Your Experience with A.R.T.

Off Topic
21

i have had very favorable results with arms, pecs, hips, back. I used to drive 90 minutes each way to my dr. My wife used to ask how was my trip to the witch doctor until she hurt bad enough she joined me. cured her too. my father in law fell on the ice and messed up his arm pretty bad. we eventually convinced him to go and it worked for him too. i convinced him to set up a shop at a powerlifting meet and he worked wonders on atheletes there.

i found a closer doctor and his treatments were ineffective. i found another close doctor who trained with the doctor who was 90 minutes away and she ws fantastic. Not all practioners are equally good. but the good ones can make you feel much better.

22

[quote]debraD wrote:
IronDude17 wrote:
Some things I didn’t add before . . .

I knew about ART for about a year or so but didn’t go because I heard it hurt immensely and also that it’s a problem if you get a bad practitioner. So I solved the problem by ignoring the idea.

So how do you tell a good practitioner from a bad one? From what I can see there are only 2 in my area so I might not be able to be that choosy.

[/quote]

The guys who are bad at it will leave you bruised, or they won’t get deep enough to work anything out.

Only way to find out is to try. Make sure they are certified though, I’ve seen a lot of posers.

23

[quote]debraD wrote:
So how do you tell a good practitioner from a bad one? From what I can see there are only 2 in my area so I might not be able to be that choosy.

[/quote]

The database of practitioners above is the best way I think to start off.

Here are the top things I looked at:

  • Education and years working: The different certifications include lower extremities, upper extremities, and spine (the more the better)
  • Testimonials: I check out their testimonial page on the website and see who the selected responses are from (I see if bodybuilders have been treated)
  • Pressure: You have to go in to find this one out but although I know nothing about the technique personally, I check to see if it feels like it is effective and if I really feel knots being worked out
  • Word-of-mouth

But I’d be interested in hearing the criteria other people have for choosing the right one . . .

24

[quote]slattimer wrote:
I go to an awesome ART provider in Ridley, PA, Dr. Mike Collins. This guy used to be the team chiro for the Philadelphia Eagles, and he worked for several other sports teams. The cool part is that he really understands athletes, and even more so he fully understands strength athletes.

I had severe pain in my right forearm to the point that I couldn’t grip at all, my bicep power was gone, and I was losing feeling in 3 fingers. I was still trying to bench competitively, and I could compete ok. But having 900 pounds over your face when you can’t feel your fingers and your arm feels like its going to fall off anytime is not fun.

Doc Collins killed me 2 days a week for 3 months, but he cured the problem. Now I go back for tune-ups or whenever I injure myself.

I have had 4 or 5 serious injuries over the years that sort of accumulated and never healed properly. ART has fixed all of them so far.

For the guy who says its ineffective—tell that to my forearms.

My insurance covers ART under the same part as chiro care, so I pay $20 a session for up to 30 sessions a year (combined chiro and ART). I have no clue what it costs if I had to pay cash.
[/quote]

Mike is great .

25

[quote]IronDude17 wrote:
debraD wrote:
So how do you tell a good practitioner from a bad one? From what I can see there are only 2 in my area so I might not be able to be that choosy.

The database of practitioners above is the best way I think to start off.

Here are the top things I looked at:

  • Education and years working: The different certifications include lower extremities, upper extremities, and spine (the more the better)
  • Testimonials: I check out their testimonial page on the website and see who the selected responses are from (I see if bodybuilders have been treated)
  • Pressure: You have to go in to find this one out but although I know nothing about the technique personally, I check to see if it feels like it is effective and if I really feel knots being worked out
  • Word-of-mouth

But I’d be interested in hearing the criteria other people have for choosing the right one . . .[/quote]

One thing to remember, you have to pay to be on the provider website, so not all providers decide to participate.

26

[quote]slattimer wrote:
I go to an awesome ART provider in Ridley, PA, Dr. Mike Collins. This guy used to be the team chiro for the Philadelphia Eagles, and he worked for several other sports teams. The cool part is that he really understands athletes, and even more so he fully understands strength athletes.

I had severe pain in my right forearm to the point that I couldn’t grip at all, my bicep power was gone, and I was losing feeling in 3 fingers. I was still trying to bench competitively, and I could compete ok. But having 900 pounds over your face when you can’t feel your fingers and your arm feels like its going to fall off anytime is not fun.

Doc Collins killed me 2 days a week for 3 months, but he cured the problem. Now I go back for tune-ups or whenever I injure myself.

I have had 4 or 5 serious injuries over the years that sort of accumulated and never healed properly. ART has fixed all of them so far.

For the guy who says its ineffective—tell that to my forearms.

My insurance covers ART under the same part as chiro care, so I pay $20 a session for up to 30 sessions a year (combined chiro and ART). I have no clue what it costs if I had to pay cash.
[/quote]

As I said, mike is great.

27

It’s been incredibly effective in dealing with whatever tendinitis and muscle pull/shoulder issues I’ve had.

