Here at adjust.clinic in Petaluma, California, we believe that "movement is medicine". And, one of the best ways to restore movement to your spine and the rest of your body is through chiropractic adjustments. Chiropractic is a profession, and the chiropractic adjustment (or spinal manipulation) is the main modality used in the chiropractic office. Most chiropractors use a hands-on approach to deliver this kind of care. Other docs use instrument-based techniques for their care.
This office uses a combination of both. However, we use mostly a hands-on technique, deeply rooted in the specific, traditional type of chiropractic care that has been achieving results for more than 100 years.
Here are the main benefits of chiropractic adjustments:
I had an instructor in chiropractic college who participated in studies measuring the range of motion of people's necks before and after receiving a chiropractic adjustment. Those people who receive adjustments enjoyed an improved range of motion compared to people who just receive stretches.
And since "movement is medicine", this better mobility to the neck and upper back will make you feel better too. Movement helps with the healing process after an injury. Movement also helps with the next topic, which is:
Since chiropractic adjustments help restore mobility, it also helps restore normal neurological feedback from the spine back to the brain. This neurological feedback is critical to help support and stabilize neck and spine posture. There are many reflexes involved.
Your spine is the largest balance organ in your body. When your spine moves well, there are hundreds of joints containing millions of receptors that send balance and posture feedback into your brain. With better movement that is optimized just for you, this means you have better neck and back posture.
All of those tiny supportive muscles in your neck and back rely on this restored mobility and stabilize the neck posture to work well. These muscles only work well when they know exactly what is going on with your posture and with your movement. The muscles respond to their awareness in space.
When your neck or back doesn't work well, then your muscles don't work well either. If you have stuck spots in your neck, then the supportive muscles of your spine will contract more and more becoming tighter and tighter to help stabilize what your body perceives as an injury.
Just like muscle activation can be sped up, the fine motor programming is also affected by better movement and posture. Your neck position relies on tiny muscle movements and reflexive updates from the joint capsules in your neck. Chiropractic adjustments affect this. This is why it feels so great to have a chiropractic adjustment done to your neck. When you get adjusted, it feels like you have less pressure in your neck and shoulder, and your muscles can relax.
When you speed up muscle activation, and you change fine motor programming, you also reduce your resting muscle tone in your neck and back after a chiropractic adjustment. This feels amazing. It feels like there is less pressure on your neck!
When you reduce your resting muscle tone after it's been tight for so long, it means the muscles are relaxed but also ready to work. They are not fatigued all the time.
The more robust muscle activation and force is what you get when you improve your resting muscle tone, change your final programming, and speed up your muscle activation. After an adjustment, your back is supported and stabilized much better. You can become more resilient. You become stronger. Athletes enjoy this benefit when they are training for events that they participate in. People who were involved in car accidents enjoy this benefit because it makes them feel so much better, and they feel back to normal.
