By: Brooks Laber D.C. 
Injuries, we all deal with them. Whether you are a weekend warrior on the softball field, an occasional golfer, or a high school athlete we all deal with various injuries throughout our lifetimes. It could involve something as simple as a sprained ankle, or even more complicated injuries like a sprained rotator cuff, or severe back and neck pain.
When it comes to these types of issues you don’t have to wait around and let it slowly heal, hoping that it heals strong enough for you to continue to do what you love to do. There are a lot of different options you have to help speed up recovery time, and to make sure the area heals properly.
Here at Brooks Chiropractic, we utilize a variety of different techniques and tools to help you heal quicker, and stronger to get you back on the field. Listed below are some of the different tools we use to help promote healing.
1) Chiropractic Adjustment – This is the cornerstone of what we do, the adjustment helps to increase range of motion, decreases muscle spasms, decreases pain, as well as helps to promote healing to the injured area. What some people don’t know is that we don’t just adjust the back, adjustment to your extremities can greatly promote healing, reduce inflammation, and get you back in the game faster.
2) Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Work – Although it sounds complicated the procedure itself is pretty simple, it uses a stainless steel instrument to dig into muscle much deeper than you can with the use of hands. It is primarily used when trying to break up scar tissue, fascial restrictions, and chronic inflammation. It works wonders on soft tissue injuries that were once thought to be permanent, by breaking down scar tissue and increasing range of motion.
3) Electric Muscle Stim – This treatment involves passing a controlled electrical impulse directly through the affected soft tissue. These impulses prompt acceleration of your body’s natural healing process, helping to reduce muscle spasms, increasing lymphatic drainage, and release endorphins (your body’s natural pain killer) to help deal with the pain.
4) Post Isometric Relaxation (PIR) – This technique is used at the end of the treatment, and works great to help lengthen the muscle involved. It involves taking the muscle to its maximal length, having the patient contract very lightly, and upon relaxing should increase muscle length and range of motion.
When it comes to injuries we all go through them, whether you do it playing sports or rolling your ankle mowing the yard. Getting treatment soon after an injury can greatly speed up the recovery time, as well as making sure the area heals properly. If you or a family member have an injury in the near future, give us a call at Brooks Chiropractic (952)445-6611. Or visit us at Shakopee Chiropractor.