In honor of Social Media Day, we are relaunching our blog! Seems fitting… This month we want to start by addressing some of our most frequently asked questions. If you have a question about Myers Therapy, ART massage, or anything else be sure to go over to our Contact page to send it to us. Let’s begin.

“What is ART?”

ART stands for Active Release Techniques, a patented soft tissue movement based massage technique that treats dysfunction in muscles, fascia, ligaments, tendons and nerves. (There’s your textbook version…) But what does that really mean for our clients?

Ask yourself these questions, do you have pain? Do you experience issues with range of motion? Are you recovering from an injury? Are you a performance athlete looking to improve your competitive edge? Do you take enough time to make the function of your body a priority? Are you sitting at a desk all day, or have a job that has you moving in the same patterns frequently? Have you tried many different types of other massage, physical therapy or chiropractic care that has’t quite seemed to address your issues?

If so, ART massage may be right for you and is particularly effective for conditions resulting from overuse. Overuse in muscles and other soft tissue can result in changes in three important ways:

• Acute conditions (such as a muscle pull, tear, collision, etc)
• Build up of small or micro-tears
• Not getting enough oxygen or hypoxia

Each of these changes can cause your body to produce tough scar tissue in the affected areas. This tissue begins to bind and hinder surrounding tissues that need to move freely, and as the build up increases, muscles can become shorter, weaker, and tougher causing pain, or other conditions. Nerve pain usually presents as a tingling, numb, or weak feeling.

Some of the more common conditions that can be treated and even permanently resolved are:

• Headaches
• Back Pain, Neck Pain
• Tennis Elbow
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
• Shin Splints
• Plantar Fasciitis
• Sciatica
• Tendonitis

There are so many effective uses and applications for this technique, which is why at Myers Therapy, we rely so heavily on this method of practice. And we know first hand how effective it has been on our own bodies.

If you have other questions about ART massage or the types of services we provide, don’t forget to drop us a line on the Contact page for more information and consultation.

So remember this holiday weekend, if you fall off a boat or pull a muscle with that cooler, drop us a line & bring us a hot dog. Let’s bring back that healthy function!