ProActive Chiropractic provides expert chiropractic adjustments for eSport injuries.
Schedule an appointment today with our versed chiropractors for electronic sport injuries in San Francisco, CA.
Electronic Sports include:
- Fortnite World Cup
- Call of Duty World League (CWL)
- HALO World Championship
- League of Legends World Championship
- Counter-Strike
- Madden NFL
- Super Smash Brothers
- Evolution Championship Series (EVO)
- The International
- IEM Katowice
- The Overwatch League
- PUBG Global Championship
BACKGROUND:
Gaming is among the most popular hobbies in the modern world. Its popularity is growing each day, and even more so with shelter-in-place orders and homeschooling due to COVID-19. Electronic sports, or ‘eSports’, is considered a sport competition that uses video games. It has become a billion dollar industry with official tournaments being held worldwide. Discussions of this sport joining the Olympic games is even being considered! The sport boomed in popularity in the late 2010s with the growth of social media and streaming platforms; specifically YouTube and Twitch.
Being a professional eSport player requires an entirely separate form of endurance than the traditional sports we see on ESPN. At the professional level, eSports “requires an intense level of physical endurance and dexterity” according to video game designer David Sirlin. Long periods of time (between 5-18 hours a day) are spent in front of a screen, in a seated position, with repetitive motions of the hands and wrist. Heart rate and blood pressure tests also show that eSports players are physically exerting themselves when in competition and practice.The lifestyle and routines of a professional gamer involves much more wear-and-tear and stress than meets the eye.
Not only is your body affected when you are a gamer, but so is your mental health. When gaming becomes your job and your teammates are relying on you for their source of income, the weight of that pressure can cause extreme stress and anxiety. This can lead to weight gain, insomnia, thyroid issues, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and bad habits. This domino effect can lead to concurrent diagnoses that can cause chronic discomfort and illnesses. Being an electronic sports athlete is no joke! Gaming takes a huge toll on the body.
Injuries related to eSports include:
- Fatigue
- Muscle strain
- Slower reaction time
- Back pain
- Carpal tunnel
- Cubital tunnel
- Cervical and lumbar radiculopathy
- Shoulder tension
- Nerve entrapment
- Thoracic outlet syndrome
- Teeth clenching/grinding or bruxism
- Headaches
- Stress and anxiety
Having the necessary skill set for proficiency in electronic games requires hours of focus, repetition, and incredibly long periods of sitting. For many, gaming can become an addiction. Athletes training to qualify in professional eSports pull all-nighters to master in-game mechanics, compete in season matches, or broadcast live for their millions of followers. The pressure to stay relevant and popular in this sport is all encompassing and is not sustainable. In fact, the demands of this sport is so intense that the average gaming career lasts about four years and most professional athletes retire before the age of twenty-five.
This is where we come in! The doctors at ProActive Chiropractic are well equipped to ensure that your gaming will not have adverse effects on your health. We have been successful in helping our electronic sports athletes stay sharp physically and mentally. Don’t believe us? Book a complimentary consultation on us and we will show you how much better you could be.
DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT:
During our sports chiropractic sessions, we will address all the health issues you are going through as a result of playing your favorite games. We believe you should enjoy life at its fullest and not let back pain or muscle aches get in the way of you playing at the highest level. Our winning methodology revolves around healing your body structurally, chemically, and mentally.
Chiropractic Manipulative Therapy (CMT):
Scientific evidence proves that chiropractic techniques help patients by restoring joint mobility to provide proper functional movement patterns and balance out the nervous system. This decreases spasms, stiffness, and pain while promoting optimal health.
Recent studies have shown that chiropractic adjustments, especially in the cervical spine, increases reaction time. This is especially important for gamers because speed can be the difference between winning and losing.
When your job is on the line and your teammates are relying on you, stress becomes a huge disadvantage. Did you know that chiropractic adjustments have been proven to turn off the sympathetic nervous system or the “flight or fight” response; and turn on the parasympathetic nervous system or the “rest and digest” pathway? The sympathetic system is beneficial in small doses or when we are truly in danger. When we are stressed out by the pressures to perform well for our job, our sympathetic pathway stays on for longer than what it is intended to. This increases our cortisol levels and can lead to chronic illnesses, fatigue, brain fog, and pain.
