What is Active Release Technique (ART) and why it’s an important addition to chiropractic care?
Dr. Jon specializes in A.R.T. (Active Release Technique), is the gold standard in soft-tissue care. It’s a patented soft tissue technique that treats problems with muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia (connective tissue), and nerves. A multitude of musculoskeletal conditions can benefit from ART. These conditions all have one important similarity: they are frequently the result of overused muscles, causing muscle spasm, scar tissue and eventual loss of function within a region of the body. Headaches, back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, shin splints, shoulder pain, sciatica, plantar fasciitis, knee problems, and tennis elbow are just a few of the many conditions that can be resolved quickly and permanently with A.R.T.
How do overuse conditions occur? Overused muscles (and other soft tissues) change in three important ways: acute conditions (pulls, tears, collisions, etc.), accumulation of small tears (micro-trauma), or not getting enough oxygen (hypoxia). Each of these factors can cause your body to produce tough, dense scar tissue in the affected area. This scar tissue binds up and ties down tissues that need to move freely. As scar tissue builds up, muscles become shorter and weaker, tension on tendons causes tendonitis, and nerves can become trapped. This can cause reduced range of motion, loss of strength, and pain. If a nerve is trapped you may also feel tingling, numbness, and weakness.
“We’re talking about fixing 95% of problems in four visits, versus 50% of them in thirty visits.””
The difference between ART and other techniques is that during an ART treatment, the patient actively moves the affected structure (muscle or ligament) while the practitioner presses or maintains contact on the injured area. This allows the practitioner to feel the structure as it moves under their contact, and to effectively treat those restricted muscles, tendons, or ligaments.
The goal of ART is to break up the adhesions and restore your range of motion and improve your pain. By breaking up scar tissue, muscles and joints are able to glide and move freely again without pain and stiffness.
Active Release Technique is so specific and powerful that it is the only soft tissue therapy that is patented. ART offers many benefits for anyone who has pain and other symptoms caused by soft tissue injuries either from sports, overuse, or trauma. Benefits include:
Increased flexibility
Increased range of motion
Decreased lower back pain
Improved chronic neck pain
Relief of tension headaches
Management of carpal tunnel
Management of shin splints
Management of plantar fasciitis
Management of tennis elbow
Improvement of sciatic symptoms
Prevents sports injury and increases performance
Each treatment only takes a few passes over the structure, and accomplishes greater results in a shorter amount of time than other soft tissue therapies. Active Release Technique is extremely effective when it comes to treating soft tissue conditions whether it be athletic injuries such as shin splints, tight calf muscles and IT Band problems or work-induced pain like carpal tunnel or shoulder and neck tension .