Category: Dry Needling

What’s causing your disc to bulge in St. Louis, MO?
If you’re feeling pain, tingling or numbness in your lower back or neck, then you may have a bulging disc. There are a number of issues that could be behind the bulging disc in your back, but there are three issues in particular that commonly cause bulging discs in St. Louis, Missouri.

1. Age-related wear and tear

Just like your tires or the soles of your shoes, parts of your body tend to wear down as you age, and age-related wear and tear is one of the most likely causes of your bulging disc. Spinal discs have a tough outer shell and contain a gel-like inner layer. One of their jobs is to provide cushioning for your spine, and another is to help maintain a precise amount of space between each vertebra. As the discs age, wear and tear can cause their outer shell to thin, and this can cause them to bulge out of shape.

2. Repetitive physical activities

Another issue that can cause a bulging disc is repetitive physical activities. These activities can include movements you do at work like lifting heavy objects. They can also be activities that don’t involve much movement such as sitting in a chair at your desk. Doing such activities can increase the chances of developing a bulging disc, and this is especially true when repetitive movements or activities are done with poor posture.

3. Impact injuries

Impacts can definitely cause things to get out of shape, as anyone who has ever hit a pillow knows. In many ways, impacts affect your spinal discs the same way a fist does a pillow. For example, a car accident can cause discs to deform and bulge. Falling down and hitting your back is another type of impact that can lead to bulging discs. People who play high-impact sports like football, rugby and hockey are also at greater risk of bulging discs.

Need help with a bulging disc in St. Louis, MO?

Excel Sports & Physical Therapy has clinics in St. Louis that can help you treat many types of back pain, and this includes treating bulging discs. Our team will perform a one-on-one evaluation to make sure a bulging disc is indeed the issue. Then, we’ll build a personalized therapy plan for you that may include:
- Manual therapy
- Dry needling
Don’t spend another day waiting to begin your treatment. Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an appointment.
August 6, 2019
How blood flow moderation helps tennis elbow therapy
Blood flow moderation training is typically seen as something that weightlifters do, but you may be surprised to learn it can also be very helpful in your tennis elbow physical therapy. Also called vascular occlusion training, blood flow moderation is a technique designed to restrict but not completely cut off the blood flow to your arms. This blood flow restriction can lead to three specific benefits for patients with tennis elbow.

1. Increases growth hormone production

In humans, growth hormone is naturally produced in the pituitary gland, and it helps the body’s cells grow, reproduce and regenerate. These properties can be especially helpful to people who are doing physical therapy for tennis elbow.

Tennis elbow is a repetitive motion injury of the tendons on the outside of the elbow and forearm. In many cases, the repetitive motion of actions like hitting a tennis ball or typing on your computer can cause the elbow tendons to become damaged and inflamed. Vascular occlusion training can help repair the tendon damage of tennis elbow, and this is possible because the technique helps increase the body’s natural production of growth hormone. In turn, the growth hormone can be used by the body to make the collagen required to repair elbow tendons.

2. Boosts protein production in muscles

The tendons in your elbow are designed to attach the forearm muscles to the elbow bones, and blood flow moderation training can help increase the strength of these muscles. It does so by forcing the body to create more proteins that help build muscle. This means that your body will have more proteins to build muscle, and this can help increase the strength the muscles in your forearms. These stronger muscles can then offer better elbow support and reduce stress on elbow tendons.

3. Improves blood flow

Blood flow moderation can also help people who are doing tennis elbow physical therapy by improving blood flow to the elbow. This form of therapy pushes the body to create more capillaries to get blood into the restricted arm. The greater number of capillaries helps increase blood flow, and this can help your elbow tendons get more oxygen and nutrients. When your tendons are receiving more oxygen and nutrients, they may be able to heal at a faster pace.

Find this and other tennis elbow physical therapy techniques at Border Therapy Services

Our team at Border Therapy Services is trained in the use of blood flow moderation, and this is just one technique we can use to create an effective tennis elbow physical therapy plan for you. The personalized therapy plan we build for you can also include therapy methods such as:
- Manual therapy
- Kinesio Taping
- Functional dry needling
- Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) therapy
Are you ready to find out more about how we can help you? Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an appointment.
August 3, 2019
Visit a physical therapist in Grand Rapids, MI, for dry needling

Tension and stiffness in the muscles and soft tissue puts pressure on your joints and on your nerves, which can limit your range of motion. Tension and stiffness also cause pain that spreads throughout your nerves and affects other parts of your body.

You can visit a physical therapist for treatment when you have tense and stiff muscles. At Advent Physical Therapy in Grand Rapids, Michigan, we are experienced in a variety of treatments for muscular tension. One treatment we offer at our East Paris clinic in Grand Rapids is dry needling.

What is dry needling?

Dry needling is a treatment that uses sterilized needles to release tension in the muscles at trigger points. It is often confused with acupuncture because of the use of needles to treat pain. However, their objectives are quite different.

