Are you a "weekend warrior" who wants to be treated like a professional athlete? Are you concerned with resuming your activity as quickly as possible, minimizing loss of training or subsequent fitness? Or just simply miserable not being able to "do what you love to do?"
Are you active and enjoy paddling or water skiing at the cottage?
Do you look forward to your regular walk with the dog or a friend?
Do you spend long hours sitting at a desk on the computer, causing your neck, back and arms to ache? Are you on your feet all day?
Any repetitive motion you do can cause an overuse injury.
What is repetitive strain injury?
Are you a "weekend warrior" who wants to be treated like a professional athlete? Are you concerned with resuming your activity as quickly as possible, minimizing loss of training or subsequent fitness? Or just simply miserable not being able to "do what you love to do?"
Repetitive strain is an injury caused by repetitive movements. These injuries are seen in a wide range of individuals from office workers to weekend warrior athletes. The repetitive movements result in 
microscopic tearing in muscles, ligaments, tendons and other soft tissue structures. Over time the person is likely to feel a progression of pain, tenderness, aching or numbing in the affected area.
ART is a patented soft tissue management system that has been proven to minimize recovery time from many common injuries. Therapists must receive training and be certified by Dr. Leahy in order to be able to utilize the technique.
Active Release Techniques or ART, is becoming more and more widespread. ART is typically used to aid in the healing process of sports-related injuries. Many professional sports teams utilize certified ART providers as an integral part of their medical staff. Along with its presence on the PGA tour, ART can also be found at all Ironman triathlon events. It has been noted many times for helping Olympians achieve medal success after suffering a sports-related injury. However ART has also been effective in its treatment of patients with chronic headaches, poor posture, back, shoulder and spinal pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, shin splints, sciatica,runners knee, tennis elbow, and knee and ankle injury.
It is used to treat a wide variety of soft tissue and repetitive-motion injuries that have not responded well to other forms of sports therapy. For this reason ART is most commonly performed on professional and serious athletes who suffer from associated sport-related injury, sports-related trauma or overuse of a muscle. Many athletes who go to a sports medicine practitioner with complaints of numbness, tingling, burning or aching muscles will be recommended for ART.
The therapy is also performed often on those whose job may put repetitive strain on the joints and muscles of the body.What is an ART treatment like? When ART is performed the practitioner applies hands-on pressure in order to find the injured area. During the ART massage, the massage therapist will use their hands to examine the texture, tightness, and range of movement of a clients muscle tissue by feeling their filaments, tendons
and ligaments for tears or breaks.
Damage to these soft tissues triggers the body to reduce tough dense scar tissue in the affected area. This scar tissue build up and adhesions inhibit independent free movement of the soft tissues. When the movement becomes altered, nerves many become entrapped, muscle may adhere to each other, tendons may become strained and other postural abnormalities may result. When abnormal muscle tissue is discovered the massage therapist will evaluate the, tightness and movement of the soft tissues. The affected tissues are treated by combining precisely directed tension with specific patient movements in order to move the muscle through its full range of motion.
ART may be uncomfortable during treatment as the therapist is focused on breaking up the adhesion, forcing layers to properly slide and/or separating stuck nerves from surrounding tissue. This will relieve the surrounding tissues of any adhesions or scar tissue, which can form and block the injured muscle, therefore allowing for the free flow of blood, lymph fluid and nerve conduction so the muscle will heal. The pain will subside quickly and is often referred to as "hurts good". You should see major improvements to an injury with the first and second visit.
ART treatments are typically once or twice weekly during injury rehabilitation and then decrease in frequency with healing progression. The therapist, athlete and coach/personal trainer should communicate training plans to determine what would best facilitate the athlete in injury prevention and rehabilitation. Looking for more ART information? Visit www.activerelease.com
Carol Moore RMT is our therapist fully certified in ART.
If you have any questions regarding Active Release Therapy, contact Moore Massage Therapy in Stittsville at 613 831 8374 or email carol@mooremassage,ca, and Carol will be happy to answer them for you.