Ramping up your mileage as you train for the Mesa-PHX Marathon? As you progress through your training, you may notice pain, weakness, or fatigue limiting your workout. Athletes, marathon runners, and even weekend warriors often ignore overuse injuries. Still, if you ignore them for too long, they can halt your running—and even prevent you from completing your marathon goal.
Treating Runners with Dry Needling
At Foothills Sports Medicine Physical Therapy, we treat an array of runners to assist with overuse injuries. One approach that’s been growing in popularity over the years is trigger point dry needling (TDN). TDN is performed by inserting a thin, sterile, filiform needle through the skin’s surface into the muscle tissue. Once the needle is inserted, the therapist may use a fanning technique (dynamic needling) or leave the needle in the same location for several minutes (static needling). This treatment is used to treat myofascial trigger points, which are tight bands of muscle tissue. In addition to these bands of tissue being painful, they also cause a restricted range of motion and decreased muscle performance.
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How Dry Needling Relieves Pain
There are several mechanisms by which TDN provides pain relief. First, TDN works by causing a local twitch response (LTR) of the trigger point, promoting relaxation of the taut band. In addition to the LTR, the needle pinprick causes the body’s natural pain relievers to be released by the brain and spinal cord; it also stimulates deep blood flow to the muscle, which promotes healing, and decreases local inflammatory mediators.
These mechanisms allow you to recover quickly from an overuse injury and continue your marathon training program. Are you interested in learning more about dry needling? Contact us today to set up a Rapid Recovery Free Injury Assessment, where you’ll meet one-on-one to discuss your concerns with a licensed physical therapist. Many of our therapists are passionate about running, so we’ll do our part to get you safely to the Mesa-PHX Marathon race line. I’m currently training for the Mesa-PHX half marathon, and it will be my 18th half marathon race.
