How acupuncture helps athletes during recovery

Acupuncture has many benefits for athletes and runners including releasing muscle tightness and trigger points, improving blood flow, reducing inflammation, and improving range of motion.  Acupuncture and dry needling also help with common running injuries by addressing the muscle tightness that contributes to the pain.

Many top athletes like Tom Brady and David Beckham use acupuncture to help with their recovery because it helps them recover better and can help prevent injury. Generally, acupuncture is most commonly used to treat pain. It also reduces inflammation and releases muscle tightness that can restrict range of motion. A 2020 study found that besides being helpful for pain control and musculoskeletal conditions, acupuncture can help treat delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), exercise induced fatigue, and performance anxiety issues in athletes.

During recovery, acupuncture promotes increased blood flow to a targeted area. This stimulates healing as your body reacts to the insertion of needles much like a histamine response. This encourages tight, stubborn muscular restrictions in the body to release. Acupuncture during recovery enables to the body to refocus on healing instead of painful movements that come from injuries or underlying biomechanical issues.

There are many reasons that support including acupuncture in your recovery routine if you’re a runner or athlete.  If you’re looking to reduce pain, recovery faster, and perform better you should consider adding it to your regimen.

I recommend this article to read more about the affect of acupuncture on athletes.