What can I expect from a chiropractic adjustment session?
The process starts with an initial appointment in which the chiropractor will take a health history and details of your injury. In this session, a plan for your overall treatment will be developed and explained to you. All sessions will usually last between 30 and 60 minutes.
Chiropractic treatment can include:
Joint manipulation
A hands on approach to restore movement to a restricted joint. This can be a gentle pressure applied to a joint over 2-3 minutes or a short sharp thrust in which a “pop”sound can be heard. This is what we call a cavitation.
Muscle release techniques
Joints and muscles are very closely related in the body so treating one without the other is a job half done. We use various techniques to restore normal muscle tone to those tight muscles causing soreness. Some of these techniques include massage, muscle relaxation, stretching, instrument assisted soft tissue mobilisation (IASTM) and release techniques that require both patient to actively move while the practitioner releases the soft tissue.
Muscle Facilitation and strengthening
Once the restrictions in your joints and soft tissues have been corrected, It is time to start strengthening the weak muscles and correct the poor movement patterns with exercises. We will usually use a screening method to identify poor movement patterns and weak muscles and prescribe exercises accordingly. These usually start with very simple exercises and build into more advanced functional movements which require activation and stabilization of multiple muscle groups.