I feel a big difference in pain free range of motion before and after the session. I still have to take it easy and not jump back into heavy exercising or else I’ll have issues again, but it’s been a big help in giving me a faster recovery.

To DebraD - getting an ART treatment by a good doctor isn’t necessarily pain free, it just depends on what you’re getting treated for - at least from my experience.

There’s sessions where I’ve felt a light sting and others when I’m bending over from the pain. But the pain only lasts while the doc’s doing the movement, it’s not like you’ll be feeling it for the next few minutes or the rest of the day.

I’ve been to two docs and treatments under both could be painful, but as I said, there was an immediate improvement in my mobility afterwards.

28

Thanks for all the info! I might just have to try one of these guys out then.

29

Is ART only done by chiros? What about physical therapists?

I went to a chiro a few years ago and had a really bad experience. I felt he didn’t give a shit about my issues and just kept giving me less and less attention. I know that’s not a fair assessment of the profession in general.

I’d try it out but don’t have any glaring problems right now.

30

[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
Is ART only done by chiros? What about physical therapists?

I went to a chiro a few years ago and had a really bad experience. I felt he didn’t give a shit about my issues and just kept giving me less and less attention. I know that’s not a fair assessment of the profession in general.

I’d try it out but don’t have any glaring problems right now.[/quote]

I’ve mostly seem chiro’s doing ART, but I see no reason why a PT or a massage therapist wouldn’t be able to be equally adept.

31

I went to an A.R.T. practitioner for several months last year. I went 2x/week for 4 weeks and then 1x/week the next 4 weeks. During that time he was able to loosen up the overly tight teres minor in my right shoulder, and used Graston technique on my neck and left knee. This relieved pain, but further diagnosis of my posture and exercise form (by me, not him) helped uncover the source of pain.

To expand on that last point, any of this therapy work is only as good as the effort you put into correcting the problem when not in the doctor’s office.

32

[quote]PRCalDude wrote:
I rate it ineffective. Self-applied trigger point therapy is much more effective and a ton cheaper. [/quote]

I disagree. If you have a good ART practictioner, ART is tremendous! I have used ART for the last 5 years, to help with a variety of ailments. I can’t say enough about it. It’s not a “5 minutes, and you’ll feel fine type of therapy” (not a quick fix). But in many cases, it will prevent surgery or more significant medical procedures from being used.

By the way, I also use foam rolling, stretching and other therapies (such as self applied trigger point) but ART is the best.

33

Have had only positive experiences- including a pretty nasty psoas major injury that I had fixed.

34

[quote]ghost87 wrote:
PRCalDude wrote:
I rate it ineffective. Self-applied trigger point therapy is much more effective and a ton cheaper.
[/quote]

I guess I’m the only guy that agrees with you. I do think if you have the patience and concentration to massage out knots while stretching if you can reach a particular area it is more effective and cheaper.

The only problem is I would never have spent 15 minutes with a heating pad on my ankle relaxing, then some kind of electric thing on it for another 10 minutes, then spend 20 minutes pressing out “knots” or tension that takes a good hand to feel for. Then light stretching and rehab work for 15 minutes, 2x a week for 4 weeks.

My experience with it is weird it may ankle did not feel IMMEDIATELY better, but it had not healed from a sprain for a year and half. After the sessions it finally started to heal. BUT I was also told not to play or run for 6 weeks. so I can not be positive what worked.

35

I had a nerve injury in my left shoulder that occurred around 12 months ago (brachial neuritis). Suffice to say, in addition to significant atrophy I was left with winging of my left scapula that had gone untreated since the injury.

In trying to strengthen the musculature affected I was reinforcing the poor posture that I was left with after the injury.

It all really came to a head around September last year I was getting a lot of pain in the injured shoulder as well as in my healthy right shoulder. I’d seen physiotherapists and massage therapists in the past who had not been particularly useful short of recommending rotator cuff rehab exercises (which were doing nothing due to the underlying postural problems resulting from the atrophy of my infraspinatus and supraspinatus).

Out of desperation I made an appointment with a local ART practitioner having read some positive reviews on the technique on the web. She happened to be a specialist in nerve injuries, and had a pretty solid resume - working with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the past.

From the very first moment she looked at my shoulders she seemed to know exactly what was going on and she was the first practitioner I had seen since my neurologist who had heard of my condition.

Anyway she did some pretty heavy work around my shoulder and rhomboids and gave me a lot of stretching to do between appointments. After the first appointment I noticed an immediate increase in mobility and the following days a reduction in pain. I knew it was working as well because I would wake up so tired, like I couldn’t get enough sleep.

I asked her about this in the following appointment and she told me it was very common, due to the healing that was taking place in the soft tissue around my shoulders. I haven’t slept so long since i was a teenager!