Dry needling is performed by a licensed physical therapist who is trained to identify trigger points that cause muscular tension. Acupuncture is more concerned with improving the flow of your body’s “energy force,” which is not medically proven. Dry needling is.

The “dry” part of dry needling refers to the fact that the needles are not filled with drugs or medication. The sole purpose of using these needles is to release tension, not to inject a medication to mask the pain.

Does dry needling hurt?

Many people associate the word “needle” with pain. In many cases, you would be right to do so, but not with dry needling.

Physical therapists are skilled at gently inserting the needle in the correct spot to reduce tension in the muscles. Instead of causing pain, this reduces pain. There may be some initial discomfort, but you shouldn’t experience any sensation you would describe as painful.

Visit Advent Physical Therapy in Grand Rapids, MI, for dry needling

Are you looking for dry needling near you? We offer dry needling as a treatment at our East Paris clinic in Grand Rapids. If you live near the Grand Rapids area, come visit our East Paris clinic to talk to one of our team members about dry needling and learn about our other methods of treatment for your pain.

Contact our team today for more information about dry needling or to schedule an initial appointment.

July 13, 2019
Is spinal stenosis causing your back or neck pain?
You may think you’re having back or neck pain from a pulled muscle or some other simple injury. However, you may actually be suffering from a condition called spinal stenosis. If you’re experiencing back pain, neck pain or other symptoms, you may want to find out if spinal stenosis is the cause of your symptoms.

What is spinal stenosis?

When the spaces that run through your spine get narrower, this is called spinal stenosis. This condition is most likely to occur in the lower back or neck, and it often leads to pinched spinal nerves. In fact, conditions like sciatica, or pinching of the sciatic nerve, are often the result of the narrowing associated with stenosis. According to the National Institutes of Health, stenosis typically affects men and women over 50. However, this condition isn’t limited to this age group.

One of the most common causes of stenosis is natural aging. However, there are many other factors that can lead to this condition. For instance, arthritis of the spine can lead to spinal narrowing. Injuries to the spine from car accidents or sports can also lead to stenosis. Even factors like having too much fluoride in your body or calcium deposits on spinal ligaments can lead to stenosis.

Symptoms that may be coming from spinal stenosis

There are several common symptoms that patients with stenosis tend to have. One of these symptoms is unexplained numbness, tingling or muscle weakness in some areas of the body. These areas may include your hands, arms, legs or feet. People with this condition often also have trouble walking. They also commonly have issues maintaining their balance while sitting or standing. However, the most common symptom experienced by stenosis patients is pain in the neck or back.

Armor Physical Therapy can design a treatment plan for your spinal stenosis

If you or someone you know has stenosis of the spine, Armor Physical Therapy has a team in Holland, Michigan that’s here to help. We can design a treatment plan for this condition that may include physical therapy techniques such as:
- Manual therapy
- Electrical stimulation
- Dry needling
- Therapeutic exercises and stretches
Are you worried it will be difficult to get our help? Don’t be! All it takes to begin your therapy with us is one easy step.

Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment.
May 2, 2019
Massage therapy in El Paso, TX
When searching for massage therapy in El Paso, Texas, you want to be sure that you are getting treatment that is worth your time. Almost all massage parlors employ licensed massage therapists, but they may not have the experience in specialized treatments that can help provide you with effective relief. The Trawood office of Border Therapy Services offers specialized massage therapy services to meet the needs of our patients.

Benefits of massage therapy

Massage therapy differs from a massage received in the spa in that there is a specific rehabilitative goal for the treatment. The massage may not feel like a gentle relaxing touch, but it does have many benefits including:
- Reducing tension and inflammation
- Increasing circulation and blood flow to promote the body’s own natural healing process
- Improving posture to counteract the strain of sitting at our desks all day
- Reducing stress levels which can give the body’s immune system a boost
Specialized massage therapy treatments

The advantage of scheduling massage therapy with Border Therapy Services is that we have physical therapists who are experts in specialized treatments that can help relieve pain and tension.
- Myofascial release — Also known as trigger point therapy, myofascial release works to relieve tension by focusing directly on the pain point. Pressure with the hand or fingers is applied directly to the aggravated area. This pressure is meant to elicit a twitch response in the muscle which can then relax easing tension.
- Dry needling — While related to the eastern medical practice of acupuncture, dry needling uses western principles and knowledge of the musculoskeletal system to provide relief. When a pain point is too deep to be released with the therapist’s hands, dry needling is an excellent alternative. The thin, sterile needle is placed directly into the muscle to activate the body’s twitch response to cause the muscle to relax.
Scheduling massage therapy with Border Therapy Services

The physical therapists of Border Therapy Services in El Paso, Texas want to help you feel like your best self through massage therapy. Contact us today at our Trawood office to schedule your initial appointment.
February 7, 2019
Get to know these helpful physical therapy techniques
Physical therapists have a variety of methods and tools for treating painful injuries and debilitating conditions. The techniques they use vary from patient to patient because each treatment needs to be customized to the needs of the individual.

