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.

Common Conditions

Some of the conditions commonly treated using ART are:

• Headaches
• Back Pain
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
• Shin Splints
• Adhesive Capsulitis
• Rotator cuff injuries
• Sciatica
• Hip Pain
• Leg length discrepancies
• Plantar fascitis
• Knee problems
• Patellofemoral syndrome
• ITB syndrome
• Ligament sprains/muscle strains
• Tennis elbow
• Shoulder Pain
• and many more...

Rationale

Abnormal tissue can develop from in a number of situations:

• After a pull, tear or bruise
• overuse leading to cumulative micro-trauma
• decreased oxygen delivery to the area

Each of these situations results in the formation of scar tissue in the area. The scar tissue adheres to surrounding muscle, bone, nerves and fascia, preventing them from moving freely.
The goal of an ART treatment is to identify the abnormal tissue, and through specific protocols, restore normal movement by breaking up the scar tissue adhesions that have formed.
Treatment involves applying a specifically directed tension to the tissue, combined with patient movement that is designed to take the affected tissue from a shortened to a lengthened state.