Why Body Builders Need Acupuncture.
Bodybuilding is more than just flexing your muscles and strutting your best on stage during a competition. It involves discipline and dedication to build your dream body.
Considering it involves rigorous strength training, it’s important to allow your body to recover to prevent overexertion and injury. Bodybuilders can benefit from acupuncture because it helps you recuperate faster and prevent injuries by relaxing your muscles, reducing pain, and improving your range of motion.
If you want to find out more about how inserting needles at various points in your body can be beneficial for improving your bodybuilding performance, read more below.
What is acupuncture?
Acupuncture is a form of Ancient Chinese Medicine that balances your body’s energy flow. It believes that energy flows through multiple pathways throughout your body, and once a pathway gets blocked, pain and illnesses manifest.
To repair this, acupuncture inserts thin needles to specific acupuncture points in your body to release the blockages and restore healthy energy flow.
Studies have shown that acupuncture is effective in minimizing pain and managing symptoms of several health conditions.
How can acupuncture help bodybuilders?
Not many may know, but professional athletes like to incorporate acupuncture into their routines because consistent treatments can help reduce muscle pain, speed up recovery, prevent injury, and improve mobility. A study shows it’s also effective for relieving delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) after intense exercise.
Since bodybuilding can be strenuous on your muscles, bodybuilders can also take advantage of these benefits to help you perform better during exercises.
Considering the most common injuries you get from bodybuilding are joint sprains or strains, hernias, tendonitis, and ligament tears, acupuncture can treat and prevent these by stimulating your central nervous system and releasing endorphins to eliminate pain.
What else can acupuncture treat?
Aside from reducing muscle and joint pain, acupuncture can also help manage symptoms from several musculoskeletal diseases, including:
- Fibromyalgia
- Osteoarthritis
- Chronic lower back pain
- Sciatica
- Tennis elbow
- Neck pain
- Knee pain
- Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction
- Stiff neck
It’s also been shown to be effective for managing mental conditions, including anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Its relaxing effects can also help improve your sleeping patterns and, in turn, increase your mental clarity and focus.
How many acupuncture sessions do you need?
The frequency of your acupuncture sessions will depend on your health history and goals, so it’s important to discuss your treatment plan with your acupuncturist so you’ll know what to expect.
If you’re using acupuncture to relax your muscles after your body-building sessions, 1-2 sessions a week are often enough. But if you’re recovering from a body-building injury or have acute or chronic symptoms, your acupuncturist will adjust your treatments according to their severity.
Once you start to see positive results, your practitioner will then book your sessions farther apart – for instance, from thrice a week to once a week, and so on. But if you do not see any changes after a few sessions, perhaps acupuncture isn’t the right treatment for your condition.
Can you do a body-building session after acupuncture?
Your acupuncturist will advise you to take it easy a few days after your acupuncture session to allow your body to recuperate. But it’s safe to do a workout session after treatment if you’re mindful of your body.
Considering body-building involves heavy weights, it’s best to skip the gym if your muscles feel fatigued or tired after acupuncture to prevent accidents. If you’re recovering from an injury, it’s best to ask your acupuncturist if they think your body is ready to return to body-building.
However, there’s nothing wrong with taking a few days off from the gym to relax, drink plenty of water, and eat a balanced diet. If you can’t go a day without moving your body, you can use lighter weights or stick to lighter exercises like stretching, yoga, or running.
Who shouldn’t do acupuncture?
Although acupuncture can treat several acute and chronic symptoms, it’s still best to talk to your doctor to determine whether acupuncture can benefit your condition.
But if you have a metal allergy, a blood condition, or are taking blood thinning medication, acupuncture isn’t recommended for you. You must also take caution if you have a pacemaker since acupuncture with mild electrostimulation can interfere with your device.
It’s also best to let your acupuncturist know if you’re pregnant so they can avoid specific acupoints that will stimulate labor.
Ready to book an acupuncture treatment?
If you’re ready to try acupuncture, book your sessions at Lycoming Orthopedic & Sports Acupuncture. They have a team of licensed acupuncturists equipped to create personalized treatments according to your health goals. They also offer dry needling, cupping, electrostimulation, and soft tissue mobilization treatments to help you optimize your recovery. For questions or inquiries, contact their team now and book your first session.