Generally, the goal of physical therapy is to help reduce pain through strengthening and stretching the muscles and soft tissues. This can help release tension and reduce the pressure that causes pain or makes it hard for injuries to heal properly.

At Continuum Wellness, our team specializes in many treatment methods and we use the latest technology as part of these treatments. Here are four of some of the most common treatments we use at our clinic:

1. Manual therapy

Manual therapy, also known as hands-on therapy, is the term given to techniques that involve the use of the physical therapist’s hands to massage or manipulate your body. There are several subcategories of manual therapy, which include:
- Joint mobilization
- Soft tissue mobilization
- Strain-counterstrain movements
- High velocity, low amplitude thrusting
Manual therapy treatments can help improve your range of motion and reduce bone, joint and soft tissue pain. Your physical therapist will assess your condition and determine what kind of manipulations and movements are best for you.

2. Dry needling

Dry needling is a form of treatment that requires the uses of sterilized needles to help reduce pain. Your physical therapist will identify trigger points in your muscles that can release tension and help soothe pain in the muscles.

Dry needling is not the same as acupuncture. It is a medically proven healthcare procedure that can help reduce the pain in all kinds of patients.

3. Ultrasound

An ultrasound device is a handheld tool that produces ultrasound waves in a concentrated area. Ultrasound treatments help heal damaged tissues by increasing the temperature in the soft tissues using the ultrasound waves. These treatments increase blood flow, reduce swelling and inflammation in the injured area to promote healing, and help reduce pain.

4. Electrical stimulation

Electrical stimulation is used to stimulate contractions in muscles to help reduce pain and treat a variety of conditions. Many injuries and conditions cause certain muscles to lose function, which causes the muscles to grow weaker. Electrical stimulation can help prevent this from happening, so your muscles remain strong and fit during and after recovery.

Contact Continuum Wellness for physical therapy treatments

Are you suffering from an injury or debilitating condition? Would you like help reducing your pain and regaining the use of your body? Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment.
December 27, 2018
How Dry Needling Could Help with your Muscle Pain
Dry needling is an effective and well-researched physical therapy technique, but you may be put off by the name. However, if you have muscle pain, this technique may be beneficial in reducing your levels of pain and may promote healing.

Dry needling is a physical therapy technique that involves inserting needles into your muscles. The needles are then moved in various ways to incite a twitch response in your muscles. In some cases, electrical stimulation may be performed using the needles, as well.

At Franklin Rehabilitation, our team of physical therapists is ready to help you with all the latest therapy techniques. We stay up to date on the latest techniques so you can receive the highest level of care. Take a moment to read through the benefits of dry needling to see if it’s right for you.

Benefits of dry needling therapy

Although the name dry needling may inspire uneasiness in all of you who aren’t a fan of needles, this technique is almost always practiced without pain. In fact, this procedure has been proven to help reduce muscle pain and tension.

The gentle contraction of the muscles that the dry needling procedure offers many benefits, including:
- Relieving muscle tension
- Reaching deeper level muscles that manual therapies are unable to reach
- Reducing your level of pain
The goal of dry needling is to reduce the tension in your muscles and relieve your pain. By pinpointing the “knots” in your muscles, this therapy can help you find lasting relief.

To learn more about dry needling or to schedule an appointment, contact our team at Franklin Physical Therapy today. Let us help you take the next step toward finding relief.
October 5, 2018
Things to Know About Dry Needling
Dry needling is a newer treatment for muscle pain and trigger points in areas of the body that are not adequately reached by hands or fingers. It is also a good alternative for patients seeking relief from concentrated pain without surgery or pain medication. Like any treatment you may be considering, it is helpful to do your research and ask questions to see if dry needling is right for you.

Is dry needling similar to acupuncture?

Dry needling is not directly related to acupuncture. Though the two treatments involve inserting thin needles into parts of the body, the similarities end there. Acupuncture comes from traditional Chinese medicine and is based on the theory that disruptions in the body’s energy flow or Chi are responsible for a disease. Acupuncture seeks to correct these imbalances by inserting needles into the corresponding area of the body near the skin.

Dry needling, however, is based on Western research and principles. The needle is inserted directly into the pain point to get a twitch response in the muscle. The goal is to ease tension in the trigger point to reduce pain.

What is a trigger point?

A trigger point is a sensitive spot in the connective tissue surrounding skeletal muscle. These manifest as hard spots that can be felt under the skin, or “knots” over a muscle. Dry needling can be useful in these cases by working beneath the tight band of muscle fibers to relieve tension. The tense band can cause contractions in the muscles and cause pain in other areas. For example, a trigger point in the neck or shoulder can cause headaches. Trigger points can be caused by:
- Muscle overtraining or overuse
- Trauma to the area
- Repetitive use trauma, such as running
- Stress
How can I begin my dry needling treatment?

Dry needling is most effective when used with other physical therapy treatments to help relieve acute pain. Contact Franklin Rehabilitation today to see if dry needling would be a helpful addition to your treatment.
September 3, 2018