TREATMENT PHILOSOPHY AND OVERVIEW

TREATMENT PHILOSOPHY AND OVERVIEW

“BUILT FOR THE ATHLETE”

You may have come across many “Sports Chiropractic” offices or offices that claim to tailor more toward athletes. These clinics often label themselves as such due to the fact that they have a patient base that includes athletes or because they prescribe rehab exercises with some kinesio-taping thrown into the mix. Rehab exercises are necessary, but there should be more depth to out of office patient care than just stretching, foam rolling, bird-dogs, dead bugs, clamshells, ice-heat. Auxillary modalities are also not inherently bad, but often times it just helps the problem in the moment, rather than addressing the other, deeper contributing factors that may be hindering performance.

From the very start, Dark Horse Chiropractic and Performance wanted to break the mould.

This means giving athletes what they actually need, from a practitioner that actually TRAINS HARD in the weight room and COMPETES in sport. Nobody can relate to the man in the arena more than someone that has been in the arena themselves.

We grew tired of hearing practitioners and doctors tell patients that he or she needed to pause all training or physical activity entirely when in actuality, some form of movement regression and load management would have allowed the athlete to stay psychologically and physically fit while tending to an injury. They deserve better. Telling someone that is very physically active to completely drop physical activity is a sure-fire way to decrease outcome optimism, treatment adherence and lower overall morale.

Throughout the treatment process, it is important to highlight the functional improvements. Pain is complex, and not always a reliable measure of progress. Functional capability, on the other hand, is a much more reliable measure of progress. Much like how we celebrate wins and milestones in sports, we treat even the smallest increases in functionality as wins.

There is nothing worse than a practitioner that does not share the same drive and/or excitement to improve as the patient. That is why we take pride in our love for the weight room, hard training, and competing, because only competitive athletes understand what even the slightest improvement can mean for performance. A practitioner and patient that gets excited about the process, makes for much better treatment outcomes.

Our approach involves making adjustments in technique, training load or programming, incorporating basic movements with high intensity to bring up weakness, and decreasing inhibition from movement restriction or pain by thorough movement assessment and history, thoughtful exercise prescription that keeps pushing the patient, and intentional chiropractic adjustments.

We have the privilege of working inside the Lake Washington CrossFit gym, which allows us to have the space necessary to assess and execute specific exercises.

Treatment at Dark Horse Chiropractic and Performance is “True Sports Chiropractic” and is “Built for the Athlete” because as athletes ourselves, we understand that athletes need more than what the traditional model of healthcare has to offer.