Sports injury, prevention, and performance care are an important part of our practice. Some days Washington Park Chiropractic seems more like an Urgent Care than a chiropractic office! Patients of all ages rely on our office to triage their most recent injury. A good rule of thumb is if you are able to bear weight, move your injured limb, and are not bleeding / have no obvious fracture, we may be a good first choice for injury evaluation.

 

Injury Evaluation

An accurate diagnosis is the first step in creating a treatment plan for sports injury. Our team performs thorough orthopedic and neurologic exams prior to the chiropractic exam. Our first goal in injury evaluation is making sure that you and your injury will be best treated in our office. If the answer to that is no – we have a large network of specialists that we will refer you to. Our team is also very experienced in diagnostic imaging including X-ray and MRI.

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Along with extremity and back injuries, we are also well versed in concussion evaluation and management. In fact, many concussions have a cervical spine (neck) component that must also be addressed. Our team can grade your concussion and walk you through steps for returning to play.

 

Injury Treatment

We use many methods for treating your injury, but our general philosophy follows a passive care to active care model. This means that your initial treatment most likely includes a variation on PRICE (protect – rest – ice – compress – elevate). From there we may do a combination of infrared laser, taping, manual therapy, acupuncture, cupping, massage and manipulation until the healing has progressed enough to begin active care. Active care typically consists of stretches or exercises to strengthen and improve flexibility. Once the injury is pain-free we finally move into sport-specific activities to get you ready to return to play.

 

Injury Prevention

If you are prone to injury or have recovered from an injury, you may want to stack the odds in your favor. Periodic maintenance evaluations and treatments will allow us to detect imbalances that may lead to re-injury. A typical maintenance treatment will include components of prior visits – ie. manual therapy, acupuncture, manipulation, NormaTec, infrared laser, sports massage and dry needling,etc. At these visits we can also check on your home care including taping, exercises, etc. Visit our Services Toolbar above for a detailed explanation of the various treatments we offer.

 

Sports Performance Care

Our competitive patient athletes work with our providers to improve mobility, strength, speed, and recovery. Regular chiropractic and massage care gives athletes an advantage in their training and competition. All NFL teams and the USA Olympic Team rely on the same performance care to keep athletes in peak condition that we offer here at Wash Park Chiropractic. All of our doctors are board certified in sports chiropractic and some have completed rotations working with athletes at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. We also regularly work at local events; including captaining a medical station at the Denver Rock and Roll Marathon (since 2010), soccer tournaments, and CrossFit events.

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