I first started going to the chiropractor when I was 16 years old. There are two things I remember from my first few chiropractic adjustments.
It was the first time I felt better leaving a doctor’s office.
When I was a freshmen in high school I injured my hip playing football. This started a downward spiral. It went from manageable hip pain to excruciating pain to bouts of my leg randomly giving out that would send me to the ground. I had been in physical therapy for many months prior to trying chiropractic, and it was not working for me. I would always leave feeling worse than before the appointment. I can still remember the way I felt leaving the chiropractor for the first time. The pain was still present, but I felt like I had strength in my leg again. Several visits later, the hip pain was gone 99% of the time.
2. it was the quickest doctor’s appointment i ever had
The second thing I remember thinking was, “that was quick!”
I was used to going to doctors appointments where you waited in line to check in, sat in the waiting room for 20 minutes, then got moved to a smaller room where you would wait for 20-30 more minutes. By they time the appointment was over, it was always more than an hour.
My first few chiropractic visits were very quick (with the exception of the initial exam which took about 30 minutes). The visits were 5-10 minutes. This was very confusing to me. I always compared chiropractic to massage, and some massage appointments are 120 minutes! How could chiropractor’s achieve their goal in just a few minutes? It wasn’t until deep into chiropractic school that I learned and understood the mechanism of this.
The answer is: GOLGI TENDON ORGANS.
So, let's talk about golgi tendon organs better known as GTOs. To understand this, we will have to talk about physiology, but bear with me! I promise it wont be too bad.
These are specialized fibers located in your muscles. They are built in protection. When these fibers are stretched quickly, these specialized fibers inhibit (turn off) that particular muscle. This is hugely important to the understanding of chiropractic. In fact, this is one of the reasons that a chiropractic visit is so quick when compared to other therapies.
When a chiropractor performs an adjustment, this quickly stretches the local spinal muscles, stimulating the GTOs, and causing relaxation. This relaxation of muscles is instantaneous.
Keep in mind, we do not want complete relaxation of spinal muscles. A certain amount of "rigidity" is completely necessary for proper stability. The goal is perfect muscle symmetry. When the muscles of your spine have symmetry in muscle tone, proper bio mechanics are the result. We want you to be bio-mechanically perfect so you (and in turn your brain) can function well in a gravity environment.
So now we understand that chiropractic adjustments quickly stretch muscles stimulating the golgi tendon organs which results in muscle relaxation and re-calibration. Chiropractic is by far the most efficient way of accomplishing this goal.
If you have never experienced the life changing effects of chiropractic care, I strongly urge you to find a local chiropractor. Chiropractic is without a doubt the future of health care. Go out and experience it for yourself!