“It’s always hard to deal with injuries mentally, but I like to think about it as a new beginning. I can’t change what happened, so the focus needs to go toward healing and coming back stronger than before.”
– Carli Lloyd
Carli Anne Lloyd is an American soccer player, two-time Olympic gold medalist, FIFA Women’s World Cup champion, 2015 FIFA Player of the Year and 2016 FIFA Player of the Year. So, what Carli has to say about injuries and how to focus on overcoming them, is extremely beneficial. We at Pain and Performance solutions believe that the focus Carli Lloyd is describing is the first step in recovering from an injury. The mental game will always be a huge obstacle but overcoming the injury itself will help aid with the mental recovery. We believe a highly beneficial therapy to help athletes overcome an injury is through Neurokinetic Therapy treatments (NKT).
What is NeuroKinetic Therapy
If you’ve never heard of Neurokinetic therapy here’s what David Weinstock who co-developed Neurokinetic therapy defines it as, “NeuroKinetic Therapy is based on the premise that when an injury has occurred, certain muscles shut down or become inhibited, forcing other muscles to become overworked. This compensation pattern can create pain or tightness. By applying light pressure that the client then resists, the practitioner can evaluate the strength or weakness of each muscle, revealing the sources of injury and retraining the client’s body to remove the compensation pattern and reprogramming the body at the neural level.”
NKT and Sports
Injuries are a part of every athlete’s journey. Whether it’s mental or physical the rigors of performing at the level you desire, day in and day out will take its toll on your mind and body. When you are facing the road to recovery from an injury, Neurokinetic therapy is a practice that’s extremely beneficial to you. Are you asking yourself, what can NKT help treat? Here’s a short list of some injuries athletes may have that NKT can help you overcome:
- Injuries caused by trauma or impact
- Lower back pain
- Neck and Jaw pain
- Fibromyalgia
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Plantar Fasciitis
- Muscle Joint Strains/ Tears and Pulls
- Bursitis and Tendonitis
- Pain from Improper Form or Compensations
At Pain and Performance Solutions we will use NKT to determine and help correct an athlete’s injury by performing localized muscle testing. Neurokinetic Therapy testing is performed in a very specific procedure to identify which part of the body is contributing to your pain or injury. Often, it’s the muscle relationship that is the problem. One specific muscle can become inhibited which will force another muscle to work way harder than it should to compensate.
The testing of your injuries can be difficult since one muscle can be superior in strength and is overcompensating for a weak one. When this is the case, the injured muscle can appear as still healthy when it is not. When Neurokinetic therapy is administered, we look at the weak muscle at the onset and follow it up with the testing of the stronger muscle.
The overall goal of NKT is to determine where the exact compensation is occurring. Then the goal is to find the localized, precise spot where the compensation is happening to loosen the tightness of that muscle, release the tight muscle, then refine that weakness and reprogram the connection between the healthy and weaker muscles. All to get your body working to its most optimal performance.
Benefits for Athlete’s
There are many benefits that any athlete will find when practicing NKT. Some of those benefits are:
- Improved balance, posture and coordination
- Reduced spasms
- Increased range of motion, strength and stamina
- Faster muscle recovery with less fatigue or tenderness
- Injury prevention
- Rotator cuff pain or injuries
Neurokinetic Therapy
All in all, the practice of NKT is beneficial to an athlete looking to overcome an injury. A timetable can be set, but it’s all about how an individual’s body will respond to this treatment. It can be faster for some, but longer for others. NKT is a healthy, natural therapy that we at Pain and Performance Solutions believe in. If you’d like to set up a consultation or if you have any other questions, please click here to contact us. We are here to help get your body back to working at the highest level possible.