Summary: Local athletes Jeff Pendlebury and Cory Acker trust the staff at Active Chiropractic to keep them healthy and fit as they compete at the professional level.
Main story: The body is a beautiful machine. Made up of an intricate web of nerves, muscles, joints and bones, the body can perform wonders when each component is working together. But if one cog of this complex machine is out of alignment, the result can be painful.
This is especially true for professional athletes who push their fine-tuned bodies to amazing physical feats. Athletes train hard to play hard, and such intense physical activity can take a toll on the body.
Enter Active Chiropractic, a neighborhood chiropractic office that specializes in diagnosing and treating musculoskeletal pain through chiropractic treatment, therapeutic massage, digital x-ray diagnostics, exercise rehabilitation, physical therapy and personal training.
Literally, chiropractic means done by hand, a fitting term for a medical method that takes into account even the minute subtleties of the bodys workings. Chiropractors treat the underlying cause of musculoskeletal pain by giving the body the means to heal itself, whether the cause of the pain is a trigger point, a muscle imbalance or an inflamed joint.
With chiropractic, we pay special attention to how the joints and muscles correlate to each other. Were looking for subtle differences in the musculoskeleton where things arent working correctly. said Dr. Jeff Alexander, Active Chiropractics practicing chiropractor who graduated from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1993.
Athletes go to Active Chiropractic for this hands-on, individualized care with a dual focus on wellness and injury treatment.
Pro sports teams have chiropractic. We offer that on a local level to some of our own athletes who are coming up through the ranks and have the ability to go pro, said Dr. Alexander.
Active Chiropractic sponsors two local athletes who compete at the professional level. Jeff Pendlebury, a mountain biker hoping to expand his professional repertoire to road biking, and Cory Acker, a national motocross ATV racer who competes regularly across the United States on both a local and national level, both go to Active Chiropractic for their treatment needs.
According to Dr. Alexander, Jeff and Cory require weekly office visits because of the strain they put on their exceptionally active bodies.
For the sponsored athletes, their goal is to get back to doing what they do best: their sport, said Dr. Alexander. After an initial performance exam, the athletes return on a weekly basis. Active Chiropractic identifies any injuries that occur and performs treatment accordingly with chiropractic, massage, therapeutic ultrasound, exercise, rehabilitation and strengthening programs.
Sponsored athlete Jeff Pendlebury credits Active Chiropractic for his success in mountain bike and road bike racing. After Pendlebury crashed while racing in 2010, Dr. Alexander recommended ultrasound treatment to break up excess scar tissue in the affected hip. After this treatment, he was able to return to his training program pain free.
On Dr. Alexanders recommendation, Pendlebury also uses a foam roller to work out the lactic acid from his muscles after strenuous training sessions. With the use of the roller, he has noted an improvement in his recovery time, allowing him to train harder and longer.
Cory Acker, who earned Top 3 in Production Class at the national level last year, has also benefited from Active Chiropractics expertise. Numerous wrecks and injuries have challenged Cory, threatening to derail his training and upset his season.
Because of his back-to-back injuries, his treatment has been quite a challenge. We put him back together after his wrecks. Hes had multiple wrecks, so we start with digital x-rays then examine the spine, joint restrictions and muscle spasms, said Dr. Alexander.
Such intensive treatment has allowed Cory to continue to train and compete, with hopes of finishing with a championship title in the Production A Class and a top 10 over all finish in Pro-AM Unlimited in 2011.
The benefit of chiropractic for athletes is obvious. Fortunately, the same treatment and approach that works for the pros also works for everyday people. For anyone wishing to alleviate or prevent pain, Active Chiropractic provides a remedy.
We take a minimalist approach, said Dr. Alexander. At Active Chiropractic, we give you the tools you need to keep yourself healthy on your own.
Active Chiropractic is located at 1038 S. Washington St. in Millersburg, Ohio. For more information, call 330-674-4373 or visit http://www.activechiropractic.co/.
