Every athlete knows the feeling: something goes wrong mid-movement and everything comes to a stop. What happens next determines whether you are back in a few weeks or dealing with the same issue for years. At TLC Chiropractic, Dr. Dean DePice has been helping athletes at every level recover from sports injuries since 1987. The difference between athletes who recover well and those who keep reinjuring often comes down to one thing: whether the underlying structural cause was ever actually fixed.

Common Causes of Sports Injuries

Injuries rarely come out of nowhere. Most have a structural or biomechanical explanation that was already in place before the incident occurred. Common contributing causes include:

• Spinal misalignment: uneven load distribution through the spine and joints that increases stress with every athletic movement
• Muscle imbalances: gaps in strength or flexibility between opposing muscle groups that place excessive demand on joints, tendons, and soft tissue
• Overuse and repetitive strain: high training volume without adequate structural support that gradually breaks down discs, joints, and connective tissue
• Traumatic impact: acute collisions, falls, or contact forces that displace joints and damage soft tissue in a single event
• Poor movement mechanics: technique errors in lifting, running, or sport-specific patterns that load the body incorrectly over time
• Returning too soon: going back to activity before the body has fully resolved a prior injury, creating a pattern of reinjury in the same area

Symptoms Related to Sports Injuries 

Presentations vary widely by sport and mechanism, but common signs include:

• Localized pain, swelling, or bruising at the site of impact or overuse
• Reduced range of motion or a sense of tightness that limits full movement
• Muscle weakness or joint instability, particularly in the knee, ankle, or shoulder
• Shooting or radiating symptoms that suggest nerve involvement
• Pain in the same location that keeps returning after apparent recovery

If any of these sound familiar, a structural evaluation can identify whether an unresolved underlying cause is keeping you from recovering fully.

Services We Provide for Sports Injuries

At TLC Chiropractic, we address both the injury and the biomechanical factors that set it up:

• Chiropractic Adjustments
• Traction and Stretching
• Massage Therapy
• Spinal and Postural Screenings