Acupuncture Stimulates Recovery for Athletes

Acupuncture is the use of sterile, paper-thin needles to reduce disruptions of general health and wellness such as inflammation. The professional care providers at Thrive Spine and Sports Rehabilitation recommend athletes, weekend warriors, and other active individuals implement acupuncture for sports recovery. Booking acupuncture sessions at Thrive will keep these individuals healthy, can help to recover from physical activity, and will support a quicker healing process post-injury.

The Benefits of Acupuncture for Sports Recovery

Athletes and active individuals who receive acupuncture treatments will find many benefits associated with the Eastern medicine practice:

• Reduced pain, stiffness, and inflammation
• Stress relief
• Increased relaxation
• Better blood flow
• Increased circulation and range of motion
• Dopamine and serotonin rush
• Endorphin (natural pain killer) stimulation

Oftentimes, Thrive patients are high school, college, and professional athletes. However, any person can improve their general wellness and decrease their recovery time by utilizing this refined Eastern medicine practice. Sports acupuncture can be applied for a range of individual needs–from common sports-related injuries to combatting general physical wear-and-tear.

Sports Acupuncture at Thrive Spine & Sports Rehab

Acupuncture is being widely utilized throughout sports medicine, and beyond. However, there is no one standard method or prescription for use. Each acupuncturist utilizes their own background and school of thought for each patient's unique case.

At Thrive, Clint Price is one acupuncturist that is most often seen in the Belmar location. Price has spent four years with Thrive across multiple locations after years in college for kinesiology, after shadowing physical therapists and acupuncturists, and after graduate studies in acupuncture.

Price combines ancient Eastern medicine practices with his medical schooling in Western ways. He blends these two disciplines to understand blood flow (also known as Qi or Chi) throughout the body's pathways (known as channels and meridians for Eastern healers). Price notes disruptions in patients' blood flow, how these disruptions correlate to pain and injuries. He works to free up natural flow using acupuncture needles.

Quick Case Study: Belmar Patients Receive Sports Acupuncture

It's high school football season, and the injury is a high ankle sprain after the athlete planted his foot and was hit from the side. Clint Price is working with the young footballer to get him back on the field with his teammates…

"Typically the road to recovery is longer than simply rolling an ankle," said Price about the football player's high ankle sprain. "This injury touches ligaments higher than around the ankle, up in the lower parts of his shin bone. It happens when an athlete is in a flex position where his toes are closer to his shin. [High ankle sprains] often mean a six-to-eight-week recovery time where ligaments have poor blood supply…"

However, utilizing acupuncture to treat such an injury can offer patients one-to-two weeks less recovery time–which means this football player got back on the field faster than expected, according to Price.

"I love treating high ankle sprains with acupuncture," he continued. "When patients are following the guidance, we do tend to see quicker recovery by optimizing blood flow to tendons and ligaments."

Acupuncture simply stimulates blood flow. So, the more blood flow to an injury or area of pain–the faster the healing process.

"When patients come in for their first visit, we do an assessment utilizing my orthopedic roots–checking range of motion, an evaluation of swelling and bruising… This informs where I'm gonna go with the acupuncture process."

After a baseline for mobility and injury is taken, Price will prescribe about 10-15 needles per session.

"In my experience, the more needles used can dilute treatment," continued Price. "We can target one or two ailments around the same area. But if we're working on the right ankle, and the patient expresses discomfort in the left shoulder, we don't want to end up with 50 needles… At that point, the body and brain are not focusing properly."

Thrive's acupuncture sessions last from 15 to 30 minutes. This time is set for the patient to mindfully relax into treatment while professionals like Price are targeting areas of pain. After the thin, sterile needles are inserted and removed, the acupuncture session transcends into collaborative, manual muscle work. Depending on the patient and injury, Price will go right into muscle stretching and cupping work.

Once the session comes to an end, Thrive acupuncturists like Price or Adamczyk would update the patient about their projected plan of treatment, outlook of future sessions, and to set a timeframe for reevaluation to measure treatment efficacy.

Additionally, during acupuncture sessions, patients are surrounded by top-notch physical therapists, chiropractors, and occupational therapists who also work at Thrive locations in Belmar and Freehold.

Acupuncture Services for Sports Recovery

Depending on each person's unique needs and goals, professional health, wellness, and solution providers at Thrive offer the following services for acupuncture patients:

• Standard acupuncture therapy
• Dry needling therapy
• Neuro electrical acupuncture therapy
• Cupping therapy

Dive Deeper: Electro Acupuncture for Athletes

Acupuncturists at Thrive like Price utilize all options on offer when treating patients. Price has found electro acupuncture to be extremely effective at Thrive.

"Electrical stim works for a variety of treatments. And not too many acupuncturists utilize electro acupuncture–it's a more recent development. But AJ and myself have been using electro acupuncture for a long time after we were exposed very early on in our careers."

Most athletes know and love "stim." This sports recovery method is also called TENS which delivers a relaxing electrical current to connected massage pads placed on the skin. The same process was applied to acupuncture–revealing PENS otherwise known as electro acupuncture.

