Experienced sports medicine and orthopedic acupuncturist serving Alameda-Oakland Bay Area. Specializing in sports injuries, rehab and sports performance. Quality care for professional and casual athletes of all ages.
Calling all runners, learn how acupuncture can help you recover from common ailments and strengthen and stabilize your body mechanics. Great article by fellow sports medicine acupuncturist, Ginna Ellis.
5 Common Running Injuries and How Acupuncture Can Help
By Ginna Ellis
Acupuncture and running are a well-suited pair.
Whether you’re a casual runner or a qualifying entrant in Monday’s
Boston Marathon, acupuncture can help you stay on top of your running
game. From knee and hip pain to plantar fasciitis and fatigue, many
ailments suffered by runners can be helped by acupuncture.
Here is how acupuncture addresses the 5 most common causes of running injuries.
Lazy butt syndrome
The problem
Runners are notorious for having inactive lateral glutes, the muscles that provide stability to the pelvis as you move forward.
When these muscles don’t engage, your femur rotates inward and your
hip collapses. This excessive motion in the pelvis increases instability
in your knees, ankles, and feet.
Unstable levers cannot tolerate high loads in either intensity or
volume, so they tend to get injured. Runners are especially prone to
this particular imbalance because they often focus on training the
muscles that drive them forward—for example, the quads and calves—and
not the smaller muscles that stabilize the pelvis.
How acupuncture helps
A single acupuncture treatment can activate your glute muscles,
restoring the connection between your brain and your butt. This allows
you to maintain the hip stability require for an injury-resilient
running form.
Kinetic chain imbalances
The problem
The repetitive stress of running is transferred along lines of fascia, a
type of connective tissue that links together every cell in the body.
Runners often hold excess tension in the back fascial line (Achilles,
calves, hamstrings, and paraspinals) and lateral fascial line
(peroneals, iliotibial band, and tensor fascia latae).
Injuries occur along the weakest points of these lines, but the
problem actually originates above or below the site of pain. For
example, your Achilles is sore because of a hypertonic calf and
hamstring.
How acupuncture helps
Whether you call them meridians, fascial trains, or kinetic chains,
acupuncture has an effect on entire lines of pull in the body. By
releasing adhesions and trigger points along these fascial chains,
acupuncture corrects the imbalances causing your injury.
You will feel the change immediately. A single needle in your hip
will illicit a noticeable release all the way down your leg and into
your foot.
Inflammation
The problem
Many overuse injuries involve localized pockets of inflammation that cause pain and impair function.
Acute inflammation is a good thing—the swelling and increased blood flow are necessary for healing.
However, improper biomechanics, overtraining, poor diet, and stress
impair the body’s ability to fully recover. Inflammation persists longer
than it should, often becoming “stuck” around the sheath of the
Achilles tendon, in the joint spaces of the knee and ankle, or behind
the insertion of the iliotibial band.
How acupuncture helps
Acupuncture is effective for these types of injuries because the
hair-thin needles can reach pockets of inflammation with a precision
that no other modality matches. Acupuncture resolves any lingering
inflammation, enabling your body to complete the healing process and
restore full strength, mobility, and function to the injured tissue.
Not only can acupuncture resolve acute inflammation, but it also has
an anti-inflammatory effect on the entire body. This causes a reduction
in systemic inflammation and allows you to develop a healthier
inflammatory response.
Tendon dysfunction
The problem
Runners often injure tendons because they increase their training loads
too quickly. Connective tissues like tendons have a relatively poor
blood supply and thus adapt at a much slower rate than muscles do.
Tendons are comprised of collagen fibers aligned in a specific
direction in order to handle a specific stress. When we overload our
tendons by running too many miles with poor biomechanics, the fibers
become jumbled and stuck together, and scar tissue forms.
How acupuncture helps
Acupuncture is especially powerful in treating tendon injuries because
needles bring circulation to areas with an otherwise limited blood
supply. In particular, electroacupuncture, a combination of acupuncture
and electro-stimulation, has been shown to increase the diameter,
reorganization, and strength of a tendon’s collagen fibers.
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.
Overtraining syndrome
The problem
Runners don’t like to hear this, but there is such a thing as running
too much. If you are perpetually stressing the body faster than it can
recover, you may develop symptoms of overtraining—fatigue, a depleted
immune system, lack of concentration, poor sleep, and an inability to
recover from workouts.
Extreme cases of this may lead to overtraining syndrome, which is a
serious condition characterized by chronically elevated heart rate,
chronic fatigue, insomnia, and depression. Your nervous system is
essentially stuck in sympathetic overdrive (fight or flight), making you
unable to relax, sleep, or properly recover.
How acupuncture helps
If you train hard, you need to rest harder. Acupuncture is one of the
most effective ways to activate your parasympathetic nervous system—the
part that allows you to rest, digest, and heal—helping you to relax
fully and sleep deeply.
If you are a competitive athlete flirting with the line of
overtraining, regular acupuncture is essential to ensure that your
recovery is just as high quality as your workouts. Photo by Sara Calabro
