Do you know if your muscles are working for you or against you?

Part of a new patient chiropractic exam at my office includes a 34-point inspection of your muscle function. As an athlete especially, if your muscles aren’t WORKING FOR YOU, they are WORKING AGAINST YOU! Muscles work in teams, there is a team leader, the primary mover, and the helpers, the secondary movers. On a bike, for example, the gluteal muscles are responsible for pushing your leg behind you or down (primary mover) and the low back and hamstrings are the helpers (secondary movers). If your ability to fire your glutes is inhibited for some reason, you will over recruit your low back and upper hamstring as they are doing their job and your butt’s job. The more you cycle, the more you feed the cycle of distress which may be expressed as chronic low back and or upper hamstring strain. You may also feel you have a hard time keeping up on hills because you just can’t create the power.

How do muscles become inhibited?

Joint restriction, spinal subluxation (misalignment), and over-tight or overstretched muscles all contribute to poorly firing muscles. The tissue itself may be healthy, but if it isn’t getting the full message from the brain because vertebrae are compressing the nerves, the muscle will create less power. Resting muscle length is also important. In order to create power a muscle needs to be able to contract. If the muscle is already super tight, it can’t contract much more and therefore creates less power.

How can chiropractic turn my muscle power back on?

Chiropractic treatments at Mountain Chiropractic include correction of spinal misalignment and a generous amount of muscle work (Trigenics and/or ART) to help restore the normal resting length of muscles and bring back the power. We also prescribe home stretching and strengthening programs to help keep the spine and muscles healthy.

If you would like a muscle function exam please call us at 705.293.BACK. Existing patients please schedule a 30 minute visit.