Photo of Travis Kelce courtesy of Men’s Health
Dry needling for professional athletes
Dry needling has really gained a lot of popularity in the past few years. When I first started my practice, hardly anyone had heard of the term “dry needling”.
Thirteen years later and dry needling is usually what people are looking for when they come see me. My clients are a mixed bag of the average Joe or Jane, to athletes who play professional sports- all seeking to resolve a problem involving pain.
What’s interesting with the pro sports players is that many of the physical therapist’s on their teams do dry needling but the individual players still seek me out. I asked why and the general consensus is that I, or acupuncturists in general, are better at it (dry needling).
I want to be clear on what they mean by that. Any athlete I have worked with has said that I blow away the PT who does dry needling on their team. That’s because my training is completely different. I use a full body approach when treating a sports injury. I also use every tool in the Eastern Medicine Box which includes dry needling, acupuncture, motor point acupuncture, gua sha, cupping, tui na (medical massage and skeletal manipulation) and herbal medicine whether it’s topical or internal.
Acupuncture does several things- increases circulation, releases endorphins, renews collagen, strengthens the immune system and helps relax the central nervous system. All things necessary for anybody to feel better and be able to move better.
Dry needling is a western term used to describe the use of a needle to release a trigger point. A trigger point is often described as a ‘knot’ by most people. The technical definition is, any tight or tender nodule in a muscle.
Triggerpoints inhibit muscle and can affect the length of it too. When a muscle gets shortened because of a trigger point, it will affect whatever joint or group it’s part of. This is why athletes like dry needling so much. Releasing a trigger point can relieve pain practically instantaneously.
There is one aspect of pain or dysfunction that isn’t talked about enough. It’s when a muscle isn’t firing due to being overworked, like in cases of pro sports athletes whose job it is to train hard. But also in people who aren’t anywhere near as active.
In the case of someone who sits for long periods during the day doing computer work, they can develop under functioning gluteal muscles. It’s called gluteal amnesia and can cause achy lower back pain. When the gluteal muscles aren’t firing, the hip flexors are recruited to do too much of the work in walking and can cause a lot of discomfort.
A pro athlete, like a football player or a professional ballet dancer, can also develop under functioning glutes but from overworking their muscles.
Either way, the remedy is the same for both patients. Motor point acupuncture is best in this case. A motor point is the most excitable point of a muscle. It just means the most nervy point of a muscle. I needle into it and apply painless electric stimulation (aka e-stim) to the needle itself and it wakes that muscle up again.
There was an article in Men’s Health magazine a while ago where Travis Kelce was interviewed about his training. In it he mentioned needing his right outer hip to fire and used a series of exercises given to him by his trainer to do so. Those exercises worked, but Travis has really great mind-body connection to be able to do that. In my 14 years of practice, hardly anyone can do that. Motor point acupuncture works like a dream in cases like that. If Travis hadn’t been able to turn that muscle back on, Motor point acupuncture would have done it for him in a matter of seconds. Followed up with exercises to continue the recruitment of those muscles and he would have been fine.
Every professional athletic team such as NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS, etc should have an acupuncturist as part of their rehabilitation team.
Whether it’s extensive triggerpoint release, fascial release, or most importantly- quickly getting a muscle to fire back up again. This can make all the difference in winning a game.
Motor point acupuncture can really get an athlete up and running so much faster than a series of exercises. This isn’t an argument against PT but more of a tag team effort of getting the athlete in tip top shape as fast as possible.
Working with an acupuncturist can help keep players healthy which keeps them strong and able to train harder and recover much faster.