Every ART session is actually a combination of examination and treatment. The ART provider uses his or her hands to evaluate the texture, tightness and movement of muscles, fascia, tendons, ligaments and nerves. Abnormal tissues are treated by combining precisely directed tension with very specific patient movements.

These treatment protocols – over 500 specific moves – are unique to ART. They allow providers to identify and correct the specific problems that are affecting each individual patient. ART is not a cookie-cutter approach.

What is Active Release Techniques (ART)?

ART is a patented, state of the art soft tissue system/movement based massage technique that treats problems with muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia and nerves. Headaches, back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, shin splints, shoulder pain, sciatica, plantar fasciitis, knee problems, and tennis elbow are just a few of the many conditions that can be resolved quickly and permanently with ART. These conditions all have one important thing in common: they are often a result of overused muscles. 

How do overuse conditions occur?

Over-used muscles (and other soft tissues) change in three important ways:

• acute conditions (pulls, tears, collisions, etc),
• accumulation of small tears (micro-trauma)
• not getting enough oxygen (hypoxia).

Each of these factors can cause your body to produce tough, dense scar tissue in the affected area. This scar tissue binds up and ties down tissues that need to move freely. As scar tissue builds up, muscles become shorter and weaker, tension on tendons causes tendonitis, and nerves can become trapped. This can cause reduced range of motion, loss of strength, and pain. If a nerve is trapped you may also feel tingling, numbness, and weakness. 

What is an ART treatment like?

Every ART session is actually a combination of examination and treatment. The ART provider uses his or her hands to evaluate the texture, tightness and movement of muscles, fascia, tendons, ligaments and nerves. Abnormal tissues are treated by combining precisely directed tension with very specific patient movements. 

These treatment protocols – over 500 specific moves – are unique to ART. They allow providers to identify and correct the specific problems that are affecting each individual patient. ART is not a cookie-cutter approach. 
 
 

What is the history of Active Release Techniques? 

ART has been developed, refined, and patented by P. Michael Leahy, DC, CCSP. Dr. Leahy noticed that his patients’ symptoms seemed to be related to changes in their soft tissue that could be felt by hand. By observing how muscles, fascia, tendons, ligaments and nerves responded to different types of work, Dr. Leahy was able to consistently resolve over 90% of his patients’ problems. He now teaches and certifies health care providers all over the world to use ART.

What Is Acupuncture?

Acupuncture is a form of therapy and of health maintenance first developed in the far and near east over 5,000 years ago. Specific points on the skin are stimulated in order to affect an energy balance in the body. These points are located on bioelectrical channels of energy called meridians. This energy circulates through all the organs and parts of the body through fourteen main channels. Twelve are bilateral, and two are central. There is a continuous circulation of energy from one channel to the other in a particular pattern which was well defined by the Chinese. Stimulation of one or a combination of key acupoints on the body may restore harmony to the affected area.

If we were to compare a 175 pound man on one end of seesaw and a 45 pound child on the other end, it becomes obvious the seesaw would be “broken” due to the fact the heavier person would be sitting on the ground, and the lighter would be dangling in the air. Even though the seesaw is producing a symptom of being broken – extensive examination would not reveal anything wrong with the seesaw. The obvious answer is in the balance. Correction of the balance corrects the problem.

Acupuncture works by restoring normalcy to the body’s energy balance by utilizing a combination of acupoints located on the twelve meridians. This is accomplished by a variety of means, the needle is just one.

Historians have stated, “More people have benefited from acupuncture over the course of fifty centuries than the combined total of all other healing sciences, both ancient and modern.”

Acupuncture textbooks list well over one hundred different conditions that respond well to Acupuncture. The World Health Organization, working in close harmony with the International Acupuncture training center of the Shanghai College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, has indicated acupuncture is effective in the following conditions:

Acute and chronic pain relief, migraine, tension, cluster and sinus headaches, trigeminal neuralgia, bladder dysfunction, bed wetting, cervical (neck) pain, and mid-back pain, low back pain, shoulder, tennis elbow, post-operative pain relief, gastric problems, asthma, allergies, skin conditions, hemorrhoids, abnormal blood pressure, fatigue, anxiety, neurologic syndrome, various eye problems, etc., etc.

Chiropractic is a drug-free, non-surgical method of treating, or preventing disease by manual manipulation of the joints of the body, especially the spinal column. Many chiropractors are also trained in complementary fields such as nutrition, and acupuncture. Chiropractic is used to evaluate and treat a patient’s muscular, nervous, and skeletal systems. A practitioner may also explore how diet, exercise, environment, and heredity contribute to a patient’s pain and injuries.