Do you have tight muscles after you exercise or have been to the gym? Do you have an injury in your feet or legs that’s not quite going away? Sticking needles into your body to relieve pain may sound confusing – but it’s the exact way that Dry Needling works!
Dry Needling is a treatment technique used to release trigger points in tight muscles and injured tissues. It involves inserting a very thin sterile dry needle into tight points of muscles as opposed to a whole region or body part like acupuncture.
There is more to this treatment than sticking a dry needle into your skin and instantly making you feel better. What makes needling effective is that it encourages your body to resolve the injury and reduce pain by naturally healing itself. Dry Needling creates a lesion that starts a physiological process of remodelling injured and inflamed soft tissue and replacing it with fresh tissue of the same type.
In the clinic we use dry needling to help treat conditions including Plantar Fasciitis, Achilles tendon injuries, pain around the knee, ankle sprains and muscle cramps. It is an effective adjunct therapy that works well with exercise rehabilitation, orthotic therapy and other soft tissue modalities.
The three amazing benefits of dry needling include:
1. Relieving muscle pain and tightness
Often when the foot or ankle is injured, the calf muscles will seize up and become very tight. This happens because the calves are constantly overworked from changing the way you walk to avoid pain in the foot. Dry needling in the calf muscles works specifically on these tight spots to relieve pain and tension getting the muscle back to normal working function.
2. Increase range of motion
Dry Needling will also help to increase the range of motion within the affected muscles and overall movement of an injury. If you are running and constantly on the move, having pain free movement and a full range of motion in your Achilles tendon is essential. When running, you put a lot of stress on your Achilles and dry needling can help reduce post exercise pain and improve the overall function of our legs to prevent further injury.
3. Speed up recovery
The most frustrating part about being injured is your recovery. As always, all injuries are different and some require a longer recovery time and having Dry Needling included as part of your treatment plan can help to treat the injured area and surrounding muscles to get you back on track doing the things you love.
Walk This Way Podiatry offers expert Dry Needling services in the feet and lower limbs. If you are having constant and recurring issues with your feet, we promise to deliver a personal and informative experience to help you on your road to recovery. For further information and to find out if Dry Needling might be a treatment option that is helpful for you book a one on one consultation with one of our Podiatrists today.
By Luke Sassine – Podiatrist at Walk This Way Podiatry