"We find that electro acupuncture helps accelerate the healing process," said Price. "When muscles are tight, and limiting range of motion, this method gets into the muscle or the joint space. Whereas the electrical TENS unit is not able to get to that depth. The acu needle breaks the surface of the skin to make it more effective…"

The Basics: Sports Acupuncture

At Thrive Spine & Sports Rehabilitation, the emphasis on acupuncture comes from combining traditional Eastern medicine practices, with the more contemporary Western schooling that professionals like Price and Adamczyk received.

Acupuncturists can effectively treat individuals with injuries, or just for recovery after heavy physical activity. The professionals at Thrive recommend:

• Acupuncture therapy for neck pain
• Acupuncture therapy for back pain
• Acupuncture therapy post-injury
• Acupuncture therapy as part of sports recovery

"For patients, I describe sports acupuncture by talking about blood flow, and how the body's nerves flow," reminded Price. "Eastern medicine practitioners use 'chi' as a way to diagnose disruptions in the body. When transitioning to a Western understanding, we talk about the way the body operates in regard to blood flow, and how nerves interact with musculature."

Ideally, acupuncture practitioners from any point of view want to increase patients' energy and to get blood flowing to inflamed, problem areas that may be damaged.

Possible Side-Effects of Acupuncture Care for Athletes

When athletes undergo acupuncture therapy (and with any form of physical therapy) there is a possibility of pain. When seeing an acupuncturist to recover from physical activity or injury, there are a few things to keep in mind…

First-time patients may be wary of needling during acupuncture treatment–for fear of pain, or infection. However, Thrive's acupuncturists work hard on technique to ensure needle insertion is pain-free, and always with sterile equipment and in a sterile environment. Patients should clean the area of injection after receiving acupuncture therapy.

Other side-effects include local bruising, soreness, mild bleeding (possible), muscle twitching as well as immediate sensation at the injection point.

"First-time patients will feel a sensation. But oftentimes you barely feel anything," said Price. "You may feel the initial insertion like a pinprick. But once the needle is in place, you don't notice anything."

For very sensitive patients, there is risk of dizziness or feeling of faintness immediately after the session. It's important to move slowly, drink water, and relax directly after an acupuncture session.

Patients may feel nausea or a headache–but this is not common. There is also a chance that acupuncture can lead to drowsiness. However, this can also be seen as a benefit if the patient was in need of relaxation and/or sleep.

Patients should also note that acupuncture is just one piece to the puzzle when it comes to recovery from pain and injury. In many cases, just acupuncture alone will not heal an injury. Rather acupuncture must be combined with physical therapy practices as well as personal nutrition.

Living With Pain or Sports-Related Injury

So, are the possible drawbacks or side-effects of acupuncture treatment worse than living with pain or injury?

Fear or non-belief in acupuncture is no reason to not try this treatment method–especially if a person is in pain. This natural healing method is akin to getting a massage. There is little to no possibility of re-injury when receiving acupuncture treatments.

What's more, acupuncture is an investment in clean health and wellness. Some athletes and active individuals try to use numbing pharmaceutical drugs to alleviate pain from injury or intense physical activity. However, acupuncture therapy is an investment in natural healing–little by little.

Overall, acupuncture is generally safe and effective. The traditional Eastern medicine treatment method is one that has been refined by Western medicine to provide improved physical recovery.

FAQs

Who should receive acupuncture treatments?

Acupuncturists at Thrive treat athletes, weekend warriors, and other active individuals so they can get better faster for tennis, basketball, etc. Anyone who wants to take natural healing into their own hands should give acupuncture a try.

What is acupuncture?

The practice of acupuncture is just one form of Eastern medicine. It is a portion of traditional Chinese medicine just like cupping, or herbal medicine. Acupuncture on its own is simply the use of fine, sterile needles inserted into specific acu-points which fall along different channels and meridians in the body. The goal of acupuncture is to open up chi or channels of blood flow to make the body more free flowing and to unclog disruptions.

What is kinesiology?

Kinesiology is the study of the human body and its movements. It is a foundation of Western medicine for orthopedic care. Acupuncturists at Thrive also incorporate the practices of strength, muscle, and range of motion tests. This strong background of the human anatomy gives context to how the body functions and operates. The use of kinesiology by acupuncturists helps to gather information about repetitive movements for someone who is a baseball pitcher. Kinesiology studies body mechanics like that of the shoulder and the elbow. Professionals like those at Thrive use these studies to diagnose common issues from overuse. This background helps to provide patient solutions from an orthopedic standpoint.

How long does it take for acupuncture to work?

Acupuncture can provide results in just one session. By targeting pressure points, acupuncturists can relieve ailments like neck pain and stiffness (at least temporarily). For most patients, it takes up to three sessions to feel significantly better. For other patients with longer-standing injuries or pain–a custom, six-to-twelve-week acupuncture program may be in order. For everyone, relief of pain will come gradually depending on the severity of that pain and the associated root cause.