There is this local team that has lost almost every game. Sounds like a movie set-up right? It's actually true. They've only won 2 out of 20 games.
If you're old enough to remember the Bad News Bears or even Major League, this team has many similarities. They've had games with more errors than hits.
Their main pitcher, pitches a lot of innings because, well, he is good at throwing strikes. Interestingly enough, this kid is a patient. You can probably guess, his elbow is sore from pitching so much.
I've been adjusting this kid the whole season and he has done well. He has been able to keep playing, but without much rest, there hasn't been time for a good recovery. For example: he pitched Saturday, then again on Monday.
What makes this so special, is after Saturday nights game his elbow was so sore, he was using his other arm to do common household chores.
Now, this is where it gets interesting. Because of office hours and game time conflicts, I don't get to adjust him before a game. Well, this week the stars aligned. Literally, an hour before game time, I got to work on him and did a lot of work on his elbow.
As you might expect, Monday night he pitched a masterful game, the best of the season, allowing only 3 hits, lots of strikeouts and he pitched a complete game. The best part is after the game he told me his elbow had ZERO pain. He said, he could have pitched two more innings.
I agree that kids shouldn't pitch that many innings, heck, major leaguers don't. But, the lesson here is about function, alignment, performance, and injury prevention.
This highlights why most professional athletes get adjusted.
Performance goes up.
Injuries go down.
You can apply the same principles to your own life. I see it all the time in the office. People are lifting groceries and get back pain. People sleep in weird positions and get neck pain. People type all day and get wrist pain. Improper function increases the likelihood of pain and problems.
The human body is pretty amazing at adapting, but it can't adapt forever. Pain is the warning sign.
It's pretty obvious that a pro athlete needs good function, but so does every one else. I need my low back to work well, because I bend over a lot during the day to work on people. I see people, all too often, waiting until they have so much pain, they have no choice but to come in.
Lets use June to focus on Proactive Prevention.
It's not an exciting topic... there's no blood spurting, no hospital gurneys, no MRI's, no screaming, no 8 hour exercise marathons, it's just the way healthy people live.
Number one... function is the key to everything, so, get adjusted at least once this month.
Number two... make a list of the health issues you'd like to change.
Number three... write down how you see your health 5 years from now, and how you got to that point.
I have more articles for you on this subject coming, but for today, the best thing to remember is to be healthy, is to be proactive.