Sports Injuries / Performance Enhancement
He has had concussions from his 11 years of playing football, had ankle sprains, hamstring tears, low back injuries, neck injuries, numbness and tingling, elbow and hand pain, even turf toe and plantar fasciitis!
He used to feel unlucky with all those injuries but now looks at them as a valuable training tool to give him new knowledge that goes beyond just the books.
Take a look at our testimonials page. You will see stories of many athletes who thought that their season was over, as that was what they were told by other doctors, only to return to their sport and play at a high level.
And by high level, we are talking about athletes who went from season-ending injuries to being MVPs of CIF while winning a title, and even winning National Titles or setting a World Record while winning a Gold Medal at the Pan Am games.
Get Back to Your Best
The biggest group of our patients come in for treatment for sports injuries. Dr. Gair has become the “go to” doctor for many of the local HS and elite travel teams for many sports, but especially baseball, softball, wrestling, and track.
Part of the reason for our focus on these injuries is because Dr. Gair was an elite athlete and experienced injuries throughout his career that without the best sports treatment could have ended his career.
This is one big thing that sets our office apart. Dr. Gair not only learned how to treat these conditions from some of the top sports laser doctors in the world, he also knows first hand what it feels like to have a rotator cuff or labral tear that affects your ability to throw, a meniscus injury that affects your running and jumping, and a disc injury that, well, basically affects everything you do as an athlete!
Football Injuries
Baseball Injuries
Soccer Injuries
What Sets Us Apart?
First off, we do still do traditional chiropractic treatments when indicated (we also use a mechanized adjusting tool for people who either can’t tolerate or do not like manual “cracking” adjustments).
We never try to close you on a large, upfront treatment plan, and never give you a “cookie cutter” plan where each person gets the same recommendations as every other person. We tailor your treatment plan to your injury and to your complicating factors (such as diabetes, hypothyroid, prior injuries, age, etc, which may affect how many treatments you require).
Our goal is always to get you back to your sport as quickly as possible, and that is our primary focus. Many patients do elect to stay on after their injury has healed for Sports Performance Enhancement (see the section on that for more in-depth details!)
Here is a step by step example of how we process patients with sports injuries. You can also check out our videos section and our YouTube page to see further examples.
Consultation
After you fill out your paperwork, Dr. Gair or Dr. Mason will review your intake forms before seeing you in the room. When they come in, they will ask further details, such as what your position is in sports when you feel the pain, how is it affecting your performance, etc. We will also review any imaging and reports that you have already had. If you have had labs, we would also love to see those as well as there can be information on them that can help us know if you have any complicating factors for your recovery.
Examination
This will be a focused exam on your injury. This will include having you go through your sports motions that cause you problems, and you will rate the pain, weakness, or loss of range of motion. Dr. Gair or Dr. Mason will then test the muscles in the injured area as well as the quality of the motion and neurological function. This will help to determine your diagnosis and start to form a treatment plan. Based on the exam, the doctor will initiate treatment on the same day. We know that with treating athletes that TIME is of the essence, and you do NOT have time to wait several days before we start working on getting you better.
Treatment
Depending on your exam findings, we will start with treatment. Laser is almost always indicated and used. The wonderful thing about laser is that even if your injury is serious enough that it requires surgery, Laser will help get you ready for that and cut down your recovery time from surgery. Most of the injuries we see do not require surgery, fortunately. For the laser treatments, the doctor will determine which of our lasers (we have 5) will be most effective for your injury. We will then do the laser in a way to try to quickly improve your muscle function on that first visit. This may be combined with tools to work over tight and painful muscles that may be “knotted”, may include Kinesiotape for additional support, adjustments, home exercises, and stretches, as well as nutritional and/or supplement recommendations.
Follow-Up
What we like to do is have you go test out the injured area with some activity after the treatment and then come in for a follow-up visit. This helps us get an idea of how many treatments may be needed based on your improvement from the first session. This also lets us know if the laser is appropriate for your injury or not, as if you do not get any improvement then laser may not be the right treatment for your injury. This way we can move you along quickly instead of having you waste 4 weeks on therapies that may not work.
Get Results
So, when we are evaluating you, we are not only looking at issues with your posture and mechanics but also looking at you from a neurological and metabolic standpoint as well. Dr. Gair or Dr. Mason will go through a detailed analysis of how your muscles are functioning in relation to your sport and if your nervous system is well integrated or not for sports performance.
The results Dr. Gair has gotten with these methods since 2004 are the reason that our office is primarily a referral based office as our patients love to tell all their friends and teammates about what we do.
Contact us
Call us, text us, or fill out this form with your contact information and one of our staff will get in touch with you to answer any questions you may have and help you set up your first appointment.