Gamers need to set themselves up for victory, and receiving CMT is one of the smartest ways to do that.
Graston Technique and Fibroblaster Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization (IASTM) Tools:
When joints get stuck, the soft tissue structures around them suffer as well. When the muscles and connective tissues around the joint are not moving and gliding along each other, scar tissue and fascial distortion occurs. We have multiple tools of different sizes and shapes to help address these issues.
Graston is a patent protected, innovative instrument that assists in soft-tissue mobilization, improving flexibility, and decreasing pain by effectively breaking down fascial restrictions and removing scar tissue between muscles. Proactive Chiropractic is Graston certified and a Preferred Provider®.
Fibroblaster IASTM Tools help our doctors diagnose and treat patients by providing controlled microtrauma to break scar tissue and fascial restrictions to restore full range of motion to keep you in the game.
Kinesiology Tape:
Kinesio Taping is a rehabilitative taping technique to increase stability around hypermobile joints. Additionally, the tape offers better circulation to the injured area, reduction of swelling and inflammation, speedy recovery of overused muscles, and reduced muscle cramping.
We use different types of kinesiology and medical tape to suit your needs. For e-Sport athletes, we find that postural cue taping is essential to keep players from experiencing upper crossed syndrome symptoms. Taping can help manage forward head carriage, rounded shoulders, and slouching. For professional games, we commonly use tape to relieve nerve entrapments, assist in posture, and for edema control. Kinesiology tape is one of the easiest and economical ways to keep you in the game longer.
NormaTec:
NormaTec sleeves have been scientifically proven to enhance the body’s natural ability to recover, increase circulation, reduce pain, rejuvenate muscles, boost flexibility, and clear out lactate and metabolites. The benefits of NormaTec are so significant that 97% of professional teams rely on its technology to train harder and achieve more. Check out what the buzz is all about here: https://www.normatecrecovery.com/news/.
When gaming all day, you don’t get the proper movement and circulation you need. The NormaTec is perfect for professional e-Sport athletes because you get blood flow and lymphatic drainage that is so important for your health without having to move. You can wear the NormaTec while playing, so you never have to skip a beat gaming while getting all the essential blood flow you need.
Denneroll Neck Orthotic:
In addition to the hands-on services provided in the office, we also offer clinically proven products shown to reverse the damaging effects of trauma, age, and bad posture. The Denneroll is one of them.
Normally, your cervical spine should be presented with a healthy curve (similar to a wide shaped “C”) that points toward the front of your body, called a lordosis. This allows our nerves, ligaments, and muscles to function properly. When we lose that cervical lordosis structure and our necks become more straight, it is considered an abnormal cervical lordosis or reversal of cervical lordosis. This can happen as a result of age, repetitive slouching, spending too much time in front of electronics in a sustained position, trauma, and even stress. It causes unwanted muscle discomfort and degeneration of discs, which can lead to nerve issues.
Numerous evidence-based studies have proven that correcting abnormal cervical lordosis will alleviate pain and muscle tension, while enhancing posture, comfort, and overall health. The Denneroll helps facilitate normal cervical lordosis to help create balance between the nerves, ligaments, muscles, and joints of your upper body. It is a great tool in conjunction with chiropractic care because it helps keep your adjustments longer to keep you feeling pain-free and back to work, back to play.
Posture Pointers:
The doctors at ProActive Chiropractic take the time to educate patients on proper posture and how to achieve it. We analyze patients’ posture and functional movement mechanics, address the under and overcompensated muscles and structures to allow for proper range of motion and movement, and give patients the correct postural exercises to address the deep muscles that support the skeletal system.
When gaming, we find ourselves in a very unfavorable position for sustained hours. Most people sit in a slouched position with their head forward and rounded shoulders. This shuts off the deep, core muscles important for correct posture. The more forward our heads are, the more we load the disc in our spine, which leaves us highly vulnerable to disc herniations and pain. We also decrease our lung capacity as we hunch forward, which leaves us more fatigued. Having great posture while gaming is essential to your health and can be the difference in winning or losing a tournament.
