Maybe you’ve never thought about chiropractic care. After all, as a regular runner, you’re pretty healthy. You’ve never sustained any lasting injuries and you don’t feel constant pain. What would be the point in seeing a chiropractor?

You’re not alone in your thought process. Athletes and non-athletes alike assume that chiropractic care is only beneficial if you are experiencing pain. Not so. In fact, many athletes and sports teams employ the services of a chiropractor on a regular basis. “Why,” you ask? Well, the answer is simple, really. It is much easier to keep a healthy person healthy than it is to treat a person already in pain.

Ideally, if you had perfect alignment, your body could handle almost anything. However, few people, if any, have perfect body alignment. While running, the musculoskeletal system may absorb up to 250-300% of the runner’s weight on the heel strike, and this exerts stress on the body. Additional issues in the feet, like flat feet or high arches, can also contribute to the problem. Running can put you at very high risk for conditions ranging anywhere from pain in the feet, shoulders, and lower back, to pinched nerves and sciatic pain.

Of course, the problems don’t occur overnight. Alignment problems take time to develop. It takes even longer for the pain to set in. Once you actually start feeling pain from your alignment issues, you are already in pretty poor shape. Now, instead of preventing injuries, your chiropractor will have to help repair injuries. While it doesn’t have to be this way, it is sadly all too common.

In preventive cases, a chiropractor can give a good overall evaluation, teaching the patient how to prevent injuries and maintain good alignment – thereby reducing the chance of injury. For those looking for preventive treatment, your chiropractor can help assess and evaluate your condition by offering scans of your feet, testing for strength imbalances and an analysis of your posture. In addition, the chiropractor can also suggest a program suited to your needs to prevent injury in the future.

If you are a runner and you have never seen a chiropractor, now is the best time to start taking advantage of chiropractic care.