I was looking up ART for a couple soft tissue injuries I have and it seems “gimmicky” to me.
I will still probably try it, but has anyone here had personal experience with the service?
Also, I called “lifetime fitness” today as a joke(since i heard a funny radio comercial about it), and asked if yelling and power-lifting was acceptable. He said yelling is ok unless it bothers people, and I asked what If I’m doing a power clean or something and the weight is above my ahead and i have to drop it because i lost my balance, he said that is unacceptable, so i told him, your gym is unacceptable for me and hung up. Just messing around.
It is not “gimicky” it works. One treatment eliminated shoulder pain that had nagged me for years. I saw an immediate increase in strength and range of motion. I can’t speak for all treatments but mine hurt like a mofo. But I guess that is what you get when someone goes ahead and tries to rip out years of scar tissue.
I was extremely skeptical as well until I visited one this past December. I had range of motion issues in my wrists and shoulders that were fixed with one visit.
Recently I developed tnedonitis from lifting too heavy too quickly. The last time I had tendonitis it took 6 months of physical therapy and two shots of cortisone before it went away. I went straight to the ART doc instead and he says it will likely take 4 visits to cure. So far it’s been two. After the first visit I was pain free for 5 days. After the second I’ve been pain free and had full range of motion and no pain when walking or squatting bodyweight.
[quote]ShaneM686 wrote:
Can you tell me a bit about the process you went through, and this goes for anyone else.
Personally, i need it for my wrists, so if anyone happens to have had a partially torn ligament in their wrist and had ART, LEMME KNOW!! lol…
Also, what happens to the scar tissue, this seems like a very strange therapy, for the results it claims to achieve. (from a traditional medicine POV)[/quote]
I haven’t had it done for anything in my wrists. Mine was for a torn bicep/deltoid/pect. More recently for fron deltoids being too tight.
It’s basicaly a pulling of the muscle or muscle groups to release adhesions and restore a muscle or group to good length after injury, disuse, or surgery.
As far as the traditional medical view goes, the practitioner that I go to is also a traditional M.D. He considers it a valuable tool to use in the treatment of injury.
Can anyone talk about what they went through, did they pull on your arm really hard or push very hard in certain spots(since everyone seems to agree that it’s quite painful)
It sounds pretty great, from the few that have responded so far.
[quote]ShaneM686 wrote:
Can anyone talk about what they went through, did they pull on your arm really hard or push very hard in certain spots(since everyone seems to agree that it’s quite painful)
It sounds pretty great, from the few that have responded so far.[/quote]
Sure. The technique that was used on me most recently was- The thumb was placed across my front delt to artificialy shorten the length of the muscle, then my arm(humerus) was pushed back toward my scapula.
A similar technique was used for the other heads of the delt too, along with a few other muscles of the shoulder complex.
Pain wise, not much. From one to ten- I’d give it a 1.
The worst was when I had poor scapular mobility, and the group between the scapula and rib cage were bound. The best way to acces them is through the armpit, then the arm is used like a lever to rotate the scap.
I got ART done on my shoulder that bothered me for 2 years. I also got it done on my lower back.
First time I got it done on my shoulder the results were incredible. My shoulder had hurt and been shitty for like 2 years. After one session it no longer hurt, had increased range of motion, I was stronger/faster in that shoulder and I wasn’t afraid to move it. Example is a day after the session I was swinging around a broom and breaking boxes at work with it which is something I’d never give a thought of going full force because I’d be worried about hurting my shoulder.
The pain varies from the areas but sometimes when the practioner hit a sweet spot(lots of scar tissue?) it felt like he was jamming his thumb nail as deep as he could into me.
The most painful was probably doing my rotator cuff muscles in the back. He’d jam his finger into a spot then I’d have to move my arm straight up until it was overhead. At first I couldn’t get my arm up fully without my bicep feeling like it was going to snap/explode. After a few sessions I could finally bring my arm up fully.
ART works great. I’ve had several sessions done on both of my shoulders by Jesse Burdick (I think he’s written or at least been featured in articles here at T-Nation).
The first time I went in, I ended up having light scabs all around my shoulders where he had dug his thumbs so hard into the scar tissue. It’s hard to explain why it works so good, but the shit definitely works.
You can do SOME on your own using a softball, tennis ball, or foam roller. It’s not quite the same though.
At the end of last year I had a nerve entrapment by my neck that manifested great pain in my tricep for benhing or any kind of pressing/pushing motion. I went to Dr. Ron Higuera in southern california and in under 4 visits I was benching again and regaining strength.
I’d consider myself a good judge of character and this man is top notch. He doesn’t screw around and he certainly isn’t one of those weasel dudes that tries to con money out of you through unneeded visits or services. I was so impressed by him and his services that I now see him at least once a month to talk about and correct any problems I have due to football.
I know that was quite kiss ass and I swear I’m not getting a single dime out of this post lol, but I know without learning about ART at last year’s LA strength seminar I’d be dealing with chiropractic nightmares right now. Oh, and it’s nice to be in his waiting room and see NHL players walking out lol.
I just tried ART for the first time over the last two weeks. I had two treatments on some back problems i’ve had for a while to try and get a feel for it. I liked what was done, but I couldn’t justify the treatment and results for the cost because my insurance doesn’t cover it and they wanted me to come in for several more treatments. So, at $75 a treatment, it’s a definite backup option. I’m going to try sports massage next, as I’ve found a local place with a price I might be able to handle at least once a month.
I get a regular kind of dull ache in my left shoulder around the middle back and shoulder blade almost daily. That was my main issue. I also manage to tweak an area a bit lower and more in the middle along my ribs on a semi-regular basis. On the first treatment, he worked on my shoulder and said there was definitely a large adhesion. It was around a 5-6 out of 10 as far as pain went and he stretched my neck as he did it. He also worked on some spots along the middle of my back, pressing his thumb in and twisting me various ways. On the second treatment he worked more along some tight areas in the middle of my back along my spine and there was more pain, but also more relief.
Overall it was a good experience, but I can’t say whether it would have fixed the problem or just alleviated it for a while like it did post-treatment. Its definitely better, but not eliminated.