Chiropractic Treatment for Cheerleading Injuries

If someone were to ask you which girls’ sport has the largest number of injuries, you might say soccer or gymnastics. Nope, believe it or not, it is cheerleading.

Cheerleading is also known as competitive cheer, and it “accounted for 65 percent of all direct catastrophic injuries to girl athletes at the high school level and 70.8 percent at the college level between 1982 and 2009”, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Millions of girls participate in the sport each year. About 95 percent are girls, with about 5 percent of boys participating in cheerleading.

Cheerleading is no longer just entertaining the crowd with clapping and pom poms. Instead, it has become a rigorous sport involving tossing girls into the air, tumbling, and building tall human pyramids. It has definitely involved a sport, and cheerleaders have evolved from entertainers into athletes.

As such, skull fractures and closed-head injuries, ACL injuries, and cervical spine injuries occur fairly frequently. When they perform, cheerleaders are often on a very hard surface, like the hardwood floor of a basketball court or the concrete at a football stadium.

The American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators reports that the sport has made great improvements in addressing injuries and that the number of catastrophic injuries has dropped each year. There’s been improved training for cheer coaches and awareness about the sport’s dangers has increased. Rule changes have outlawed difficult and dangerous maneuvers, as well as mandating that higher-level routines be performed only on mats. Schools are designating better practice areas for cheerleaders, rather than making them practice in parking lots, and giving the girls physicals and access to an athletic trainer just like any other team would have.

At Knoxville Spine and Sports, we have a multidisciplinary medical model with an emphasis on functional assessments and rehabilitation. Dr. Bert has been in practice since 2001, and we specialize in the treatment of the human frame related to the spine and sports-related conditions like ankle sprains, ACL strains, quad strains, and hamstring pulls.

We are in close proximity to Bearden and Web high schools, as well as Kams, Harden Valley, Farragut, Powell, Halls, and West high schools, and Grace, CAK Christian Academy, and Catholic High, too. We also treat sharks, the Premier Athletics SHARKS, that is.

If you’re planning on trying out for competitive cheer for any of these teams, you might consider some of the services we offer at Knoxville Spine & Sports. Our personal trainer Pat Hickey is experienced in various training protocols and proper biomechanics. He works with all types of athletes. One of the best ways to prevent cheerleading injuries is through training. Certainly, qualified coaches to teach maneuvers are important, but so is personal training. Proper conditioning is imperative to minimizing injury, and Pat can help you reach your personal goals by teaching you resistance exercises to gain lower back, core, and shoulder strength, and stretching exercises to improve flexibility. Pat and the rest of our team can also speak to you about any injury concerns that you have, as well as strategies to prevent injury.

Before you pick up your megaphone this season, give us a call first. We’re here to help!