Why you shouldn't "self adjust"

Why is it "bad" to self adjust according to chiropractors?

Well, it's not because we are afraid you'll take our job ;)

It can actually damage ligaments and the integrety of your spine. LIGAMENTS are the parts of the body that hold joints together (yes, they hold more together and the joints are held togehter by a lot, but for simplicities sake as well as this article, we'll focus on ligaments).

So ligaments hold joints together. However, ligaments only have so much elasticity in them. They can only stretch a bit before giving out. When we self adjust (or heck, even get over adjusted by a chiropractor), those ligaments loose their integrety and strength. Therefore muscles have to "take over" in a sense in order to help stabilize those joints. This can lead to chonic, spastic muscles in that area (trust me, that doesn't feel great).

To help you understand this concept more, consider an ankle sprain. I'm sure most of you have experienced these. Notice how when you sprain an ankle (even minor), it tends to sprain again more easily in the future? That's partially due to ligaments being compromised in that area.

Now when we self adjust, granted, it isn't THAT extreme... however, doing it over and over again can cause damage to those areas. Does it feel good? yes. It tends to produce endorphins to the brain making us happy and thinking we moved the joint. However, when we self adjust, we tend to move the joint above and below the sticking joint (and those guys were already happily moving). That over-adjusting/non specific adjustment tends to overuse those ligaments causing more issues than benefits. In order to get that "stuck" joint moving, we tend to need a specific velocity and force into that joint. This is where I personally recommend seeing a chiropractor who has trained for years on how to assess and address these issues.