Ergonomics:
The majority of people who game are not ergonomically set up. People who play video games, either casually or professionally, typically value short-term comfort rather than the practice of proper posture. As a result, gamers often slouch in couches, lay on their beds or sit at the edge of their seat with no lumbar support. This creates a lot of unnecessary load on the human spine that will usually turn into pain if left unchanged.
Additionally, the usage of input devices (controllers, fight sticks, mouse and keyboard, etc.) and the postures necessary to efficiently operate them are rather unnatural and can pose issues for their users. Utilizing these controllers creates ergonomic challenges, as gamers may hike up their shoulders to their ears, hold their device in a crouched position in front of them, rest their elbows on hard surfaces and extend their shoulders to compensate for quick movements necessary in competitive games. As a result, many gamers who are not ergonomically savvy can develop chronic repetitive strain injuries such as ‘mouse shoulder’ (medically known as biceps tendinosis) or hypomobility complications (too little movement) such as sacroiliac joint dysfunction (improper movement of the joints at the bottom of the spine which causes lower back pain).
‘Gaming chairs’ seem to be the solution for those suffering from pain as a result of prolonged gaming, but the root of the problem may still persist. In recent years, there has been a high demand for gaming chairs like those seen during professional tournaments and used by popular Twitch streamers. These gaming chairs are almost always colorful, aesthetically pleasing and make claims that the user will “own the battlefield” and perform just like their favorite pro players. However, chairs are by no means a one-size-fits-all piece of furniture and more harm than good could be done by making an ill-advised purchase in hopes of improving gaming capacity.
A person who is 6 feet 5 inches tall and 250 pounds will have much different needs in a chair than someone who is 5 foot 6 and 130 pounds; not to mention that spine curvature disorders such as scoliosis, kyphosis or lordosis could pose a whole different set of issues for users. At ProActive Chiropractic, our doctors provide thorough examinations to deliver expert advice for purchasing the most appropriate ergonomic chairs catered towards our patients’ personalized needs.
Therapeutic Exercises:
Our journey to improve your health and wellness does not stop when you leave the office. At ProActive Chiropractic, we honor a mutual collaborative effort by our doctors and you, our patients. While in our office, we believe it is our job to manually correct the underlying source of your pain by adjusting and performing techniques that you would not be able to do on your own. We then encourage you to perform customized rehabilitative exercises at home, in the office, or at the gym to better hold the adjustments made. We believe in a team approach where the doctors will align and balance patients on the table, and patients do their part in building the right habits, muscles, and strength to hold those adjustments. These specific exercises help relax painfully tight muscles and build strength to key muscle groups which are imperative for spinal support.
We understand that educating our patients on their condition and teaching them how to prevent it is key to success. We want our patients to know when to come into the office and when they can fix ailments on their own. Our goal is always to save you time and money.
Low-Level Laser Therapy (LLLT):
Research on Low-Level Laser Therapy reveals that it is a non-invasive and efficient method to reduce healing time after any sort of injury— with zero side effects.
At ProActive Chiropractic, we offer laser therapy using devices from the world leader in Low-Level Laser Technology, Erchonia. Thousands of reliable studies have deemed these lasers to be safe and successful in pain management and recovery. It’s ability to improve circulation, reduce inflammation, promote healthy tissue, and stimulate cell health is impeccable.
Similarly to how plants use sunlight for energy to grow, the cells in our body convert the non-thermal photons of the laser into energy, which is then used to heal the damaged tissues faster. Read about the clinical research here.
Gamers constantly sprain the many ligaments around their wrists, hands, and fingers due to handling their control device or keyboard. The best way to decrease the inflammation and increase healing time is to use LLLT. It is painless, quick, cost effective, and can be done even while gaming.
Imaging:
Although we do not have an on-site imaging center, we are partnered with Radnet and SimonMed for all of your X-ray, MRI, CT Scan, and Ultrasound needs!
We have learned that being an e-Sport athlete is hard on the body. Symptoms may vary, so being able to see what is really going on lets us get to the root of the problem quicker. Whether it is a disc bulge, stress fracture, or torn muscle, imaging will allow us to make a more definite diagnosis.
Get adept eSports pain treatment in the San Francisco Financial District area. Call 415-762-8141 or schedule an appointment online now.
