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Examine the whole chain
Spine, pelvis, hips, knees, ankles. Athlete-specific assessment looks at how you actually move, not just at the joint that is complaining.
Health conditions · Sports injuries
Coming backis the hard part.
Getting hurt is fast. Getting back is slow, and the part people rush is the part that decides whether it happens again.
Through the hips, legs and the whole kinetic chain. Most athletic load routes through the low back and pelvis on its way to the ground.
What sports injuries actually is
Patient education — general information about the condition, not medical advice about your body. Only an examination can tell you what is going on with yours.
Sports injuries fall roughly into two buckets. There are acute injuries — a sprain, a strain, a ligament tear, a fall — where something specific happened at a specific moment and you know exactly when. And there are overuse injuries, which build silently: tendonitis, shin splints, runner's knee, the low back that has been quietly grumbling for a season and finally stops being ignorable.
The overuse category is the one worth understanding, because it is the one that is preventable. Overuse injuries are almost always a load problem — training volume that climbed faster than the tissue could adapt to it, or the same movement repeated tens of thousands of times through a joint that was not moving well to begin with.
The other thing worth knowing: the injured site is often not the cause. A knee that hurts may be a hip that will not rotate or an ankle that will not dorsiflex, with the knee stuck between them absorbing what neither would. That is why a good examination looks at the chain rather than the sore bit.
How it shows up.
Does this sound like you?
Tick what you actually feel.
Not a diagnosis, and not a test — nothing here can tell you what you have. It is a list you can take with you, because everybody forgets half of it the moment a doctor walks into the room.
0 things to mention. However many you ticked, the exam is what tells you anything.
What tends to be behind it
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Acute trauma
Sprains, strains, ligament injuries and falls. One moment, one mechanism.
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Training load
Volume or intensity that increased faster than tissue could adapt. The most common cause of the injuries people think came from nowhere.
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A restricted link in the chain
A joint that will not move forces the joint next to it to move more than it should. That one gets injured.
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Incomplete rehab
Returning at the point pain stops rather than the point capacity returns. This is how a one-time injury becomes a recurring one.
How care approaches it
What Dr. Meansactually does about it.
Written as aims, not outcomes — because that is all anyone can honestly promise you before they have examined you.
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Restore motion where it is missing
Adjustments — spinal and extremity — aim to restore range of motion to the joints that have lost it, so load stops being dumped somewhere it does not belong.
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Injury recovery, not just pain relief
The aim is function returning, not just the pain stopping. Those are different finish lines and only one of them keeps you from re-injuring it.
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Then work on performance
Once you are healthy, the same assessment feeds into keeping you that way. Sports performance care at the clinic works with athletes at every level.
Chiropractic care is not a cure for any condition on this page, and no honest clinic will promise you one. What Dr. Means can do is examine you, tell you plainly whether this is something chiropractic care is suited to help with, and refer you elsewhere if it isn't.
If you come in
Here is what actually happens.
Step 01
Free consultation
Call or book online and we'll sit down with you at no cost or obligation. Tell us what's going on and we'll start building the picture.
Read this part
When this is not a chiropractic problem.
Some of what looks like sports injuries is something else, and some of it is urgent. A clinic that only ever tells you it can help is not being straight with you. If any of the following is true, do not book a chiropractic appointment — get medical care.
- You heard or felt a pop, and the joint gave way.
- You cannot bear weight on it at all.
- Visible deformity, or a joint that is obviously out of place.
- Numbness, tingling, or a limb that has gone cold or pale.
- Any head impact with confusion, memory loss, or vomiting — that is a concussion protocol, not a chiropractic one.
This page is general health information, not medical advice, and it is not a substitute for examination by a qualified provider. In an emergency call 911. See our healthcare disclaimer.
Sports Injuries, honestly answered.
Including the questions where the answer is no.
When can I get back to training?
When capacity has returned, not when the pain has stopped. Those are not the same day, and treating them as the same day is the single most reliable way to get injured again.
Should I rest completely?
Rarely the whole answer. Relative rest — offloading the injured tissue while keeping the rest of you working — is usually better than shutting down entirely. What that looks like depends on the injury.
Can care make me faster or stronger?
Care aims at function, mobility and pain. What it does not do is substitute for training. Anyone selling adjustments as a performance shortcut is overselling.
Do I need to be a serious athlete?
No. The clinic works with athletes at every level, and 'athlete' here just means someone who moves and wants to keep doing it.
Not sure if this is what you have?
That is what the consultation is for — and it costs you nothing to find out. If it turns out Dr. Means is not the right person for it, he will tell you that too.