Why every runner should consider Active Release Therapy for better Performance
Have you ever thought about all the little pains that runners deal with day to day? From feet, ankles, calves, hamstrings, and knees, to hips, groin, back and more. Active Release Therapy, the manipulation and movement of soft tissues, can actually help get rid of injuries of all these areas. Active release therapy (ART) is a hands-on soft tissue technique used by chiropractors, physical therapists, and massage therapists to locate and break up adhesions to help heal soft tissue injuries.
When you hurt a muscle or ligament, the body’s natural response is to heal the area by laying down scar tissue. However, this scar tissue can shorten the muscle’s range of motion, therefore causing pain or stiffness. While scar tissue or adhesions may heal the muscle temporarily, eventually it becomes a nuisance if it isn’t broken up. Once the soft tissue is damaged, injury can lead to altered biomechanics for compensation.
ART is set apart from a normal sports massage because it engages the same muscles that are active when you go through the running motions. It is highly effective and often leads to immediate results that are faster than simple icing, massaging and resting alone. Since runners are constantly dealing with minor aches and pains, they often ignore the little pains to focus on the major ones. However, these minor aches eventually turn into bad adhesions in the soft tissue. Injury then occurs do to the accumulation of adhesions without treatment. To prevent this, I recommend getting active release treatment early on, or even having serious athletes make an ART appointment at least every six weeks to break up the adhesions before they get worse.
If you have a soft tissue injury that has been a nagging problem, or is continuing to get worse, consider finding a doctor or chiropractor certified in ART. Expect a typical session to last 10 to 15 minutes. Sessions are typically scheduled for twice or three times a week, and foam rolling the injury is often encouraged between visits.
Please note, like all medical treatments, ART results varies from patient to patient.
