For those unaware, physiotherapy encompasses rehabilitation, injury prevention, and health promotion or fitness. It takes a holistic approach to healing by looking at your lifestyle and customising an appropriate treatment.
Recently dry needling has become an interesting inclusion in physiotherapy that proves particularly beneficial to those who are sensitive to pain medications or for those whose pain levels have not improved even after many sessions of other forms of physiotherapy. Here are five such interesting benefits of dry needling in physiotherapy.
Relieves Pain
One of the main motives of physiotherapy is pain relief. Dry needling targets trigger points in specific areas of the body, which performs as an effective way to reduce pain. For example, if you have shoulder or neck pain, your physio will insert needles into these trigger points. The needles will then release tension, inflammation, chemicals, and pressure in these muscles that cause the pain. The result of this needle positioning is that it leads to an improved range of motion along with immediate pain relief.
Improves Range of Motion
For an athlete who constantly moves, having fluid movement and a full range of motion is key to success. For example, if you’re a baseball player, the sport expects you to have a full range of motion in your shoulder to successfully throw a baseball. However, when you’re constantly throwing the baseball, you tend to unintentionally put a lot of stress on the shoulders, which tightens the muscles, restricting your range of motion.
Dry needling targeted at your shoulder muscles can reduce this pain and discomfort, relax tension, and improve the overall range of motion in the area. Relaxed muscles can also help you engage your body muscles much more comfortably in your sport or any other activity.
Relaxes Tight Muscles
Tight muscles can sometimes stop or restrict you from moving or performing certain movements. Tight muscles can cause pain and discomfort in your daily routine, and having multiple trigger points can severely limit mobility. Inactive muscles, in turn, can weaken and lose mass.
Dry needling reduces muscle tension by easing soreness, tendonitis and inflammation. A specially trained physiotherapist can combine physical therapy with dry needling to relax muscles and fully restore mobility. It can also restrain muscle tension and prevent future trigger points.
Speeds Up Recovery
The recovery process is the most challenging and time-consuming part of experiencing an injury, than the treatment itself. This is one of the main reasons people seek physiotherapy post-injury as well. While some injuries may take longer recovery periods, dry needling supports quick pain relief and improved range of motion compared to other alternative treatment options.
It does this by improving blood circulation, which carries away painful acidic waste and allows your muscles to receive the required oxygen and nutrients they need to heal. Depending on the severity and number of trigger points, you may need one or several sessions to achieve optimum relief.
Improves Chronic Pain Conditions
Dry needling eases two chronic pain conditions; myofascial pain syndrome and fibromyalgia. Myofascial pain syndrome is when trigger points develop in the fascia, a casing of connective tissue that surrounds and supports all the muscles, nerves, blood vessels, and organs.
Fibromyalgia is when there is widespread pain and tenderness all over the body, alongside sleep problems, fatigue, and often emotional and mental distress. This pain affects how you move, causing trigger points.
People having both myofascial pain syndrome and fibromyalgia can see significant improvements in the condition of their pain through dry needling, which is considered one of the ideal treatments for this chronic condition.
