Cape chiropractor set to work behind the scenes with wrestlers at Olympics

Millions around the world are watching the 2016 Olympic Games. Only a select few get to experience the event from behind the scenes. Cape Girardeau chiropractor Matt Uchtman is one of those select few.

From the outside, Uchtman's Elevation Chiropractic office is unassuming, like the other strip-mall businesses flanking it, but once you enter you can almost hear a distant samba beat. Olympic rings adorn walls garnished with flags from across the world and a pair of USA Wrestling jackets. Next to the front desk is a section covered by photos, some signed by the athletes they feature, centered around a picture of American wrestler Jordan Burroughs.

Burroughs is a defending Olympic gold medalist, reigning world champion and favorite to win gold again at 74 kilograms (163 pounds); when Burroughs and the rest of his USA Wrestling teammates hit the mat next week, Uchtman will be there making sure the athletes are primed and ready for the challenge in front of them.

Uchtman will be among a group of 40 chiropractors from around the nation making the trip to Rio de Janeiro to provide health and wellness support to American athletes as part of the Maximized Living Sports Performance Council. Uchtman will be stationed with the wrestlers, but the group will also work with judo competitors, weightlifters, USA volleyball and a bevy of other medal hopefuls, including sprinter Justin Gatlin.

"If anyone's going to beat this dude," Uchtman says, pointing to the face of track superstar Usain Bolt splashed across the cover of Sports Illustrated, "it's going to be [Gatlin]."

Uchtman will be in Rio as a sort of health adviser to the wrestlers. He's not there to provide medical treatment -- trainers and orthopedists cover that -- but rather to offer preventative direction and do anything that can contribute to the physical and mental well-being of the athletes.

"We basically do whatever they need us to do," Uchtman says. "If that is just trying to get their mindset right, especially down there right now in that environment ... Whatever they need. We'll go to the grocery store to get them whatever they need. Obviously their weight is [important], especially with wrestling. Keeping them at weight is crucial, but also making sure they don't lose explosiveness or strength. We pretty much are support to make sure they are giving themselves the best chance. That's it. Once they step out there, it's just them."

Maximized Living is a nationwide organization of chiropractic doctors that began in 1994 under the direction of doctors Ben Lerner and Greg Loman. The "five essentials" of the group's approach go beyond simple spinal alignments that so many associate with chiropractic treatment -- maximized mind, maximized nerve supply, maximized quality nutrition, maximized oxygen and lean muscle and minimized toxins. It's through those core considerations that the group tries to make its patients, including the Olympic wrestlers, healthier.

It seemed like a natural approach for Uchtman, a former athlete himself, and he underwent extensive certification required by Maximized Living for nutrition, cognitive psychology and toxicity, along with advanced corrective level chiropractic. The Sports Performance Council requires all of its members to work at least two events per year, but Uchtman jumped in feet first, doing 10 events within his first two years.

"I played sports my whole life, and just noticed that that stuff does wear on you," Uchtman says. "As I learned more about how lifestyle has an impact on not only where those athletes are right now but just realizing too, they still have a life after this -- family and kids and careers. We want to do the best we can to support them so their body doesn't break down. I didn't necessarily have that growing up."

Serendipitous proximity to former UFC fighter Matt Hughes, whose home base was located just minutes from Uchtman's practice at the time in Edwardsville, Ill., ultimately pointed the doctor toward his current opportunity. Hughes got him involved with UFC, where he met a coach who had been involved with USA Wrestling. Suddenly Uchtman was traveling with wrestlers to wherever they were competing and providing the same sort of support he will at the Olympics. And the same guidance he gives his regular patients.

"I tell my patients, 'I'm going to be doing the same thing down there that I do here. They may be a little more committed than you, but that's what they do,'" Uchtman says. "Our bodies, they all work the same. They require the same things to perform. They're putting quality food in their body and you're going to McDonald's. Not that that's bad, but you can't expect the same level of performance when that's the type of fuel you put in."

A number of Uchtman's responsibilities at the Olympics will coincide with some of the hot-button topics surrounding Rio -- doping and the conditions in a troubled Brazil -- proving how important the group of advisers is for the athletes.

When it comes to putting things in their bodies, what Uchtman and his cohorts provide for the competitors has zero margin for error. He stands in his office pulling various supplements and vitamins off his shelf and espouses his confidence that anything the Maximized Living professionals work with is 100 percent copasetic.

"Our protein, this is the stuff they take. I just saw Justin Gatlin leaving and he had this in his hand," Uchtman says. "They know this is clean. There's nothing in here that gets them in trouble. It goes across the board, from greens we have to Vitamin D, keeping inflammation down with the MaxFit, all that stuff just helps to keep them going and they know that they can trust it.

"Anything we would recommend to them on our side -- they've got strength and conditioning coaches on the other side -- it's all been tested to make sure all the requirements are met and there's compliance. That is the last thing you want to see is some guy stand up there with a gold medal and an American flag, and two or three months later [be stripped]."

And when it comes to keeping an athlete's body in tip-top shape, there are other concerns in Brazil as well -- potential crime, undrinkable water and the Zika virus. They are real issues, but Uchtman believes the athletes aren't focused on those things.

"They've made a decision to go so they're just trying to take every precaution they can. ... I'd say the main thing is they're just trying to protect their state and their focus. Ultimately, the decision has been made to compete and they're going to go do it.

"It's the same for me. My patients are asking me all the time, saying, 'Make sure you take your bug spray,' or things like that. There have been lots of situations like this in the past with you name it -- West Nile, SARS. I'm not going to go lay around in the water or anything, but I'll take some water filters and try to be safe. We trust the fact it will be OK. [The athletes] are the same way. They've got a job to do and it's their dream. They've overcome obstacles the whole time -- physical, environment, whatever -- so they'll do it again."

This is a bit of a dream for Uchtman as well. He was scheduled to attend the 2012 games in London to assist the United States judo team, but a death in his family prevented him from going and postponed his Olympic experience.

As much as Uchtman is attending the Games as a health professional, he's also excited to take in many moments as a fan in awe of the athletes.

"It's the Olympics. I've got to cover a lot of decent-size events like World Trials and things like that, but it's no Olympics," Uchtman says. "Just the culture and the environment. Plus just going to Rio. I've never been to Rio before.

"It's such a blessing. There's probably 40,000 or 50,000 chiropractors in the United States and there's going to be about 40 there. Just the fact I got to be one of those is humbling, actually. Be there, be the best I can and enjoy it."