by Dr. Gary Olson, DC, special to SportsMD.com
Every athlete who wants to get back in the game after an injury focuses their attention and energy on getting well, rehabbing, and recovering their strength and speed — as quickly as possible. This desire to compete will often drive an athlete to come back to the game too soon, which can lead to further injuries. Fortunately, methods like Active Release Techniques (A.R.T.) speed up the recovery process while at the same time restoring your range of motion and promoting deeper healing.
Dr. Gary Olson, a chiropractor certified in Active Release Techniques (A.R.T.), has worked with professional and amateur athletes for more than 20 years at his clinic — The Long Island Spine and Sports Injury Center. Dr. Olson’s background in A.R.T., chiropractic, fitness training, and physical therapy has allowed him to help thousands of patients recover quickly from their injuries and resume their active lifestyles.
Sports injuries to soft tissues will develop scar tissue that can restrict your range of motion, decrease blood and lymph fluid flow, reduce speed and agility, weaken your muscles, and produce ongoing pain and soreness. Active Release Techniques (A.R.T.) was developed as an advanced method of treating and restoring damage to soft tissues from scar tissue. Soft tissue injuries occur to the muscles, ligaments, tendons, blood vessels, and nerves. Often soft tissue injuries are only treated passively with heat, ice, electrical stimulation, muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatory meds, and rest — none of which prevents scar tissue from developing. As the “A” in A.R.T. says, Active Release Techniques actively works to find and correct soft tissue problems from your injury, restore your range of motion, improve circulation to the injured area, and stimulate faster, better, more complete healing.
Active Release Techniques (A.R.T.), like chiropractic care, is something more and more professional teams and athletes are using on a daily basis, to the extent where they keep full-time chiropractors and A.R.T. practitioners on staff. As a skilled chiropractor, Dr. Olson combines A.R.T. and chiropractic care to further speed the healing and recovery process. Chiropractic and A.R.T. have a symbiotic relationship where they are more effective when using together than separately. A.R.T. treats the soft tissues while chiropractic treats the joints and the nervous system. A properly aligned spine allows the nervous system to help your injuries heal faster. Side benefits include less pain, better hand/eye coordination, faster reflexes, and a stronger immune system.
Whether your sports injury is caused by a violent collision, sprain, strain or if the cause was due to repetitive stress, common in sports like baseball and golf, Active Release Techniques (A.R.T.) will not only help you recover faster but experience a more complete healing. A.R.T. is a proven method to actively treat muscle pain, strain and sprains, ligament injuries, muscle spasms and cramps, and pinched nerves — all the while avoiding the risks of surgery and the bad side-effects of many prescription medications.
Dr. Olson’s goal is to help you fully recover from your sports injury and get back in the game without losing a step. As a skilled A.R.T. practitioner, Dr. Olson is able to identify and correct unnatural changes in muscles, ligaments, tendons, fascia, and nerves that result from injury or overuse and prevent the buildup of scar tissue as well as breaking up existing scar tissue. As a chiropractor, he is able to locate and correct any misalignments to the spine and joints that put pressure on your nervous system, restoring mobility and a full range of motion.
The Long Island Spine and Sports Injury Center also combines the use of physical therapy, kinesiotaping and cold laser therapy to assist athletes in a complete and speedy recovery. Visit www.drgaryolson.com to learn more or call Dr. Gary Olson at (631) 462-0917 to arrange a consultation. It’s time to get back in the game!
Cover Image credit: Pixabay/Mariolh
