By Dr. Kyle Buck, DC, CCSP
If you stopped by the chiropractic office recently, you may have heard us utilize certain keywords when describing exercises or tissue injuries. Sometimes, the words can be slightly ambiguous in their context. Our aim today is to provide clarity so we can have an increased understanding to optimize your results.
- Tissue – for our purposes, “tissue” can mean any structure within the body. Now, as we are sports chiropractors, we generally only mean tissues such as bone, ligament, muscle, and tendon. These are the tissues we work with on a daily basis.
- Capacity – a tissue’s capacity is its tolerance before it begins to breakdown, become damaged, or compromised. Now, exceeding this sounds scarier than it generally is. It can occur progressively, as in a low-grade muscle sprain or strain. Or it can happen suddenly, such as with a bone breaking or a high-grade sprain or strain. These are just two ends of a spectrum. Exceeding tissue capacity can lie anywhere along this spectrum.
- Load – This is a commonly used term in engineering to describe a force exerted on a surface. We are using it similarly, except the “surface” we are describing is the tissue that has been injured. While at the office, when we ask you to “load” the injured tissue we are asking you to exert a force on that tissue. Exerting a force on the tissue will force it to adapt, remodel, and heal.
As always, our aim is to help our patients become as knowledgeable and self-sufficient as possible. Our goal is to be the best resource possible, and not a necessity for our patients. Hopefully, this adds to your knowledge toolbox. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach and ask.
