“Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery.” – Wayne Dyer
A pain-free and healthy body provides us with the freedom to engage in activities and live our lives without unreasonable constraints. Unfortunately, too many find themselves “slaves” to chronic pain. And neck pain is one of the most common.
Whether the pain is the result of stress, posture, illness, or even injuries, proper treatment, commitment to consistency, hard work, and patience are the keys to recovery.
Fortunately, it is possible to achieve neck pain relief with a specific therapy treatment, along with your commitment to consistency, hard work, and patience. With Pain and Performance Solutions, you can get the help you need for finding relief from chronic neck pain relief with Active Release Technique®.
What Is Active Release Technique® (ART®)?
Unlike the traditional physical therapy approaches used by most practitioners, Active Release Technique®, ART®, is an elite soft-tissue management system developed by Dr. P. Michael Leahy.
ART® is not an obscure nor questionable treatment approach. In fact, it’s one of the most well-known techniques among chiropractors, physical therapists, and other practitioners of bodywork. ART® primarily works by breaking up adhesions and other unhealthy tissues that can occur in your body.
These conditions happen when muscles are repeatedly put under an unusual amount of stress, such as typing at a keyboard all day for example. In response, the body attempts to reinforce these muscles by increasing tension and building up layers of collagen fibers.
Although the increased tension and additional collagen fibers can help the body adapt to the specific stress it is being exposed to, these adaptations may occur in places that then prevent proper tissue movement. Using our typing example, the result could lead to symptoms of carpal tunnel.
Applying ART® to Chronic Neck Pain
While the human neck is an exceptionally strong structure, the very nature of its function and flexibility also makes it susceptible to injury or strain. This can be sudden and traumatic, such as in a contact sports impact, or gradual such as repeated or sustained movement or posture at work.
Ultimately, any unnatural stress on the cervical spine can lead to either acute neck pain or long-term, chronic neck pain. The pain can also involve the soft tissue, joints, and discs in the cervical region.
It’s not unusual for neck pain to extend into one or both shoulders. When this occurs, the pain can also impair the function and mobility of the arms and hands. Neck pain can present itself in a range of types and severity. This can be as relatively minor as uncomfortable stiffness, to the debilitating pain of a neck sprain, to extremely painful whiplash or ruptured discs.
Many patients are led to believe that neck pain will resolve itself in time, and this is often the case with minor symptoms, but for more severe and chronic neck pain, employing Active Release Technique® can provide an accurate diagnosis that can lead to a full recovery.
Applying ART® for achieving neck pain relief begins with a combination of examinations and treatments. As the ART® website explains,
“[T]he 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.”
Using Active Release Technique®
There are specific techniques used with ART® that are applied to meet each patient’s unique needs. By using Active Release Technique® the therapist is able to pinpoint treatment to individual small muscles of the neck and treat them through their full range of motion.
Because the muscles in the neck are layered, isolating them for focused treatment requires careful attention. The therapist accomplishes this by maintaining a tension on the muscle during movement, as it slides out from under the therapist’s fingers. It’s important to be aware that the treatment does hurt a bit. It can feel like getting stretched in a place that needs it, but that you can’t do yourself.
The technique works by increasing the nervous system’s tolerance to stretch tight muscles. And the results are well documented and immense. In fact, ART® is used on-site by hundreds of corporations to treat repetitive strain injuries, and it’s used in thousands of clinics around the world.
This is because it can provide a quick result in treating conditions such as chronic neck pain, as well as shoulder pain, shoulder rotator cuff injuries, and other muscle-based pain issues.
As the ART® website explains,
“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.”
Neck Pain Relief With Pain and Performance Solutions ART®
For chronic neck pain, as with any injury, the first step in recovery is allowing us to get to know you and your pain issues. Once you make your first appointment, we’ll want to learn about your present discomfort as well as any history of discomfort.
After a full examination we can determine which form of treatment is needed to help you on your road to recovery. As our bodies start to compensate for pain, this can allow you to move on with your day. However, your body can also shift that pain around to compensate for your discomfort and this can lead to other forms of pain.
Getting neck pain relief with ART® can only begin when we can understand where your pain started. That could mean it started a while back with another injury you might have sustained.
Your trust in us is key, as is your honesty. Ultimately, getting your body working properly and healthy is the only way to achieve total recovery. So, don’t hesitate to reach out. We are here to help and will answer any, and all questions that you may have.You can reach us at (707) 636-4404 or by filling out our online contact form.