First of all, here at Maximum Performance - we do sports chiropractic, rehabilitation, athletic performance, and treat each of our patients as if their athletic/physical needs are as important as a professional athlete's. Because - they are! When physical dysfunction and pain gets in the way of doing the things we need to do and love to do, it interferes with our lives. That can be debilitating, frustrating, and exhausting. To not function means that we are less than living, and fighting physical and health battles can be overwhelming as we try to operate as humans in today's world. As someone famous once said, "Ain't nobody got time for that!"
Enter MPC. We are here to get people back to their optimal function. We do help get people out of pain, but it doesn't stop there. Pain is an indicator. It is the "check engine light" for the body. Our patients hear us say, "Pain is the last thing to show, and the first to go." Meaning: the painful tissue is usually not the cause of the problem, and just because it's gone, doesn't mean it won't come back. When we evaluate an injury, we look to the cause of the dysfunction. If we look to relieve the pain, the issue may return. When we look to correct the cause, that will prevent the issue from returning. How do we correct the cause? As one of our honored mentors and a leader in the rehabilitative field, Dr. Craig Liebenson will say, "There are many roads to Rome." The leader in spinal biomechanics research, Professor Stu McGill will famously answer, "It depends." Our answer is a combination, "It depends on what will work best for our patient."
We combine therapy options like soft tissue management, chiropractic adjustments, and rehabilitative exercises. Each patient brings in not only different biomechanics and injury mechanisms, but different goals. Each patient that comes into our office is asked the same question: "What are your goals of treatment?" Because if I have a parent who's number one goal is to be able to lift their 20lb child without pain, will working with 5lb weights or therabands help them? Not enough. We need to train that patient how to manage weight and their movement in real-life situations that are specific to them. This is why we rehab.
Ok, so let's look into the word rehabilitate. It comes from the Latin: re + habilitare.
Re = again.
Habilitare = to enable, make suitable.
So, yes - I am an enabler. I enable movement all day. But I am not the first to do so. Let's not forget the "re-" aspect. To rehabilitate is to enable or to make suitable "again." It was suitable before. This is a common missing link. We tend to forget that throughout development, movement patterns are earned and learned and that we were born with all the mobility we needed and as a toddler and child, we earned our stability. Motor patterns are the key here. These are brain-body connections that allows us to move without thinking of each participating nerve, muscle, and joint. With an injury, either chronic or acute, we MUST retrain the motor pattern, otherwise, we'll either see a recurring injury, or a transfer of the problem to another part of the body. (ex. an ankle issue becomes a knee issue, etc.)
Why rehabilitate the motor pattern? Well, if we look at an injury in a reductionist way - we see parts and a sum of the parts. With this train of thought, a sprain of the ankle can easily be fixed by allowing the ligaments and muscles of an injury to heal (6-8 weeks or longer depending on severity) and then re-entering activity. So, why do we see so many chronic ankle sprains if this is true? Because when it comes to human locomotion, we can not view each part separately and expect the whole to work. It is because each part does not own its mechanism. All parts are connected and controlled by our central nervous system - so we must take a holistic view when it comes to evaluating movement. This is what allows us to connect cause and symptom and create an opportunity for our patients to re-learn and rehabilitate their motor patterns.
At MPC we strive to enable and empower our patients to take control of their movement and physical health, so that when they move, they feel good, and they feel "able." Otherwise stated: we rehabilitate. Whether it's getting back on the field, or keeping the ability to play with the grandkids, getting people to be able to do the movements and activities they love do to as long as they'd like to do them is our top priority.
If you have any questions or want to know more about how we rehab, never hestitate to ask! Email me at: drma@maxperformchiro.com and make sure to "Like" us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter and Instagram (@maxperformchiro) to keep in the know about movement!
