Went today to my ART guy for a tune up from my training. I always feel better after I go and was wondering how often others are using the technique.
For me It seems to be much more effective for my legs than massage.
I have only had ART treatments for injury, and I have found it to be extremely effective. Never thought of going in for “tune up”, as you put it.
The treatments seem very specific to be good for general maintenance like massage…
I would rather have a good massage. But I find that an ART session goes so much deeper and thus has a much longer lasting effect. Since my chiro guy has kept me injury free this past while I have been able to get some ART done as more of a preventive meassure.
I go about every 4 weeks right now during my marathon training, just to keep everything worked out. I pretty much always have some nagging tightness somewhere, so it definitely helps.
When you go for regular maintenance type visit do you point the therapist to a specific area that is giving you trouble? How do they know where to target?
I’ve only ever had ART for specific injuries (i.e. IT band issues). I would consider some kind of preventative treatment but feel I’d have to be pretty specific to the therapist on where to work.
Ive used ART extensively for injury recovery. As a tune-up, Id be sure I wasnt too bad before I went. Ive definitely left ART and been more sore than I was when I went in…But after the soreness its better!
Someone who is doing ART or similar style therapies well, should be able to feel for muscle impingements. Typically though, you will likely finds that the same old areas often come back to haunt you. So my guy will start there (calves etc…)
I’ve been treating athletes for about 8 years as a massage therapist, and volunteered in the expo and during the races for IMC x2, placid, tremblant and a bit in kona.
I find it totally depends on the provider, if they are involved in the sport that you are doing, it makes a world of difference.
I use massage more to relax tight muscles and increase circulation. I use art more for breaking down adhesions, scar tissue, and just really tight/stuck tissue that isn’t responding.
If I have an athlete that is training hard/competing I will do 25m art and 20m massage (or some mix). That way you get the benigits of both, and you can spread out your benefits coverage/money.
One thing to make sure of is that your therapist keeps up with there recert courses, I find some therapists take a course and never recert do to cost and there skills really go down. Also check that the therapist has taken the course you need ie there are spine, lower extremity and upper extremity courses, if your a runner make sure they have taken lower, not just spine.