Sports Chiropractor in Mission Viejo — Olympic Team Experience
The chiropractor behind a gold medal team. What the athletes got is what you get.
Dr. Michael Foudy served as the official chiropractor to the U.S. Women's Olympic and World Cup Soccer teams from 1996 through 2004, including the gold medal run, and was named Chiropractor of the Year by the Chiropractic Leadership Alliance in 1999. That same standard of care is what a Mission Viejo patient receives: full-body assessment, adjustment of spinal and extremity joints, soft-tissue work, and corrective exercise programming for injury prevention and return to sport.
What it feels like
If several of these sound like you, they are worth measuring rather than guessing at.
- A joint that will not return to full range after an injury
- Recurring strains in the same spot
- Shoulder, hip, knee, or ankle pain that limits training
- Low back pain from rotational sports — golf, surfing, tennis
- Asymmetry you can feel but cannot fix with stretching
- Wanting to prevent the next injury rather than treat the last one
| Relief | Correction | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Quiet the symptom | Address the cause |
| Typical length | A few visits | A course of care, then maintenance |
| What is included | Adjustment and modalities | Adjustment, modalities, and corrective exercise |
| Re-testing | Not usually | Progress exam against your own baseline |
| Likelihood it returns | Higher | Lower, if the exercise work is done |
What this means for you: both are legitimate choices, and Dr. Foudy will not push you toward the longer one. You just make the choice knowing which one you picked, and what it does and does not buy you.
Extremities count
Almost every joint outside the spine can be adjusted: hands and feet, wrists and ankles, elbows and knees, shoulders and hips, ribs and jaw. Like spinal joints, they become misaligned and fixated, and restoring their function increases joint life and keeps wear and tear down.
This matters most for athletes, who demand optimal performance from heavily stressed joints. Adjusting delivers an immediate increase in range of motion and supplies the joint with nutrients — motion is the only way to move nutrients into cartilage and flush waste out.
Return to sport, and staying there
Melanie's corrective exercise work integrates human movement science: identifying the musculoskeletal impairments and muscle imbalances driving the injury, then building a customized program for prevention and recovery. She is a Performance Enhancement Specialist as well as a Corrective Exercise Specialist through the National Academy of Sports Medicine.
Dr. Foudy is 63, raised in south Orange County, and still surfs, golfs, and hikes. Some of his patients arrive by word of mouth from the lineup itself.
In summary: sports injuries & performance at Foudy Chiropractic
- What it is. The chiropractor behind a gold medal team. What the athletes got is what you get.
- How it is found. Surface EMG reads nerve-root function level by level, digital X-rays show the structure, and palpation validates both — so the cause is measured rather than guessed at.
- How it is treated. Chiropractic adjustment, the open-floor modalities, and where discs are involved, AccuSpina spinal decompression. Corrective exercise follows so the correction holds.
- What it costs. An adjustment visit is $90 with every modality included. Decompression plans are quoted in person after your exam.
- Where. Foudy Chiropractic, 28892 Marguerite Pkwy #150, Mission Viejo, CA 92692 — (949) 365-0403.
Sports Injuries & Performance — questions people ask
Do you treat athletes at every level?
Yes — from weekend surfers and golfers to competitive youth and collegiate athletes. The assessment is the same; the plan is matched to your sport and your season.
Can chiropractic improve performance, not just fix injury?
Restoring full joint range of motion and correcting muscle imbalance is performance work as much as it is rehabilitation. That is why national teams carry a chiropractor at all.
How soon after an injury should I come in?
Once serious injury — fracture, dislocation, significant tear — has been ruled out. If your presentation suggests one of those, Dr. Foudy refers you out immediately.
Do you work with youth athletes?
Dr. Foudy sees patients of all ages and matches technique to the body in front of him, including low-force instrument-based options.
Other things this office sees every week
Sciatica
Pain running from the low back into the buttock and down the leg. Dr. Foudy hears this almost every day — and can almost always help.
Read more →Lower Back Pain
The most common reason people walk through this door — and the one Dr. Foudy says he can almost always help.
Read more →Neck Pain
“Every time I turn my neck a certain way, I get this shooting pain into my shoulder blades.” He hears it constantly.
Read more →Headaches & Migraines
“I'm getting these headaches that are kind of all over my head.” Many of them start at the top of the neck.
Read more →Herniated & Bulging Discs
A gentler alternative to medication or surgery — decompression with oscillation at maximum load.
Read more →Numbness & Tingling
Where you feel it is rarely where it starts. The scan finds where it starts.
Read more →Forward Head Posture
The posture your desk gave you — measurable, and correctable.
Read more →Whiplash & Auto Injury
Symptoms often arrive days after the collision. The exam finds what the adrenaline hid.
Read more →Scoliosis
A curve that is measured, tracked, and worked on — not just watched.
Read more →Shoulder & Hip Pain
Almost every joint in the body can be adjusted — not just the spine.
Read more →Pregnancy & Prenatal Care
Gentle care for the back and pelvic pain that pregnancy brings with it.
Read more →Get an answer, not a guess.
One visit tells you whether sports injuries & performance is something this office can help with. You will see your own scan and your own X-rays before any plan is proposed.