Running is a wonderful activity that offers a ton of health benefits, but it can also put a considerable amount of stress on our bodies. Whether you’re a seasoned marathon runner or a casual jogger, the desire to improve and surpass previous records often leads to increased pressure on physical well-being. While healthy competition can be motivating, it’s essential to recognize that excessive strain can be detrimental to our bodies. Alongside traditional training methods like strength training, proper nutrition, and regular practice, there is another modality that you should pay attention to when it comes to optimizing your overall running performance – acupuncture. In this essay, we’ll explore three ways that acupuncture can positively impact your running goals.
3 Ways to Improve Performance with Acupuncture
Here are 3 ways you can improve your physical performance with acupuncture. While the article is about running performance, this section can be applied to any physical activity including dancing, bowling, or however else you enjoy moving your body!
Enhanced Circulation and Oxygenation
Perhaps the biggest benefit of acupuncture for runners is that acupuncture has a remarkable ability to enhance blood circulation and oxygenation throughout the body. But what exactly is acupuncture and why does it improve blood circulation so much? Let me simplify it for you: Acupuncture involves the gentle insertion of thin needles into specific points on the body, stimulating the flow of blood throughout the system. This stimulation works by dilating blood vessels, resulting in improved blood flow to the muscles and organs.
Now, you may be wondering, how does this help runners? Let me explain further. When you engage in running as a sport, your muscles demand an increased supply of oxygen and nutrients to function optimally. With the aid of enhanced circulation through acupuncture, your muscles receive a higher influx of oxygen, leading to improved endurance and reduced fatigue during your runs. Additionally, acupuncture’s effect on circulation accelerates the removal of waste products (for example: lactic acid). These waste products are often responsible for post-exercise cramping and muscle soreness. We’ve all had runner’s cramps before! Not fun! As a result, participating in regular acupuncture sessions ensures that your body is efficiently supplied with the necessary resources to achieve peak running performance.
Pain Management and Injury Prevention
If you’re a runner, then you understand how injuries and pain can hinder your progress and prevent you from reaching your full potential. After all, it’s impossible to finish a race with a broken foot, isn’t it? This is where the incredible benefits of acupuncture come into play. Acupuncture offers a natural and highly effective way to manage pain and prevent injuries in the world of running (and beyond!).
So, how exactly does acupuncture provide relief from pain and prevent injuries? It’s quite straightforward. Acupuncture triggers the release of endorphins, which are the body’s natural painkillers. When you integrate acupuncture sessions into your weekly running schedule, you can experience significant relief from common running-related discomforts, like joint pain, shin splints, and muscle strains. These are the types of pain that keep us on the couch when we want to be running, right?
Acupuncture goes beyond just pain relief. It can also address imbalances in the body (think of them as the precursors to injuries.) By stimulating the body’s self-healing mechanisms, acupuncture assists in the recovery of strained muscles, tendons, and ligaments, ultimately reducing the downtime (and couchtime!) caused by injuries.
Stress Reduction and Mental Clarity
Running is about more than just the physical aspects. In fact, there are a ton of different factors that stop us from lacing up our running shoes, right? We’ve all experienced days when a bad mood or a sense of hopelessness makes the thought of running seem way too out of reach.
There are times when we simply don’t feel like running. There are times when we’re overwhelmed by the thoughts swirling in our heads. While running can absolutely help sort out this kind of stuff, there are times where even the idea of leaving the comfort of our couch feels overwhelming. Good news is, there is a way to address this challenge. Acupuncture! Why? Acupuncture has a long history of reducing stress, anxiety, and promoting emotional balance. That’s what makes it an effective solution.
So, how exactly does acupuncture make you feel better on a bad day? By targeting specific acupuncture points associated with relaxation, that how! Acupuncture works to soothe the mind and alleviate nervous tension. Stress and anxiety can significantly impact running performance, but incorporating acupuncture sessions before important events can help you in achieving a calm and focused state of mind.
How Can Acupuncture Pain and Stress Center Help?
Acupuncture Pain and Stress Center gives you world class diagnosis coupled with acupuncture plus cutting-edge hands on treatment to quickly ease your pain. Once your pain levels are down I will guide you through a graduated movement strategy so you don’t have to keep coming back for the same issues. At Acupuncture Pain and Stress Center, I will piece the parts of your story together using our unique assessment that looks at your body as one. Here is how I do it.
- Discussion: I will investigate the cause of your problem and explain it in simple terms.
- Assessment: This will reveal the underlying dysfunction(s) and show why you are suffering from your pain.
- Treatment: I will ease your symptoms quickly using acupuncture and other hands-on techniques that quickly relieve your pain and improve function.
- Rehab: I will give you simple movements that you easily can fit into your busy day to improve recovery and give lasting relief. Your graduated movement strategy and pain treatments continue as needed to help you build your confidence in your body again so you can quickly get back to thoughtless, fearless, movement. Through this phase of treatment, I can add to the rehabilitation by focusing on specific things like working on speed, agility, flexibility, or strength.
- Freedom: I plan to make you so happy that you’ll actively tell your friends and family about us. You see, I have built our clinic on word of mouth referrals and I expect my clients to be so happy with the results that they tell their friends and family about me, so they too can get the help they need.
Acupuncture Pain and Stress Center, the solution for all of your Running Pains
Hi, I’m Jim Eleczko, the founder of Acupuncture Pain and Stress Center and it’s my mission to provide you with compassionate, whole-person care using holistic treatments, including Acupuncture, Dry Needling, and Tunia Massage. I’m a board-certified and licensed Acupuncturist practicing since 2010 in Raleigh, North Carolina. I love that I get to wake up every day to make meaningful changes in my patient’s lives. I’ve seen first hand the changes that Acupuncture can make.
As a teen I suffered from allergies and my father suggested that I try Acupuncture to calm the symptoms. It worked – and left a lasting impression on me! Now I offer Acupuncture and other treatments to help people with a variety of issues, including anxiety, migraines, fibromyalgia, and more. Our other treatments include Dry Needling, Guasha, Cupping, Stretching, Orthopedic Movements, Electroacupuncture and Therapeutic Exercises. Here’s a bit more about me and my qualifications: I studied the 4-year program at Jung Tao School of Classical Chinese Medicine and continue to travel multiple times a year to study with my mentor, Andrew Nugent-Head. I also studied under Dr. Ed Garbacz, M.D. LAc and spent a year working and studying under Dr. Bonnie Walker, M.D. LAc. I have also done extensive post-graduate studies in acupuncture, nutrition, herbal medicine from lectures of acupuncturists like Dr. Nguyen Van Nghi, Dr. Tran Viet Dzung, Matt Callison, and Edward Obaidey.
