It is finally becoming summer, and boy oh boy do we deserve it! However, with summer comes outdoor activities and with activities comes injury. A lot of these injuries are to soft tissue areas such as muscles. What is the best method for helping these injuries? One of my favorite methods is to use ART.
What is ART? This stands for Active Release Technique. When you injure a muscle through any means such as:
- Overuse
- Sports related injury
- Repetitive Stress
- Bruising
- Strain on a muscle (muscle pull)
- Immobilization
This brings on hypoxia to an area of the muscle causing scar tissue to that area of the muscle. This disrupts the mechanics of the muscle causing:
- Inflammation
- Pain
- Decreased range of motion
- Nerve Entrapment
- Poor muscle mechanics (disrupted or decrease ability)
What the ART technique does is it utilizes the knowledge of muscle fibers and proper pressure with active usage of the muscle to help break up scar tissue and reinforce proper muscle firing. This helps create a better firing of the muscle giving back proper function of the fascia, muscle, ligament, tendon and nerves of the area. This allows the most effective method of a healing muscle.
Why does scar tissue show up anyhow? That is because your body believes this area is needs support. If you pull a muscle your body now thinks that there should be some stability to the area to help keep the area stronger. However, this causes an improper firing of the muscle, which can lead to further injury, decreased performance, or injury to another area.
There are many kinds of conditions that this could help:
- Trigger points in the back or neck
- Nagging injuries from car accidents
- Constantly sore muscles
- Pressure points
- Shoulder problems
- Hip problems
- Decrease in range of motion
- Back pain
- Neck pain
- Leg pain
- Shoulder pain
- Carpel Tunnel
- Numbness or tingling in an area
- Muscle weakness
- ….and more!
If you would talk to the MN Vikings’ chiropractor Dr. Koslowski he would tell you that this is a very important aspect to his work. Most highly paid athletes have had this technique utilize on them, and most people can also benefit from it! However, it doesn’t take an NFL salary to pay for it.
If you would like to know more about ART please contact Dr. Conway at Cannon Pointe Chiropractic 507-645-8000 or visit www.cannonpointe.com for more details. You may be having a nagging problem that can get fixed, or your true potential may have to be met.
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Chiropractic is effective in treating many conditions such as back pain, neck pain, headaches, and so much more!