Runners are notorious for a range of common injuries. Here are some we see regularly:
Muscle Imbalances:
If you focus your training too much on quads and calves which drive you forward and forget about the lateral muscles such as your glutes, after a while your brain forgets to engage them and they become weak. This can make your pelvis unstable and when you run the excessive motion in your hips can create instability in your knees, ankles and feet.
Acupuncture with e-stimulation (e-stim), can get those lateral butt muscles firing and remind your brain how to engage them when you need them. Stronger lateral glute muscles contribute to a more injury-resilient running style.
Overuse injuries and Inflammation
Inflammation is part of the natural healing process but over-training, incorrect biomechanics, stress and inadequate diet can result in localised pockets of chronic inflammation that cause pain and impair function.
Acupuncture and particularly electro-acupuncture can reduce inflammation and stimulate healing. We use FDA approved devices which we know deliver the specific doses required to achieve results. This is particularly useful around the sheath of the Achilles tendon, in the joint spaces of the knee and ankle, or behind the insertion of the iliotibial band.
Tendon Dysfunction
As you increase your training your muscles strengthen and grow. Muscles are well supplied with nerves and blood and can adapt to change more quickly than connective tissue like tendons and ligaments which have relatively little blood supply. If you increase your training load too quickly you may injure a tendon. The collagen fibres become jumbled and stuck together and scar tissue forms.
Acupuncture works in two ways here. It will improve the blood supply to the injured area and speed recovery plus the combination of acupuncture and e-stim, has been shown to increase the diameter, reorganization, and strength of a tendon’s collagen fibres.
Acupuncture also releases the excessive tension in muscles and fascia that are overloading the tendon in the first place. There is actually an acupuncture point specifically for promoting the health of tendons throughout your entire body.
Relaxing is as important as training. Acupuncture is a great way to chill out mind and body after all that hard work. Call us to make an appointment today or simply book online.