal). What is important is how many calories an individual has over a 24-hour period. A study looked at healthy individuals that ate one large meal a day for two weeks and then later ate the same meal but spread out over five smaller meals for another two weeks. It was concluded that there was no statistical difference in body weight gain or loss between the two eating methods. 2000 calories over 3 meals is the same 2000 calories consumed over 5 meals. There is no substitute for proper diet and exercise. The focus should be on what and how much you eat.

References

Eerkes, Kevin. “Volleyball injuries.” Current sports medicine reports vol. 11,5 (2012): 251-6. doi:10.1249/JSR.0b013e3182699037

Gouttebarge, Vincent et al. “Preventing musculoskeletal injuries among recreational adult volleyball players: design of a randomized prospective controlled trial.” BMC musculoskeletal disorders vol. 18,1 333. 2 Aug. 2017, doi:10.1186/s12891-017-1699-6

Kilic, O et al. “Incidence, etiology, and prevention of musculoskeletal injuries in volleyball: A systematic review of the literature.” European journal of sports science vol. 17,6 (2017): 765-793. doi:10.1080/17461391.2017.1306114

Seminati, Elena, and Alberto Enrico Minetti. “Overuse in volleyball training/practice: A review on the shoulder and spine-related injuries.” European journal of sports science vol. 13,6 (2013): 732-43. doi:10.1080/17461391.2013.773090

Wolfram, G et al. “Thermogenese des menschen bei unterschiedlicher mahlzeitenhäufigkeit” [Thermogenesis in humans after varying meal time frequency]. Annals of nutrition & metabolism vol. 31,2 (1987): 88-97. doi:10.1159/000177255