If you’ve been lifting weights for any significant amount of time then you undoubtedly have a few aches and pains. You should know that a lot of these are avoidable with a well-designed training program and proper exercise technique. But some wear-and-tear on your joints from lifting heavy weights on a consistent basis is inevitable.
So what do you do about these aches and pains that decrease your intensity in the gym or keep you from training altogether?
I’ve seen a variety of strategies to deal with these issues, from high doses of painkillers to topical menthol creams. The problem is that nearly every popular strategy for dealing with pain is based on treating the symptoms and not the cause. While this may work in the short-term to allow you to have productive training sessions, it is not a good long-term solution. Since these remedies only numb the pain, they can actually cause the underlying issue to worsen over time.
I find that one of the best long-term solutions is chiropractic adjustments. Now, chiropractors have gotten a bad rap as voodoo doctors who don’t know what they are doing. You should know that chiropractic medicine can work quite well, but like any field, many of the practitioners are not very good at what they do.
To insure that you find a good chiropractor ideally you would get a recommendation from someone you trust who has gone through the same issues. Otherwise, look for chiropractors who primarily treat athletes (especially at the professional level), as this increases the chances that your chiropractor will be familiar with your specific issues and how to treat them.
The basis of chiropractic medicine is adjustments to the spine. The theory is that when the spine is properly aligned the rest of the body will function better, since the spine is the center of our nervous system. Many chiropractors combine spinal adjustments with other therapies such as joint manipulation and deep-tissue therapy.
One of the reasons chiropractors have gotten a bad rap is that it is necessary to continue to visit a chiropractor on an on-going basis to get the best results. This is especially true if you are lifting weights consistently. Since you are constantly stressing the joints and muscles with your training, it only makes sense that your alignment will continually be thrown-off. So in order to maintain your health it is necessary to visit your chiropractor 1-2 times per week initially, and then once every 1-2 weeks thereafter.
I hope I have shed some light on the benefits of chiropractic for those that maintain a rigorous training schedule. The best quick muscle building secret is to always remember that your recovery between training sessions is of paramount importance since this is the time your muscles grow stronger and larger. If your body is not in the healthiest state possible then you can’t expect to recover and progress optimally. Chiropractic medicine, combined with a scientifically-designed training and nutrition program, should be a part of your recovery arsenal.
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