Does anyone have experience with ART? I just made my first appointment with chiropractor who practices ART and I was wondering what to expect. I have a lingering upper back strain that won’t go away. I admit I have still been lifting, but just not as heavy. Do you generally still train while getting ART treatment? How long do you think it will take before the strain is healed? Is there anything else I can do to speed up the process. Thanks a lot.
The changes with ART are usually very quick. Depending on the affected area and degree of dysfunction you can train right away.
There is a story about Dr. Leahy treating Milos Sarcev for shoulder pain (for which it was recommended that he have surgery) and he was able to bench press 315# immediately after treatment without pain.
I typically encourage activity/training to some degree right after treatment. My experience shows a much faster recovery of normal function. Hope that helps.
Thanks a lot for the insight. I am glad to here that I may be able to continue training while receiving treatment.
One other question for you guys, how do I choose which doctor/chiropractor to get ART from? There is about six located in my area. I made an appointment with one that was level three, a PPO provider, and could get me in this Thursday. Do you think one person is better than another?
Level 3’s have been to one of the Ironman races to treat the athletes and some are instructors. They also may have some additional instruction directly from Dr. Leahy. Experience is the key to treatment. The more a practitioner uses ART the better they get at it. You’re probably making a good call with your selection.
The more experience the better. Mine is an instructor. He can usually fix a strain in one or two trips.
Isaac Bruce from the St.Louis Rams was here several weeks ago training with Charlie Francis. Charlie had a ART practitioner doing work on him between sprints and his times were literally coming down with every set. That’s the best part of ART, the benefits are immediate. If you live in the Toronto area, I can point you in the direction of a very good guy, just PM me.
I can’t wait to get started on ART! Thanks for your input guys. I am glad to hear I can continue training while receiving ART treatment. Is there a good workout to follow to speed up healing and/or prevent aggrevating it again?
Why do all ART providers seem to be chiropractors? Do you have to have a degree in that to learn ART or can any doctor that works with tissue learn it like physical thearapists?
In my opinion, ART sucks a LOT! I went in with muscle adhesion/tendonitis in my elbow/tri muscle. The chiro told me not to lift for a while, and the sessions lasted between 8-10 minutes and he would charge $70. That’s bullshit. Maybe if he gave me 1/2 hour I would have felt better. He just massaged the area that hurt and said he was using ART blah blah blah. By the way, he was level 3
I did ART with a chiro (don’t know what level he was) to treat tendonitis in my right arm.
After about 6 sessions (2 wks) of treatment, my arm was much better, but still had some trouble lifting anything greater than 25 lbs, depending on how I lifted it with that arm. 3 more sessions and I could lift 40 lbs comfortably on a 1 arm cable curl.
I’d recommend it, since someone else at my job has a similar problem to mine, isn’t doing ART, and his recovery is going slower.
asd, you just came across a sh*tty doctor… That is bound to happen when you have thousands of them out there, has to be a few lemons in the bunch.
I really have a lot of experience in this field since my home business involves me with many types of doctors, including chiros. And I usually try to watch some of the doctors at work in order to confirm that they are playing it straight up, since I dont want to be associated with lazy ones or scammers.
I just recently went for my first time. I loved it.
I had some problems with me elbows while pressing (nothing else, just pressing a barbell)… and really only on the first eccentric phase. After that I could finish the set with no pain. It was pretty weird.
Anyways, I went 3 times, and the pain is completely gone. I’ve had the problem for about 3 years and just 3 sessions took care of it. All three of them took about 10 minutes. A couple of times, since I drive so far to get there, the doc worked on my hips, shoulders, and traps for free while he was waiting for his next patient… it really opened up my ROM.
ART is a beautiful thing.
I hope this isn’t a complete highjack, but how does ART relate to something like Rolfing or the Egoscue method?
Would it be complementary to it? Would it bypass it all together? It seems like ART is offering very fast results and I’m wondering what needs to be done to sustain those results over time? No sense in fixing something just to break it again.
I’ve looked through books regarding both and what I’ve noticed is that the primary theory is that all bodies are basically designed to work in the same structural manner?
Theres a lot of ART practitioners around Indiana for some reason and I’m giving serious consideration to seeing one since 2 months of consistent stretching (static, PNF, active isolated, and started some dynamic ROM work) is only very slowly helping with my ROM.
-Adam
asd, you had a bad doctor
the guy I saw in Seattle was level 3–I went in for lower back pain, but it turns out the problem was in my glutes, and two sessions later I was good as new
in fact, we went over my lifting program at the time–I had just started deadlifting and squating religiously and my form was bad–that’s what caused the scar tissue in my glutes–the doc took me into his weight room, loaded up the bar and taught me good form for both deadlifts and squats (he had a power rack in one of the exam rooms, which was turned into a small gym)
ART is the best soft tissue work I’ve ever experienced
–Bill
Do any of you know who does ART in Chicago? I have heard of about 800 different chiros/massage therapists who use the term “active” in their practice. Still none who specifically name ART.
Theres a guy in Bourbanais (sp?) that I’ve been going to. He’s damn good. I don’t know where exactly in Chicago you live, so you may have a drive on your hands.
asd you got a bad doc. I wouldnt bad mouth ART just because of that one doc. Ill list all of the injuries i have had now. Tendinitis in wrist. Kept me from doing any close grip work and limited my grip. Cured after one trip. Separated shoulder. Cured after two trips. I went from not being able to lift it or sleep on it, to holding girls over my head in cheerleading in two days. Patello femoral syndrome-cured after 6 trips. Never came back. Strained hamstring-2 trips. Impingement in both shoulders-1 trip 90%, 2 trips, 100%. Tight, painful hip flexors and groin-3 trips. hasnt come back. I think thats it. If you can find a good doc you have hit the jack pot.
I had my first ART treatment yesterday AM. It hurt pretty bad while she was pressing on my back. I can’t really tell if it is better or not. My back seems kind of sore. Is some soreness expected after an ART treatment? Yesterday was my off day, so I will see how it feels after training today.
If my back does not feel better after 2-3 treatments, should I try another doc? This women seems to know her shit. She also said lift 80% of normal weight, does this seem consistent with what you guys have done?
Thanks.
I was never sore after mine. Dr. Dave would tell me to work out just like usual. He said he wanted me to blast it to make sure that i didnt have anymore pain. He also told me that the more experience someone had with it, the less it should hurt. He said Poliquin though was a masochist and pushed like hell and it always hurt.