Our careers define us

I’ve always wanted to focus on sports injuries as a career. Even as a little kid I was always fascinated with how athletes improved. I remember being about 10 years old and my father gave me an article about Howe Long and his exercise routine, his rise to the NFL, and the hardships he overcame. I remember about the surgeries that the Dodgers pitchers would get for their rotator cuffs. At 10 years old I remember going to the Dodger games and watching the players warm up. I had another passion at the Dodger games…the hot dogs and boy could I eat! My parents never complained but I probably ate a small fortune every season in that stadium.
My father played football at UCLA and semi-professional rugby after college. He told me that training consisted of eating steak and eggs all the time and do sprints and push ups. Weight training didn’t exist. It was really about who had natural talent.

As I got older I learned about weight lifting and nutritional aspects of sports. Largely because of a lack of natural talent, a small frame, a freakishly fast metabolism, and no muscle, I was looking for ways to gain an edge. Fascinated by this stuff I began using natural body weight exercises rather than weights and noticed greater gains.

There was a time I attempted to become a vegetarian. I did carbo-loading when it was in vogue. I stretched daily and became so flexible that I was able to contort into wild positions.
In chiropractic college my education really grew exponentially. There were many in my class that were amateur bodybuilders. Many others were endurance runners. Some were adventure sports enthusiasts. So it was interesting learning about how others viewed health, training, and chiropractics application to better sports performance.

Chiropractic has given me the true knowledge that I was looking for since I was little. Looking for the edge some athletes are using illegal methods such as steroids, growth hormone, and others. I wanted to learn how to be healthy, not a walking pharmacy. Yet we watch baseball now with suspicion. Football has put their head in the sand regarding drugs. It seems as though sports now isn’t about maximizing healthy athletic potential, but rather maximizing potential at all costs. This is wrong.

Chiropractic is about improving naturally. It’s about being healthy. It’s about fixing human physiology by utilizing our own healing potential. That’s exciting.

Looking back just the past five years of what I’ve learned: Graston technique for muscular and tendon damage, kinesiotaping for support of tendonitis and acute injuries, cold laser therapy to speed healing, athletic training principles to rehabilitate injuries, etc. What is fascinating about these methods is that regardless of how the injury happens these methods can work. You may have injured yourself at home, lifting something, or exercising. Regardless of the cause (sports or not) these methods are the greatest at getting the best results the industry has to offer. I hope that all those who come my way can benefit.