Sports Acupuncture

Acupuncture for athletes builds on ancient acupuncture techniques, combining them with modern sports medicine therapies to create a comprehensive and focused treatment plan. Sports acupuncture can be used to enhance athletic performance and aid in injury recovery.

Sports acupuncture works by placing fine needles into the skin at specific points around the body to trigger the release of endorphins. Endorphins are one of the body’s four feel-good hormones. They act as a natural pain reliever. Additionally, endorphins help regulate immune and inflammatory responses, reduce stress and boost mood, leading to increased pleasure and improved overall well-being.

Sports acupuncture combines three different therapies to give you the most effective care. This includes:

• Traditional acupuncture: Acupuncture is a type of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which focuses on the concept of qi (pronounced “chee”). As part of the holistic system of TCM, qi factors in physical, mental, and emotional well-being, and the relationships between them. Acupuncture uses very thin needles inserted into specific areas of the body. These needles help to increase circulation and stimulate the nervous system, correcting imbalances in your body.
• Dry needling: This technique (previously known as trigger point or orthopedic acupuncture) also uses acupuncture needles. These are placed at or near trigger points, or localized areas of soreness in a muscle that are caused by its inability to relax. The dry needling therapy is used to stimulate the muscle, causing it to contract and release.
• Electroacupuncture (e-stim): This technique uses electrodes to send mild electrical impulses through your skin and into your muscles, causing them to contract and release. This helps to improve blood flow and aids in healing injured muscles.

These three sports acupuncture techniques combined help athletes at all levels improve wellness and performance, recover from injuries and reduce post-recovery time needed after a workout or competition.

Acupuncture for athletes can help improve sports performance in several ways, including:

• Reducing the need for rest days: If you just had an intense workout and your muscles are sore, getting sports acupuncture afterward can loosen the muscles and decrease soreness so you don’t have to take a day off to recuperate before training again.
• Improving flexibility, decreasing muscle tension and increasing muscle activation: Using acupuncture needles to stimulate a motor point—where the brain attaches to the muscle via the motor nerve—can help to address tight, inhibited or weak muscles.
• Helping to prevent injury: Because acupuncture can reactivate weak muscles and decrease muscle tension, it can also be used as a preventive measure against injury.
• Reducing stress and anxiety: Acupuncture has a balancing effect on hormones within the body, and a sports acupuncture session can help you feel relaxed, helping athletes of all levels cope with performance anxiety, pre-game jitters or other competition-related fears.
  
  

Acupuncture for athletes can help treat a variety of sports-related injuries, including:

• Sprains and strains
• Repetitive motion injuries
• Joint pain
• Tennis and golfer’s elbow
• Achilles tendinitis
• Hip impingement
• Shoulder impingement, and rotator cuff strains and tears
• Iliotibial band syndrome
• Concussion

Some of the same performance benefits, such as improving flexibility and decreasing muscle tension, can also help you recover faster from a sports injury. In addition, sports acupuncture helps to speed up the healing process and get you back in the game faster by:

• Providing immediate pain relief: Acupuncture can help alleviate pain caused by sports injuries, such as sprains, strains and tendinitis. By targeting specific points on the body, acupuncture can stimulate the release of natural pain-relieving chemicals, such as endorphins and serotonin, providing immediate pain relief and reducing discomfort.
• Improving circulation: Your circulation helps deliver oxygen and nutrients to working muscles and organs. Healthy blood circulation is important for anyone, but especially for athletes, who push their bodies further than the average person.
• Reducing inflammation: Any exercise or sports activity can increase inflammation as muscles are broken down and rebuilt, and a small amount of inflammation is necessary. However, when this inflammation builds up as the result of an injury, it can delay recovery and cause other complications.
• Increasing range of motion: Sports injuries can cause swelling, scar tissue, tight ligaments, and overworked or strained muscles. All of these can decrease the range of motion in your joints.

• Plan to spend approximately 60 minutes at your first acupuncture appointment.
• At that visit, your sports acupuncturist will review your medical history and ask you several questions about your wellness, performance or injury recovery goals.
• Next, the acupuncturist will discuss your treatment options and begin therapy.
• Most patients describe little or no pain during treatment. That’s because acupuncture needles are very thin, measuring less than a millimeter.
• After the initial one-hour visit, your sports acupuncturist will schedule 30- to 45-minute follow-up sessions.
• The number of treatments will vary depending on your specific performance goals or injury.
• Your sports acupuncturist may also recommend complementary integrative medicine therapies, such as sports chiropractic care or sports massage therapy.