Whether you like to golf, spin, do yoga or play hockey, you want to be at your athletic best. That starts with a healthy spine. If the spine isn’t moving optimally, the body has to start compensating for that lack of movement. When it begins to compensate, it decreases efficiency, wastes energy, and is unable to perform at as high a level.

Imagine a car with black smoke coming out of the back, weighing everything down. That’s your body when it has suboptimal spinal movement. A misaligned spine also increases your chance of being injured.

The Foundational Role of Chiropractic

Chiropractic focuses on restoring movement. To strengthen or rehab any joint in the spine, we need to get the movement back. If we can get the joints moving, we can fire the muscles to strengthen it.

When your spine is more efficient, your brain is more in tune with your body. You’re more at ease and relaxed. Your body can be in a state of stress, sympathetic (fight or flight), or parasympathetic (rest and repair). If our spine is out of alignment and we have extra tension–lack of movement in the spine–our body will default to going more into the stress tension response.

If we can get into a more parasympathetic state, that allows the body to heal faster. The whole nervous system goes more into a rest state, and you’re improving the mechanics of the spine and posture simultaneously. When that happens, you can participate in your favourite sports or activities and perform at your best.