ART isn’t designed to be an ongoing treatment or preventative tool – it’s done to heal a specific injury. The average recovery requires 6-10 sessions, though some patients feel immediate change.

Unlike many conventional therapies, Active Release doesn’t require extended rest periods before results begin to be noticed.

Active Release has an indirect effect on muscle development. Most who are trying to build muscle end up with biomechanical problems or soft-tissue injury that can limit muscle growth.

Engineer and chiropractor Dr. Michael Leahy, developed Active Release Technique (ART), which is a hands-on approach to the treatment of injuries of muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia, nerves, and the surrounding soft tissue. His first patients were primarily bodybuilders.

Headaches, back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, shin splints, shoulder pain, sciatica, plantar fascitis, knee problems, and tennis elbow are among the many conditions that can be resolved quickly and permanently with ART. These conditions all have one thing in common: they often result from injury to over-used muscles.

Over-used muscles (and other soft tissues) change in three important ways:
Acute injuries (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. The 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 become trapped. This can cause reduced ranges of motion, loss of strength, and pain. If a nerve is trapped, tingling, numbness, and weakness may be felt too.

ART is a rigorous and interactive form of massage therapy in which the practitioner applies pressure to the affected area while moving the surrounding muscles through a full range of motion. The key difference between ART and massage is the direction of the rubdown. Other kinds of deep-tissue massage move in any direction. ART lengthens the tissue in the same direction as muscle fibers naturally move. That’s what stretches out the adhesions and causes healing.

ART treats alterations in tissue texture and tension. Practitioners find tissue that’s injured and physically work it back to the texture, tension, and movement it should have. Once which tissue is involved and exactly what injury has occurred is identified, practitioners use specific motions of the body to make layers of tissue slide over one another. If they feel places where tissue is not sliding or where it’s not moving correctly or if it’s too tight, they’ll break up the adhesion or force a layer of muscle to slide over another layer of muscle, or separate a nerve that’s stuck to connective tissue or a layer of muscle. Treatment itself can be painful, however intense pain is not a given; it all depends on the injury.

For more information on ART, or to find a practitioner near you, visit Dr. Leahy’s website at www.activerelease.com

or call (888) 396-2727.