I'm Dr. Douglas Obetz — a board-certified sports chiropractor who has spent three decades treating the fastest men in the world and the neighbors who watch them on TV.
I opened my doors in Haymarket in 1990 with a simple idea: find the actual cause, fix that, and tell the patient the truth about what it will take. Thirty years later that hasn't changed — it has just brought me some unusual company.
Along the way I earned the D.A.C.B.S.P., the American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians' diplomate credential, and did post-graduate study in clinical nutrition. That combination is why I look past the joint on the table — at how you sleep, fuel, train, and recover. It's usually where the real answer is hiding.
“Keeping elite athletes at peak performance is a privilege — and it starts with the same dedication I give everyone who walks through the door.” Dr. Douglas Obetz, D.C., D.A.C.B.S.P.
On any given Monday I might see a newborn with colic, a framer whose back gave out, a fourteen-year-old with a concussion, and a professional sprinter three weeks from a championship final. They all get the full workup. That has never been negotiable for me.
I practice at Comprehensive Chiropractic & Sports Injury Center, the clinic I founded and still run — fifteen minutes off I-66, in the town where I raised my family.
If something has been following you around for years and nobody has explained it properly, that's exactly the conversation I want to have.
Elite sprinting is a sport of millimeters — a pelvis a few degrees out of position costs hundredths of a second, and hundredths of a second cost medals. Working at that level forces a precision that every patient in my clinic then benefits from.
Noah Lyles is a five-time World Championship gold medalist (2019, 2021, 2023) and a 2021 Olympic bronze medalist at 100m and 200m — one of the most decorated sprinters of his generation. Being part of that journey has been a privilege.
Comprehensive Chiropractic & Sports Injury Center is the clinic I founded in 1990 and still lead. Services, the full team, hours, and appointment requests all live on the practice site.
Visit the Clinic Site ↗Additional and emergency visits by special arrangement. Nutrition appointments are available in person, by phone, and by internet follow-up. For anything urgent, call or text 703-853-2161.