For athletes in contact sports such as football, they can be more prone to injury. Sometimes conventional medicine and treatment methods are not enough to get them back to feeling like themselves. In recent advances in medicine, it is not uncommon for patients to seek complementary treatments such as acupuncture to their traditionally prescribed treatment.
Sports medicine reports indicate that acupuncture has become an integral part of athletic injury recovery due to its pain and inflammatory reduction effects. Acupuncture uses fine, sterilized needles to stimulate certain points in the body to achieve relief.
How Acupuncture Works for Sports-Related Pain and Injuries
Contact sports can place a lot of pressure onto your trigger points suddenly and often creating a build-up of tension. This tension can build and may cause acute pain to shoot due to muscle contraction or spasm or from muscle overload and overstretching. Also, an increase in activity without adequate warmup and preparation can create tension and pressure that may limit the range of motion while also causing pain.
A common athletic injury for football players is hamstring muscle pain. In some cases, the tension may have created the worst-case scenario and lead to a muscle tear. These incidents often require immediate treatment and this is where acupuncture can also be used.
Acupuncture can be placed around the injury to help reduce inflammation, provide pain relief, and accelerate the healing process by strategically placing the needles in crucial trigger point areas. The treatment is often quick, taking only several minutes for the player to find adequate relief.
Acupuncture is also excellent for after-game and training sessions when muscle spasms occur as it can help players to relax. Experts say many athletes prefer acupuncture instead of massage, which can easily prompt muscle contraction and pain.
The Benefits of Acupuncture for Football Players
Acupuncture therapy works almost immediately and without any apparent side effects, which can be an advantage in sports performance and training.
For athletes it is also important to consider what goes into your body and compared to the medicinal treatment, acupuncture is the ultimate solution as nothing goes into the bloodstream.
Besides on-field injuries and pain therapy, acupuncture can also be an effective treatment method for chronic pain and recurring injuries, including tendinopathies. Tendinopathies occur due to unsuccessful healing, such that it aggravates an injury, leading to a degeneration of the tissues surrounding the tendons. This can limit an athlete’s competitiveness due to pain.
Acupuncture is an excellent alternative treatment for acute pain due to sports-related injuries. This treatment works quickly providing anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving effects essential to getting athletes back in the game. For more information on how acupuncture can help you or to schedule an appointment, contact Lok Acupuncture Clinic, Ltd. today at (702) 732-0178.
