Chiropractic Treatment Improves Strength In Athletes

A 2012 study in JMPT looked at the effect of cervical spine manipulative therapy on judo athlete’s grip strength.

Dr. Hagebusch working Judo with 4 time Judo Olympian, Brian Olsen, at Texarkana Jiu Jitsu.

This was compared to the athletes that received a sham or fake neck adjustment.

The Chiropractic treated athletes demonstrated very significantly improved grip strength starting with the first adjustment and improving very substantially after the second and third chiropractic treatments.

There were no significant strength changes in the sham group that did not receive the treatment.

Here’s how the grip strength changed in these high level judo athletes…

• After the first treatment, grip strength increased 6.95% right side and 12.61% left side
• After the second chiropractic treatment an increase of 11.53% on the right and 17.02% on the left was found
• And after the third adjustment, grip strength improved 10.53% on the right and 16.81% on the left.
• No statistically significant differences were found in grip strength of the sham, non-treated group.

These changes are very significant with a big improvement seen immediately after chiropractic intervention.

Interestingly, the researchers used very high level judo competitors.

In judo grip strength is very, very important because gripping and using the jackets to throw your opponent is the most significant part of the competition.

These high level athletes would very likely have high levels of grip strength already.

Chiropractic treatment still demonstrated very significant post-treatment changes with as much as a 17.02% improvement!

It also demonstrates that there is much more to the chiropractic adjustment than improvement in pain, stiffness, and movement.

The findings measured strength in the hands after chiropractic treatment of the neck.

This is not something that most people would immediately think about when they think of chiropractic.

Many other studies have found major benefits of chiropractic beyond pain relief.

Here are a few discussed on our Texarkana Chiropractic blog…

• Chiropractic improves balance and coordination. People under Chiropractic Care had a reduced risk of falls, improved reaction times, a better sense of joint position (where they are in space), and a better quality of life.
• Brain changes after chiropractic adjustment. Following a chiropractic adjustment, changes were found in various parts of the brain associated with sensorimotor inegration in the parietal and frontal cortices. The adjustment also caused changes in the muscle tone of the muscle that supported the area of the spine that was adjusted.
• The adjustment also caused changes in the muscle tone of the muscle that supported the area of the spine.
• Chiropractic adjustment significantly increases activity (a 20% increase) in the pre-frontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is the area in the brain that is responsible for very high level functioning, learning, memory, intelligence, thinking, planning, pain processing, complex behavior, movement, and spatial awareness.
• Chiropractic improves strength, reduces muscle fatigue, and improves motor control. This was a VERY interesting one where the researchers found one chiropractic adjustment created positive changes equal to 3 weeks of weight training.
• Chiropractic improves heart rate variability. Heart rate variability is a marker of the health of your autonomic nervous system which controls many things like organ function.

Reference:

Randomized controlled trial.Botelho MB, et al. J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 2012.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22079053/