How Chiropractors Find Adjustments

In this episode of 'Ask the Chiropractor,' Dr. Brant Hulsebus, a chiropractor based in Rockford, Illinois, and a Palmer College of Chiropractic graduate, explains how chiropractors determine the specific vertebrae to adjust. Dr. Hulsebus details the multi-step process used in his office, including taking a patient's medical history, conducting a chiropractic exam, reviewing x-rays, and observing posture. He also highlights the importance of experience and collaboration among chiropractors in providing effective care. Tune in to learn about the science, art, and philosophy behind chiropractic adjustments.

www.rockforddc.com

Transcript

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hello and welcome to another ICA Sports and Fitness Science Council podcast. My name's Brant Hulsebus. I'm a board member of the ICA Sports and Fitness Science Council, and I'm joined today by a friend of mine and a repeat guest, Dr. Alan Palmer. Did we like to say hello? for having me back Brant. I really appreciate it. Yeah, it's nice to be here. Thank you. Well, if you've been in a podcast before, you know Dr. Palmer and I know each other from Hockey World, both of us having worked with hockey players over our career as chiropractors. But today you're gonna join us to talk about a different sport. Correct. yes. We're gonna talk baseball today. So you there's another, as I just mentioned, we had the Pro Hockey Chiropractic Society, but you, you're involved in another group, correct? Yeah. So about. 13 years ago I started the Professional Baseball Chiropractic Society, and I've been running that along with Rick Bishop ever since. And the hockey one we started about seven years ago, so that's a little bit newer. And so we've basically networked all of the chiropractors that work in professional baseball at all levels, and we do an annual conference every year. educational conference and support chiropractic education, you know, students in chiropractic education and various activities like that. And so, yeah, yeah. So we're gonna talk, I think, a little bit about our upcoming conference in Naples Yeah, so it's, when is the date of that conference November 21st and 22nd. So coming up towards the now? Do, do I have to be a baseball chiropractor in order to go? absolutely not. You know, we embrace all chiropractors. We have some other allied health professionals that attend as well. We have sometimes PTs or ATCs massage therapists even. And we have quite a few chiropractic students that come as well. So it's welcome and open to everybody. So this might be a great conference if I wanted to do more professional sports to get more involved in professional sports as a chiropractor I know in the hockey wants a great way to network. It's a good way to talk to others and educate yourself, correct. it is. And we always do an expert panel where you have some of the speakers on it, some of the, the team chiropractors and you know, the audience can throw questions at them and find out, you know, some of the different questions they have about getting involved with sports and, and those types of things. And we usually try to bring in some of the speakers from major league baseball, minor league baseball, people that are athletic trainers, physical therapists, you know, sports you know, strength coaches, things like that. And so that, that, it's one of those conferences that you can't generally get to hear from those kinds of professionals going to chiropractic seminars and so forth. So we feel it's a unique opportunity for attendees to really hear from people that work in the trenches every single day with the athletes in, in baseball or hockey on the hockey conference side as well. Yeah, so it's good. Well, you mentioned something about students too. Are you trying to get a lot of students to come to this? We do invite students. We really embrace that a couple of years ago. And you know, we have sponsors for our groups. You know, we have four different levels of sponsorship and sponsors that sponsor at the platinum level. We take $500 of that annual sponsorship fee and we, we donate it back to a student as a student scholarship towards their educational costs. So, for instance, in Dallas which you were in Dallas we donated, $500 scholarships to students from, from different colleges. And so, you know, we have the schools put forward a candidate that they feel best exemplifies somebody who would be deserving of a scholarship like that. And then we, we give them the scholarship in the sponsor's name. So the sponsor gets some, you know, some great stuff as far as publicity from it. And the student, you know, gets some, a nice addition to their, their educational costs. So it works out all the way around for everybody, which is great. Well, I know in the hockey world you guys bring in some pretty awesome speakers. I learned quite a bit and got exposed to a lot of neat things. Do you have anybody lined up for this upcoming conference already? do. We've got, we've got five speakers coming in and we've got mark Shiers, who's with the Baltimore Orioles, and he's an a TC just a, a really highly, highly touted, highly recommended speaker. He was actually recommended by Nick Kenny. Who is the president of PBATs, the professional baseball athletic trainer society. And Mark has spoken for us a couple, well, a few years ago now. And you know, he's gonna do all about shoulder evaluation and treatment and rehabilitation. So a lot of really great stuff on shoulders, which I know as chiropractors, especially when you're working in sports, it doesn't really matter the sport you're working in. You know, the shoulders an area of. Of, you know, primary concern related to injuries and, and injury prevention and things like that. And we have Dr. Jessica Moler. She used to be with the Orioles as a sports psychologist, and now she's with the. The Air Force Academy. So she works with all the sports. I think they have like 30 different sports, she said at the Air Force Academy. So she is like their lead on sports psychology. And so again, another highly recommended speaker. And so I think that's gonna give our attendees a, a neat twist on, you know, dealing with the psychology of working with athletes. And then we have Dr. Byron Campbell, who's a doctor of physical therapy and an A TC, also from the Orioles organization in their rehab side. And you know, he's gonna do some really great stuff on shoulder and upper extremity. And then we also have Dr. Scott Dixon, who's also a doctor of physical therapist who's gonna do dry needling. Which is becoming, as you know, very popular in sports and, and in chiropractic as well. And so, Dr. Dixon, he teaches dry needling courses all around the country. Again, very highly recommended speakers. So if someone's interested in getting