This past week I saw many patients, including 2 struggling with hamstring issues, whom I’ve now seen several times each. One was a serious runner, and the other was a former dancer. Manipulating soft tissue gently with Active Release Technique massage, and combining that with the more aggressive Graston technique where I perform instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization to help breakdown scar tissue, I was able to help these patients take their first steps toward being pain-free, which is one of the sweetest things a chiropractor can hear from a patient after a session. The runner is now slowly but surely running again, and the dancer, after years of thinking she would never attempt to do so again, is ready to do the thing she loves the most – dance again.
I’m a runner and a human being, too – as I mentioned in a blog I did on my countdown to the marathon earlier this month, I sustained a frustrating injury to my quadricep long ago, wherein I had to be very patient in my recovery and re-training period, using ART and Graston techniques and then running with the goal of being pain-free (as opposed to the goal of running for speed or distance) in order to see my light at the end of the tunnel. Just last week in preparation for the marathon, I ran a marathon. So, I got there. Now that I am pain-free, I can focus on my speed and distance. There were times in my recovery period where I wondered if I would make it, but I kept on.
The thing that helped me the most was applying my chiropractic knowledge to treat my injury. Most people, when they heard the word “chiropractor,” they think of a doctor who cracks your back. But we don’t just take your back into consideration. We’re musculoskeletal specialists, and everything is related, so we need to look at the whole picture. A lot of times Graston techniques are particularly useful when it comes to the upper trapezius muscles, and ART techniques work for the suboccipital region. Are you experiencing a frequent onslaught of tension-related headaches? Chiropractic adjustments using ART and Graston can help you manage your pain and eventually be pain-free.
Depending on a patient’s problem, I might employ shockwave therapy to help peel away those superficial layers of pain and dig down deep to the issue. Lower back pain, hip or hamstring problems can mean getting deep into your psoas, one of the largest and thickest muscles of your body, attaching from the vertebrae of your lower back to the head of your femur (thigh bone). Your psoas wants to be long and loose, not tight and wound up. Using Active Release Technique on the psoas can leave you feel longer, looser and pain-free, allowing the parts of your body it attaches to and influences to ease up and stop causing you pain.
While everyone’s wellness journey is an individually charted path, I am a big advocate of working with what you have, your body, to help you feel better first, and avoiding medication when possible. I encourage anyone with a chronic physical ailment to come into DASHA so we can help you discover the possibility of living a pain-free life, to see that light at the end of the tunnel, and to enhance your well-being.
DASHA wellness & spa is a luxury lifestyle brand and New York City-based wellness center created to offer a truly holistic approach to wellness. To learn more, visit dashawellness.com.
