It’s no surprise that head injuries are the most common injuries in combat sports. In recent decades, governing bodies have been focusing heavily on concussion prevention and treatment, with the NFL leading the way in studies in the early 2000’s. 

Beginning of 2026, I attended an 8-hour training with the International Kickboxing Federation and a significant portion of it focused on concussion awareness and protecting the athlete. All officials, no matter their job and position, are trained in recognizing early signs of concussions and are dedicated to athlete safety and preventing further injury. 

Without adequate treatment of concussions and other head traumas, the athlete can face life-changing effects that include behavioral changes, cognitive dysfunction, and a change in motor skills

If a concussion is detected, officials, doctors, coaches and all involved immediately stop the action, and an aggressive and uncompromising plan of action is taken to ensure proper recovery and stop further damage. 

Recently, I had a training session lead by Dr. Josh Collingsworth, D.C. that was eye-opening and lead to a discovery of an injury I didn’t know I had been suffering from for 4 years, and I’m probably not the only one in a combat sport to suffer from this.

Back in 2022, I had a PKB (points kickboxing) competition. This competition focuses on technique rather than damage. “Points, not power” is a phrase you’ll hear drilled throughout the entire event. With the focus being on technique and not power, the risk of injury is much lower.

I was 33 at this competition. Immediately after, I felt like a switch flipped in my body, and I attributed it to age, and it affected every corner of my life. It suddenly took so much more for my body to recover. A class I would take 5-6 times a week, I could do once, and needed 2 days to recover, then I would feel slow and sluggish the next time and just physically and mentally couldn’t keep up. I then started seeing the effects at work where I was in a constant brain fog. Sometimes my words would get jumbled up, I couldn’t focus well, and my memory wasn’t as great. This then lead to a depression about things “I used to be able to do” and a rapid weight gain regardless of activity levels. Now, at 38 years old, I accepted this was my fate and probably pre-menopausal. 

In my case, I had a subluxation of my cervical spine. Not only did this cause a tight neck and tension headaches, it changed my whole spinal alignment that made everything more difficult and painful to function, but it also was clogging up the information highway of my nervous system.

He explains it below:

One of the biggest things that gets overlooked in contact sports and head injuries is how much trauma affects the nervous system long after the actual hit happens. In sports like Muay Thai, the body is constantly dealing with impacts, rotational stress, falls, strikes, defensive postures, and repetitive stress to the head, neck, and spine. Even if someone does not have a diagnosed concussion, the nervous system can still experience significant stress that changes the way the brain and body communicate with each other.

From a chiropractic and neurological perspective, this is where subluxation becomes extremely important. A subluxation is not just a bone being “out of place.” It is an area of altered movement, abnormal tension, mechanical stress, and neurological dysfunction within the spine and surrounding tissues. When trauma occurs, whether from one major hit or repetitive microtrauma over time, the joints, muscles, ligaments, and connective tissues surrounding the spine can begin sending abnormal sensory information to the brain.

Your brain depends on accurate sensory input from the spine and body every second of the day. Specialized receptors in the muscles, joints, and connective tissues are constantly feeding information into the central nervous system regarding posture, balance, coordination, movement, and muscle tone. When spinal dysfunction and subluxation are present, especially in the cervical spine, that information can become distorted. The brain essentially starts receiving “bad data,” which can alter the way the body moves, reacts, stabilizes, and recovers.

This has major implications for both recovery and performance.

One of the biggest things we see neurologically after trauma is altered motor tone. The nervous system will often shift into a protective state, causing muscles to become hypertonic, guarded, tight, or neurologically overactive because the brain perceives stress or instability within the system. Over time, these altered neuromotor patterns can affect mobility, reaction time, balance, coordination, strength output, recovery, and overall athletic performance. Many athletes think they are just “tight” or “beat up,” when in reality their nervous system is stuck in a prolonged stress response.

At the same time, sensory processing can also become altered. The body may lose efficiency in proprioception, meaning awareness of body position, movement, and spatial orientation. In a sport like Muay Thai, where timing, coordination, balance, and rapid reactions matter, even subtle neurological dysfunction can have a significant impact on performance and recovery.

Another important piece of this conversation is dural tension and structural stress. The dura mater, which surrounds and protects the brain and spinal cord, can experience increased tension patterns following trauma and spinal dysfunction. When abnormal tension and mechanical stress build within the spine and surrounding tissues, it can further irritate the nervous system and contribute to headaches, muscle tension, altered movement patterns, autonomic dysregulation, and chronic neurological stress responses.

This is why neurologically focused chiropractic care is about far more than pain relief. Pain is often the last symptom to show up and the first symptom to go away. The real focus is assessing how the nervous system is functioning and adapting. We look at spinal mechanics, posture, movement quality, autonomic nervous system balance, motor control, and how efficiently the brain and body are communicating.

The goal is not simply to reduce symptoms temporarily. The goal is to restore proper movement, improve neurological input to the brain, decrease abnormal tension patterns, improve motor coordination, and help the nervous system shift out of chronic fight or flight and protective patterns. When the nervous system functions better, the body generally performs, heals, adapts, and recovers better.

For athletes, this can mean better balance, improved coordination, faster recovery, improved mobility, better reaction time, and greater resilience under stress. For the average person, it may mean better energy, improved function, clearer thinking, reduced tension, and a body that is better able to adapt to the physical and emotional stressors of life.

Whether someone is competing in Muay Thai, playing another contact sport, training recreationally, or simply trying to improve their health, the nervous system is still the master control system of the body. Trauma, repetitive stress, and spinal dysfunction can alter the way that system communicates and functions. Chiropractic care from a neurological and structural perspective is designed to help restore that communication so the body can heal, regulate, recover, and function the way it was designed to.

Within one month of treatment, most of those symptoms have been relieved. The mental noise has completely quieted down and I can focus. No longer am I watching Kru demonstrate a drill and listening to his words, and then immediately brain dumping the drill and having to watch my teammates drill. My recovery is probably better than what it was 5 years ago, and my technique is remarkably better due to the better alignment and body awareness. 

At this level in my practice, I am better at blocking strikes with everything other than my face, so I’m confident my risk of this injury is lower. But I still think it’s worth bringing awareness to martial artists of all skill levels. We’re all human, sometimes we’re bad at defense, or our opponent is just faster than us and we don’t see that strike. If we’re taken down, that impact can impact our spine too, and even with the best defense, the constant neck tuck and impact to our gloves can have an effect on our spine as well. 

It’s important to remember that our spine houses and protects our nervous system with our spinal cord. Any injury, no matter how inconsequential it seems, can affect our lives in a tremendous way, and at a minimum, it’s important to have routine care for our spine, that holds up our whole body.

"Your nervous system is the master control system of your entire body, and your spine is designed to protect it. When trauma, stress, or dysfunction alter that system, the effects can show up far beyond just pain. The body’s ability to move, heal, adapt, regulate, and perform all begin with proper neurological communication. Taking care of your spine is not just about feeling better, it’s about allowing your body to function the way it was designed to."— Dr. Josh Collingsworth, D.C.