How the Active Release Technique Alleviates Pain and Restores Your Range of Motion

Soft tissues, bones, muscles, and ligaments are all part of your body's composition, allowing you to move and function daily. Various musculoskeletal conditions affect these parts of your body, causing pain and making it hard to move correctly.

Most people dealing with chronic musculoskeletal problems find it hard to get long-term relief from pain through medications and home therapies. Without the proper treatment, the soft tissues continue to tighten and cause discomfort.

The active release technique is something most people need to learn about. Still, an excellent tool Dr. Jason Ablett and other experienced chiropractors use to work the knots out of people's soft tissues.

Dr. Ablett and the team at Pinnacle Health Chiropractic offer the active release technique for conditions like headaches, fibromyalgia, and back pain to provide long-term relief from pain and restore functionality in your body.

What is the active release technique?

The active release technique, or ART, is a treatment chiropractors and specialized doctors use to manipulate soft tissues to improve movement and pain.

The main goal of the active release technique is to improve movement and pain by breaking up areas of tension and scar tissue. These areas can build up from injury or wear-and-tear in the muscles, tendons, nerves, and ligaments, causing long-term discomfort.

Many people, including those with various soft tissue problems, can benefit from the active relief technique. Dr. Ablett may recommend the ART if you have any of the following symptoms:

• Joint inflammation
• Numbness or tingling
• Muscle weakness
• Joint stiffness
• Limited range of motion
• Decreased flexibility
• Pain with physical activity

When you have any of the above symptoms, Dr. Ablett carefully performs an assessment to determine where your pain stems from. He then identifies the tissues he needs to work on using the ART.

You may need multiple ART treatments to achieve long-term results. For more severe movement disorders, you may require long-term repetitive therapies to reduce inflammation and restore movement throughout the body.

Benefits of the active release technique

The active release technique has many benefits over other treatments for chronic pain. It's an excellent option to control pain and increase movement without the side effects of medications.

The ART also doesn't require downtime after treatment; you can typically notice results immediately or within a day or so of treatment. Other benefits you can expect from this treatment include:

• Better flexibility
• Improved range-of-motion
• Relief of headaches
• Improved circulation
• Decreased back pain
• Decreased nerve pain
• Improved chronic neck pain

ART is one of the leading treatments in chiropractic care for chronic pain conditions and movement disorders. It's so successful that it could prevent you from needing more invasive treatments and even delay or put off surgery.

How does ART relieve pain?

You use most of the muscles, ligaments, tendons, and other tissues daily throughout your body. Over time, repetitive motion and overuse of certain areas cause pain and decreased movement, sometimes so severely that it causes disability.

When you come in for an ART treatment, Dr. Ablett discusses the technique with you and your symptoms and discomfort.

The treatment starts with you lying on a treatment table in the office. Dr. Ablett uses his hands to feel the tissues in the area that's bothering you. He carefully feels the movement of the muscles, ligaments, and tendons to determine the next step.

As he proceeds with ART, Dr. Ablett applies specific pressure and tension to the soft tissues while instructing you to make particular movements. The treatment only takes a few minutes, with most people experiencing significant relief, improved range of motion, and reduced pain immediately.

ART works because it allows Dr. Ablett to release built-up tension in the muscles and other soft tissues that have built up over time. The overuse causes scar tissue to form from lack of oxygen, microtears, and other forms of trauma.

Dr. Ablett releases years of tissue damage by directing you to make particular movements using specific manual techniques with his hands. At the same time, he applies pressure to the injured tissues, releasing tension and promoting circulation.

The result is reduced pain, increased range of motion, and improved functionality throughout the treatment area.

To find out if ART is for you, call our office in Kirkland, Washington, today to schedule a consultation with Dr. Ablett, or book an appointment on our website.