NFL’s Christian McCaffrey: “I Have Chiropractors & Soft Tissue Specialists Work On Me 6 or 7 Days a Week”
Are you ready for some … chiropractic?
“It’s like a Formula 1 car, you’re constantly tuning it up. And in my opinion, there’s nothing better than having someone who can manually treat you, who really knows how to adjust and do soft tissue work.”
– Christian McCaffrey, Carolina Panthers Running Back
Last weekend, the star rusher for the Carolina Panthers became the fastest player in NFL history to amass 3,000 career rushing yards and 3,000 career receiving yards. It’s an incredible accomplishment for McCaffrey, especially considering his style of play means he’s had to recover from hamstring and ankle injuries the past two seasons that would end many players’ careers.
It’s all about recovery
His secret? In a recent interview with Stack Sports, McCaffrey cites his recovery process as the most important element in his regimen, allowing him to return to the field quickly no matter what happens between the tackles every week.
“It really felt like I had a harder time recovering in college, taking a pounding all the time.”
As a pro, McCaffrey has recovery down to a science. From tracking his sleep to analyzing literally everything that goes into his body, nothing is left to chance.
He begins every single day with performance therapy on his body. Among other things, he hits the weight room for strength and power development work, and follows that with a recovery program of chiropractic and soft tissue treatment – the same ART® and Graston® myofascial techniques we utilize at Ascent Chiropractic.
“It’s all [about] recovery. So I’ll have hands-on every day. I’ll have chiropractors, soft tissue specialists, masseuse, all that stuff, work on me pretty much six or seven days a week.”
The NFL is a physical business
Like most pro sports organizations, every one of the 32 teams in the NFL has chiropractors on staff as an integral part of their strength/conditioning and rehabilitation teams in managing and preventing injuries.
From the earliest years of contact games, football players’ bodies are subject to structural stress that Doctors of Chiropractic are specially trained to care for.
The tremendous need for chiropractic care in the NFL has been driven not simply by injury rehabilitation but by players’ desire for peak physical conditioning as well. Both before and after games, chiropractic treatment can enhance flexibility, range of motion, structural alignment and biomechanics, ensuring that the athlete’s body will function at its highest possible level and be able to recover quickly.
A growing body of research supports chiropractic’s integral role in optimizing pro athletes’ athletic performance.
A double-blind study from the Journal of Chiropractic Research and Clinical Investigation found that athletes who received chiropractic care saw an average 18% increase in athletic performance after 12 weeks of regular treatments – testing strength, kinesthetic perception, reaction time, agility and balance.
The Ascent Chiropractic Difference
Of course, a chiropractic adjustment won’t turn you into one of the best dual-threat running backs in pro football, but it’s exciting that we’re finally seeing hard evidence that proves chiropractic provides so much more benefit for athletes than just simply pain relief and improved range of motion.
Whether you’re a pro athlete or weekend warrior, study after study shows that regular chiropractic care is an essential part of both recovery and reaching your full potential as an athlete. Ready to perform at your peak? To make an appointment at Ascent Chiropractic, call 262-345-4166 or schedule an appointment with our online scheduling app.
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