Chiropractic Techniques That Look Scary But Actually Help

With social media running rampant, there are various chiropractic techniques that can look scary when caught on camera. Someone gets their neck adjusted—neck rotation, audible pop, good to go. Someone else gets a full body adjustment/decompression so intense that they’re lifted off the table. Bodies are contorted into positions that look uncomfortable at best, painful and a lawsuit at worst. Eyes can more easily register the dramatic visual than the impressive outcomes of what these techniques do.

Yet ironically, some of the most effective manual therapy techniques look excessive, scary, dramatic—and they need to in order for the human spine to achieve therapeutic change. The force applied in certain ways possesses therapeutic value but looks worrisome. What feels relieving to the person receiving treatment may look horrifying to onlooking bystanders without correlation of actual risk or discomfort.

Why Do Adjustments Look So Intense?

For example, not every spinal problem can be approached with the gentility of a whisper. Some restrictions require a push in order for a joint release. For example, joint fixations that have been annoying patients for months or years on end are not going to release because of a light touch. In fact, the technique that takes down such resistance is going to need to use similar thrusts.

In addition, there’s a certain visual drama involved with getting the whole joint complex or the entire spine to adjust at once instead of one segment at a time. When a chiropractor adjusts L5 and S1 at the same time, for example, instead of S1, S2, then L3 in succession, it may look like more is happening but connected joints will release best when treated together.

Additionally, with factors like person size and body type, how it looks will differ based on aesthetics. For example, an adjustment delivered to a small woman versus a larger man with a baseball player’s build will require different positioning approaches and perhaps even different emphasis since with more musculature, the adjustment may look stronger and more aggressive whereas on a smaller frame, it looks friendlier. However the proper stress on tissue remains constant whether or not appearance suggests aggression.

The Ring Dinger and Full Spine Decompression

Manual spinal decompression techniques which treat the entire spine at once yield some of the scariest visual components of chiropractic treatment. The practitioner essentially engages passive stretches in which the practioner lifts and pulls at the patient’s body in ways that seem excessive—often with multiple releases since compressed joints require expansive treatment to separate sufficiently.

One such adjustment is the ring dinger. The ring dinger chiropractic technique looks quite aggressive. However for many patients seeking rehabilitation from widespread discomfort for compressed spines due to lifestyle changes over time, it’s done with success after the fact.

The ring dinger works because through negative pressure universally on the spine at once, like something out of a cartoon where a character gets pulled apart and magically snaps back into shape, the movement allows discs to decompress and joints to release tension simultaneously.

Patients often experience immediate improvements in range of motion and decreased pain with these types of adjustments, unsurprisingly since what they expect as released pressure has been cemented for so long. Inappropriately scaled down exercises or movements that otherwise would have produced increased discomfort were applied when in reality, what should have hurt was what helped.

High Velocity Low Amplitude Adjustments

The classic chiropractic adjustment look—with thrust and subsequent sound—creates anxiety amongst new chiropractic patients. The burst of an action and split-second audible pop sound create a scared aggression visually against some of the most sensitive components of our bodies.

However these high velocity low amplitude (HVLA) adjustments operate via speed without force for joint movement. The principle by which this technique operates is that in order for someone to maintain joint and muscular integrity around complex sides, an adjustment must occur quickly before human reaction takes over.

Therefore, many practitioners note that utilizing speed rather than greater force as an effort to get everything out of joint sooner than later makes it more gentle on tissues than extended push. This also debunks the myth that when some joints are adjusted—especially in the cervical spine—that bones lock against one another or snap in half; this isn’t true.

Instead, bubbles exit synovial fluid—and that’s what creates noise.

HVLA adjustments operate to help constrained joints within segments regain proper mechanics. Basically what feels like it took a solid push through is actually an edge obtained through lengthening excess tension—kind of like breaking through ice. Patients who receive these adjustments note immediate results after having them regularly—while they still look jarring.

Drop Table Techniques

Drop table adjustments utilize specialized tables with sections elevated slightly and drop when the doctor applies pressure at precise timing. To the observer’s eye as well as the ear drums’ sounds of loud banging noise while sections drop look much more aggressive than it feels.

The drop mechanism actually reduces pressure application required on behalf of the doctor. Instead of using their own mass to push through resistance with their hands fully engaged extension into someone’s midsection/lumbars/cervicals/occipitals/femurs/tibia-fibula complex, they use the table drop as momentum behind their thrust.

Therefore patients receive less applied pressure without losing effectiveness since even through mechanically assisted adjustments positioned by the table still help joint mechanics.

Larger patients respond better since drop table adjustments give more force without straining practitioner hands compared to pure manual adjustments. The table does the work that would otherwise have required more direct pressure on sensitive areas.

Extremity Adjustments

Most noticeable extremity adjustments work only for shoulder/elbow/hip/knee/ankle joints—but these adjustments look more alarming than those traditionally operated on the spine complex.

This is because observing someone pull, twist or otherwise catapult an arm or leg into a position makes even bystanders cringed from protective responses. Extremity adjustments also involve wider ranges than spinal joints which add to their extreme appeal.

Yet just like joint function restorations occur in conjunction with one another symbiotically, extremity adjustments mimic similar principles—restoring normal joint mechanics—breaking through restrictions—yet because limbs can move more freely than our spines, there exists more distance involved with greater range of motions.

An adjustment for an ankle that looks like someone’s ripping off their foot is actually controlled force achieved through normal range present within mechanisms put into play.

Athletes and active folks benefit greatly from extremity adjustments since extremities can be as restricted as spinal points—and dysfunctions in extremities help precipitate dysfunctions in cervical areas as well (a locked ankle influences knee and hip mechanics; shoulder problems make neck and upper back function differently).

The Disconnect Between Appearance and Reality

People note this disconnect all the time—the huge gap between appearance and reality explains why so many people are anxious about their first adjustment but then pleasantly surprised experiencing it—only hearing from social media comment sections what they didn’t think would be true based on how things looked in practice.

How people feel after experiencing procedures is rarely reflected upon video because intentions and patient quality/view quality aren’t taken into consideration. Someone who logs on thinking “that looks painful” experiences it themselves, shocked it’s somewhat satisfying instead without anything too scary (even though they might have squirmed half a time or 2 along the way).

That’s because bodies recognize restricted joints moving properly again—it feels right—even if the process looks intense—but when it’s performed under collaborative tranquility (meaning without patient surprise or frantic stress), it’s much better.

There’s also a major trust factor required; many practitioners—especially when experienced—reintegrate trust as they’re explaining results which helps ease the process for naturally anxious patients into resisting protective responses only.

It’s Not Always How It Looks but What Works

It’s not always about how it looks—but if it helps people—then sometimes it’s scary for good reason. Not everyone does well without dramatic approaches but sometimes that’s all that will help.

Thus good assessment should be made about proper alignment of intensity versus aesthetic for what’s being addressed—not given based upon how something looks more or less dramatic or effective.

Pragmatically scary assists are just one tool in a toolkit—not for every toolbox—but necessary for some junctions. Appreciating how what’s done doesn’t always have to match perception affords new patients comfort looking into care that might actually present them relief they’ve never experienced before.