a taste of that to really see what that's all about and learn some of that, they can, they can. Attend, you know, and see his presentation. And then Dr. Jennifer Allen, who's also a doctor of physical therapy, and she's gonna do her presentation on the rest of the upper extremities. So shoulder down to the wrist and hand. And again, I think her presentation would be really good. So this, this conference is a lot focused on, other than the, the sports psychology on the upper extremities. And so I, I think that, again, being taught by some of these. that work with these kinds of injuries every single day. Whereas, you know, as chiropractors we do work with extremities, but you know, the spine is our forte. So we, we get to learn from people who, who work with this as their forte every single day, which is sort of unique and, and should be a really good experience for everyone that attends. I like the idea because I know how to work on the spine. It's kind of fun for me to learn more about the shoulder and other things because even if I'm not a big extremity chiropractor, this. And that patients still come in with questions. Someone still comes in and says, Hey, what do you know about dry needling? Even if I don't do it, I'd be really good to listen to somebody who's really good and respected in the field to get better answers to everybody else. So as we're on the ICA podcast here and a lot of the straight chiropractors, I tell 'em, you can definitely be a straight chiropractor and still adjust. But there's nothing wrong with learning a little bit more about different areas of the body to get better answers to questions they might ask you. I agree a hundred percent. I mean, you know, all our patients, whether they're at. Athletes are not, you know, they have other parts of the body that it's important for us to understand anatomy and function and even, even for recommendations for home exercises or rehab or other things too, to give them suggestions. Obviously attending to the fi to the spine first, right? Turn the power back on and maintain that power to the area of the body. But also you know, understanding the components that go into helping somebody who has an injury to that area of the body, I think is really good to do. Now you guys, we did our conference all at a hotel. Do you guys have central a location you're meeting at? Is it anything else or is you just gonna be in the lobby of the hotel? What's the plan there? we're we, the last three years we've been alongside the Florida Chiropractic Association and their Southwest Regional Conference in Naples, Florida. And the venue is just beautiful. It's the it's a Naples Grand Beach Resort. Right on the water there. And in Naples, of course, is a beautiful part of Florida. So if any of you are living in the north or you know, and, and come November, you're dealing with some pretty nasty weather, you want to get away or bring the family for a few days or the weekend enjoy the beaches and everything like that. It's, it's a pretty sweet spot to to have the conference. And so also the other thing that. The FCA allows us to do is on Sunday, so our, our workshop is on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday they have a record keeping class. It's two hours. I know a lot of the states, Arizona's one of them that requires some record keeping, if not every year, every other year. And so that's also included, so they get to sit in on that record keeping, get that for their, their relicensure, if that's something that's required as well. But, we'll, we're gonna have 12 hours of continuing education. You know, along with the, the seminar. Very nice little bonus there at the end. It's always nice to have. yeah, definitely. Yeah. It is also nice to partner up with them, which is how you and I talk more and more with our, our council and your societies, how to get more sports chiropractors tuned into each other.'cause we're all out there. We just to know how to find each other sometimes. right? Yeah. Yes, for sure. No doubt about it. Well, this sounds like a really, really great conference. We'll have some information on our page too and links for if you're ever watching, listening to this to I can sign up. I'm sure you wanna tell us how you sign up. Otherwise. Yeah, I would just encourage everybody to, if they want to check it out a little bit more, go to our website, which is pro baseball chiros.com, and then you go to the Naples 2025. Menu tab at the top. Just click on that. It'll give you the rundown about all the speakers, their background, their credentials, what they're gonna be teaching everything about the event, including a, a link to register. Also a link for the hotel, for the room block and everything like that. We'd love to have everybody come out and check it out. It's always a good time and, and you know, I plan on learning a lot myself, so it's gonna be good. Great. Well, I always like to give my guest the final word, so I'm gonna pass the puck or the pass the ball back to you and let you get the final word in here. right. I hope I don't strike out on this one, but. So I can't hit a curve ball, so I'm glad you didn't throw me a curve on it. No, I just, I again, just wanna open the invitation. It's an open invitation for everybody, whether you're a student or a chiropractor or other allied health professional to come on down and check us out. And we have a great group of chiropractors that work in baseball. You know, you'll get to network with them. We have some. Awesome sponsors. We have, we'll probably have about 20 sponsors there with, booths in our exhibit area. So you'll be able to see some of the cutting edge technologies that are out there and, and those types of things too with regard to everything health related really, and and check all that out. And of course, you know, just comradery always great at these events. And that's, we really look forward to it. And you can even, you know, sneak over to the icas exhibit area. They've got a lot of stuff there too. They've got a huge amount of exhibitors, and we're basically just adjacent to their area. So, you know, you can, you can check all that out as well. So again, just, you know, November 21st and 22nd, hope to see you all there. Awesome. Well, thank you for tuning in and watching and if you want more information, we'll have links underneath so you can catch it up more. And Dr. Palmer, thank you again for joining us and remember to like and subscribe wherever you're listening or watching this podcast. Thank you. encourage people to follow us on social media too, on Instagram And everything too would be great. You know, see what we're do up to. we'll throw some handles out there for you. Thank put some links there for you. it. Thank All right. Thanks everybody. All right. I appreciate you, doc. Thank you so much for having me.