Cleveland Browns’ Denzel Ward’s husband, wife chiropractic duo on working with athletes on recovery
Professional athletes regularly endure grueling training programs and strenuous activity both during the NFL season and in the off season.
While recovery for professional athletes is much different than that of a day-to-day gym goer, stretching, warm-ups and cool downs are often beneficial to anyone who lifts weights or exercises regularly.
Dr. Mary Teague and Dr. Chad Teague are husband and wife chiropractic physicians based in Cleveland who assist professional athletes, including Cleveland Browns' cornerback Denzel Ward, in preparing for game day, recovering more quickly after fatiguing training and injuries.
"Denzel has been a great patient for us to work with," Chad told Fox News Digital. "He's a lot of fun and trying to do as much as we can to prevent concussions, and then just bulletproof his body so he can be on the field and available as much as possible."
Mary and Chad are co-founders of Code Chiro. The couple have worked with a number of well-known professional athletes in years past including David Njoku, a tight end for the Browns, and Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry when they were part of the Cleveland-based NFL team.
"We've been blessed with being able to work with amazing people," Chad said.
Chad said he works with Ward a couple times throughout the week.
"Then we'll do pregame warm up routines, just to kind of get his body prepped, and do some brain cognitive function drills to wake up his nervous system and his brain with catching and reactivity," Chad said.
"He's very proactive. He's one of those very proactive athletes, that's for sure," Mary added.
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When it comes to treatments for professional athletes, each is different, and sometimes does not even take place between the walls of Code Chiro.
Over the last few years, Chad spent a lot of time traveling alongside professional athletes and providing treatment on the road.
"I traveled a lot the past couple years, and especially last year, with athletes, and I'm trying to taper that back and try to focus those athletes to be here in Cleveland, so I don't have to travel as much, which has been hard," Chad said.
"I would say my main goal is to have them here and incorporate a routine where we're doing recovery, kind of be the general manager of everything performance," Chad explained. "So I work directly with their dietitian, I work directly with the team staff, the athletic trainers, the chef."
There are many moving parts to an athlete's overall health. Working in tandem with various professionals allows the duo to maintain a "cohesiveness" strategy to the athlete's overall health and fitness regimen.
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Professional athletes have sessions with Mary and Chad regularly, sometimes even daily in the case of an injury.
"If they have an injury, especially in season, I would say almost every day," Mary said of athlete's treatment plans.
On average, Chad explained that while treatment schedules vary, two to three times a week is normal. However, the recovery and treatment plans depend both on the athlete and the sport they play.
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"You're going to have more contusion based injuries or impact injuries with football," Chad said. "You still get that with basketball and some other sports, but you're going to get a lot more impact in football. So a lot more lymphatic work in football, neck strengthening, more exercises to prevent concussion or delay or kind of decrease the impact when they're hitting head to head."
Chad added that basketball players experience more tendon-based injuries, which include tendinopathie, knee tendon and Achilles tendon issues.
"That's the biggest difference is tendinopathies versus impact injuries in football," Chad said.
Mary added that reactive versus proactive care is sport-specific.
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Code Chiro operates under the tagline, "movement cures" and movement is at the center of care.
"Our biggest push and education portion of our practice is trying to get people to go from whatever they're doing to improving their movement and biomechanics so they can improve whatever their sport or life goal is, and everything is movement based," Chad said.
"If it's an injury, or you're just trying to get back into fitness or a healthy lifestyle, movement is so crucial to getting the blood flowing and just increasing your overall lifestyle," he continued.
Though Mary and Chad are chiropractors, they are gym-goers themselves, parents and believe in movement encouragement for all patients.
"I would say we're more, not even movement coaches, but performance coaches and musculoskeletal specialists," Mary said. "I will say, a lot of people think of a chiropractor as the traditional cracking, the crack aspect of things, and don't get me wrong, it's really helpful, and the adjustment is a very key component about what we do here. However, we focus a little bit more on movement mechanics, the way your body moves, the dysfunction that you are going through every day."
She added that ninety percent of Code Chiro's patients are active exercisers and want to maintain their workflow at the gym without stopping or experiencing pain.
"That's what I would say chiropractic is moving towards, and it's really good," Mary concluded.