Acupuncture for Sports Medicine??
First and foremost...YES!!
Here's why 👇 👇
Acupuncture and Sports Performance
When most people think of acupuncture, they most likely think of it as a holistic modality to relieve a specific list of ailments. However, healthcare professionals are now recommending acupuncture for competitive athletes.
Athletes all over the world are turning to sports acupuncture to help them avoid getting hurt and to promote recovery. Sports acupuncture is used to speed healing, relieve pain, and increase muscle strength, heart rate variability and stamina.
MLB, NBA, NFL star players, runners, climbers and even Olympians have embraced sports acupuncture. At Glenn Family Wellness, we practice sports acupuncture on a daily basis.
How Sports Acupuncture Works for Athletes
America’s top athletes are using acupuncture on its own and in conjunction with other modalities and Western medicine as a part of their regular practice and treatment regimes. Acupuncture helps the body to heal and balance itself by allowing energy (e−)to properly flow from the points along the meridians (fascia), the energy pathways defined by Traditional Chinese Medicine. Energy, specifically electrons, needs to flow freely without blockages (ie. spasms, adhesions, etc) in order for the body to function at an optimal level.
Sports acupuncture is becoming a recognized treatment for frozen shoulder, tennis elbow, back pain, pulled tendons, torn ligaments, tendonitis, arthritis, bursitis, sciatica, tight hamstrings, muscle/tendon strain, golfer’s shoulder, tennis elbow, weak back, stiff neck, and other ailments athletes may incur.
Sports acupuncturists, such as Jacob Glenn MSOM LAc, aim to bring the body back to balance by understanding the compensation patterns presenting with each sports-specific movement and injury. This allows them to help with injury prevention, optimal performance, and faster recovery.
Sports acupuncture may combine Traditional Chinese Medicine techniques with recognized diagnostic techniques such as range of motion tests, orthopedic evaluation tests, palpation, and manual muscle tests. Some sports acupuncturists may pay less attention to the traditional acupuncture points and focus more on inserting needles directly at pain sites and sore areas.
“In my extensive off-season workouts, I have noticed a difference in my balance and agility since receiving [sports acupuncture] treatments,” said Baltimore Ravens safety Will Demps, according to the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. “I feel my muscles have been ‘turned on’ and are firing on all cylinders.”
Acupuncturist Matt Callison, a faculty member at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine who has treated players from the Minnesota Vikings and San Diego Chargers, has been working with athletes for more than a decade. “It all started with one guy—Martin Bayless—and then he ended up referring to some more players, and it has snowballed from there,” Callison said.
Japanese MLB players like Ichiro Suzuki and Kazuhiro Sasaki have introduced acupuncture to their baseball teammates to help them bounce back more quickly after heavy training and during rehabilitation from injuries. Star NFL players like Steven Young and Jerry Rice of the San Francisco 49ers were also treated with sports acupuncture. Sports acupuncture is credited with helping Canadian speed skater Kevin Overland win the bronze medal in the 1998 Olympics.
When athletes are prescribed rest for an injury, they use sports acupuncture, sometimes along with Western medicine, to speed up the healing process. The benefit of acupuncture is that it works without side effects from pharmaceuticals.
Acupuncture for Muscle Relief
When athletes perform, they put stress on their muscles and often incur injuries. Injuries affect the body’s ability to sense where it exists in space, creating an imbalance in the body’s proprioceptive system. The proprioceptive system allows the muscles to communicate with the nervous system. Acupuncture can balance and reset the muscles by restoring their proper energy and blow flow as well as tone so they can better communicate with the nervous system, creating a more accurate sense of where one is in space.
Nitric oxide is created in the body when acupuncture points are activated. This causes blood vessels to open up in the arteries and increase the flow of blood to the heart and organs, which improves blood circulation and cardiovascular wellbeing. Fatigue, inflammation, strain, tightness, and soreness are eased when blood flow is increased in the body. “Acupuncture is one of the quickest ways to restore muscle balance,” Callison said. “When acupuncture is used at specific sites, the muscle spindles are reset, and then that balance is reawakened.”
Sports Acupuncture to Get Your Head in the Game
Athletes need to maintain optimal physical AND mental condition. The pressures of competitive sports and constantly being in the public eye can lead to decreased self-esteem, a fear of losing, anxiety, and nervousness.
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