Anyway 2x a week appointments for the first two weeks and NO gym time, just stretching, then 1 x/week appointments for the following two weeks. She recommended after two weeks that I return to the gym and work out at about 50% max what I was doing before I saw her, increasing the weight more and more each visit.

It’s been about 3 months now since my treatments and I feel totally amazing. I have had a small injury since to my left rhomboid but this passed over in a about a week, I have also become much more aware of the stretching and rest needed when I am injured.

Honestly, if you are injured and have access to an ART practitioner in your area, give it a shot I’m sure you will be pleasantly surprised. I was completely blown away by how good it is!

For anyone in my area, Greater Vancouver, check out Performance Health (http://www.performancehealth.ca), the ART practitioner is Dr Elna Munoz.

36

Great comments and stories everyone! Nice to see a collection of first-hand accounts on here.

Heres a question: Once you get ART treatment on an area (which normally has no issues so intensive treatments aren’t needed), how long before you usually should get the next one by? In other words, how long does it take for an ART treated area to start building knots again?

Keep it all comin!

37

[quote]IronDude17 wrote:
Great comments and stories everyone! Nice to see a collection of first-hand accounts on here.

Heres a question: Once you get ART treatment on an area (which normally has no issues so intensive treatments aren’t needed), how long before you usually should get the next one by? In other words, how long does it take for an ART treated area to start building knots again?

Keep it all comin![/quote]

Typically I would have thought you would seek ART on an area where you had issues, but I’m sure receiving general treatments would be just as beneficial.

The practitioner I saw liked to leave at least a day in between the appointments. Preferably though, since there is repair to the tissues occurring in much the same way as there would be a heavy work out, I liked to leave two days when I was seeing her 2x/week.

Here’s another recommendation - if you work Mon-Fri, try to get one of your appointments on a Friday so that you can really ‘sleep in’ the next day. I slept a solid 12 hours after my first treatment! SOOOOO GOOD

38

[quote]Tech9 wrote:

To DebraD - getting an ART treatment by a good doctor isn’t necessarily pain free, it just depends on what you’re getting treated for - at least from my experience.

[/quote]

x2.

My experience is with a multi-disciplined (massage) practitioner at AU$60 per hour. His pretty good, and does a lot of the pro-sports people in Sydney. I try to get to him every 3 to 4 weeks or so.
He recommends a good osteo, rather than a chiro or physio, his logic is they look at the body as a whole, rather than just bones or just muscles.

My initial experience was with my calves. Not pleasant at all. I basically had golf balls in both legs along with a few other smaller adhesions. I was told I would probably need at 3 to 4 sessions to get these out.
Anyway after half an hour of vigorous work on my calves I had to ask to stop and work on somewhere else. The pain was that bad. (note: ART gets a lot easier the more frequent you do it, much like weight training)

So I ask if I could book in next week for the second round. He said no, I need at least a 2 week break in between these intense sessions to allow the body to regenerate before he tried to break down these golf balls again. Any sooner would delay the healing process for my situation.

As I was getting dressed I was really sore, I couldn?t walk properly (no dorsi flexion) for about 3 hours, after that it felt bruised the rest of the day, the next morning it felt amazing though.

The second session was much like the first, I lasted half an hour and begged for mercy, again the next day they felt really good. The third session did the trick and from then on it?s been maintenance on my calves ever since, every 3 to 4 weeks or so.

The primary focus of most of my work now is my lower back (specifically deep right side) this seems to be the ongoing area where my body stresses. Causing issues elsewhere in my body.

When really bad it actually causes a difference in leg length (by pulling up) of up to half an inch as well as headaches by pulling down on my neck. Not nice.

I?d spend half an hour on my back and rotate the other half an hour around my body, but predominately favour lower body work.

I was also given heaps of stretching to do in between sessions, and told to also keep well hydrated at all times. I know real simple stuff, but they help a lot with muscle quality.
I have also spoken to him about foam rollers and various sports balls for DIY work. He is all for it and said it will extend the period between sessions up to 5 or 6 weeks.
But in his opinion are not as good as seeing a manual practitioner.

Basically the harder you train the more work you need.

39

[quote]mldub7 wrote:
Typically I would have thought you would seek ART on an area where you had issues, but I’m sure receiving general treatments would be just as beneficial.

The practitioner I saw liked to leave at least a day in between the appointments. Preferably though, since there is repair to the tissues occurring in much the same way as there would be a heavy work out, I liked to leave two days when I was seeing her 2x/week.

Here’s another recommendation - if you work Mon-Fri, try to get one of your appointments on a Friday so that you can really ‘sleep in’ the next day. I slept a solid 12 hours after my first treatment! SOOOOO GOOD[/quote]

I have been lifting for 4 straight years all serious since the beginning so even though I didn’t go in with a true problem, I knew I wasn’t perfect. So I go in every few weeks and am getting the most important stuff taken care of in order of priority each visit (for a bodybuilder). Usually body parts being seen more than once a week usually are when problems have developed.

Anyone have experience with how often to go in just for maintenance?