As Chicagoans enjoy summer with hotter temperatures, staying active and fit are critical as one continues to work from home and go into your office a few days weekly. Finding the right activity is necessary to get away as life returns mostly back to pre-pandemic levels. Sports like softball, beach volleyball, and cycling will likely increase with the warm weather, but working out is still necessary to build strength in your muscles, and to keep your bones strong. Lifting weights can lead to injury unfortunately, as one compensates and possibly overuses an area over time. Seeking out a sports chiropractor to help you through an injury will hopefully shorten your time away from the gym and get you back to weight training quickly and efficiently.

If injury occurs while working out resulting in pain to your neck, back, shoulder, or hip, it is important to see a chiropractor to address your pain, but discover why your injury initially occurred. A thorough consult and exam will reveal your mobility, flexibility, and your strength to better understand why this happened. Also, it will determine what tissue(s) is/are responsible for your pain. Chiropractic care should help via manipulation to reduce pain, improve function, and range of motion that has likely been compromised. Corrective exercises and Active Release Techniques (ART) should further help to improve mobility, but create stability to avoid future injury. Re-training and providing feedback via rehab exercises to one’s weaker and/or inhibited will be addressed as part of your chiropractic care to enhance your function and stability. It may take a few months to rehab, but with consistency and incorporating these movements into your workouts, your strength should increase.

Even if you don’t have pain or your pain begins shortly after a workout, get to a sports chiropractor to determine how you can improve your efficiency, movement, and function to work on your strength for your body.