The ART® of soft tissue treatment

[oljoha]

Being a certified provider of ART myself I have nothing but good things to say about ART. I highly recommend it. The article linked to below pretty much sums up a lot - many things that I can testify to. I.e. being able to resolve a case of plantar facitis in one or two treatments, resolving shoulder impingements etc. Please take time to read the interview, then we can discuss it and get philosophical about soft tissue treatments. :)

An article on Active Release Techniques / Interview with Dr Leahy (http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=body_63real)

[bernard]

Hi oljoha,

I read the article but there is not really material to a better understanding of the ART technique.

I learnt on another site that it acts on soft tissues while the patient is moving. That's make sense for me but can you give us more clues about it?

[bernard]

Hi again,

Another question about ART. Is there a relation with the trigenics technique? I found some similitudes with it?
http://www.trigenicsinstitute.com/

[oljoha]

Sure. It's "simply" adding manual tension while elongating the tissue. The touch is very specific though and it's not really possible to teach it without doing it hands on. You can get good results by experimenting on your own - but you're also likely to bruise quite a few. Taking a seminar is like getting 10+ years of experience in a weekend - so that's my recommendation.

With ART you treat all tissues, including nerves. In fact even sciatica will often resolve by treating along the path of the nerve - something that many therapists consider to have it's origin in the spine. Piriformis syndrome is familiar to many - well with ART there are A LOT more possible entrapment sites.

However where I wanted to get philosophical about soft tissue treatment is e.g. with the direction we treat. I.e. I never do cross friction anymore - the tissues are meant to handle stress along the fibers, not across.

There are so many conditions that have their origin in the soft tissues, yet I feel so many PTs and physicians often don't see it. Massage can get to these adherances, but it's far from specific enough - it doesn't include the movement, nor a stretch. Exercises work well sometimes - I don't think it's the increase in bloodflow - it's the tension added which releases the tissue. However there is the problem of being specific enough - and if you don't get to it and free it up then you're likely to have provoked it - thus making it worse.

So the way I work today - is using ART to find and release these adherances in the tissues. Then add stretches and exercises when I feel the patient is ready for them. And usually I'm A LOT heavier on the dosage than most of my collegues (who treat the body like it's something delicate which can break easily). While the ART treatment usually involves discomfort, the exercise should be pain free (or I have probably not resolved the problem).

I'm sorry if this gets too much. Like I've said before - I'm so passionate about this. I want more PTs to pick it up. The biggest problem I have with ART is that I don't see patients for as many visits as I used to - so I am not making money off this. However I'm having a great deal of fun at work - since I feel I can help more people and that they get their moneys worth,

[oljoha]

Another question about ART. Is there a relation with the trigenics technique? I found some similitudes with it?
http://www.trigenicsinstitute.com/

I saw a video of that Trigenics stuff once. That seems very different - I found it quite quack like - but I don't know for sure. One thing that is similar is the Graston Technique (http://www.grastontechnique.com/)

[bernard]

Hi again oljoha,

I'm a very passionate person too. I think that all Somasimplers are, in fact passionate persons since they continue to ask about their knowledge.

As I said, the theory makes sense since we know a bit more with the skin ligaments (thanks Diane). I'm a totally open minded person but I'm at ease when I find too some scientific material which fit the theory. (that's what I'm doing with LBP origins).

The only thing I'm questionning about ART is the adhesions, Is there some papers about this?

[bernard]

You leap too fast there! :wink:

Diane followed a Trigenics training and she said (a while ago) that it works?

The Graston technique is terrific! (for me). :shock:

[Diane]

Ole, from one passionate person to another, hurray for you that you found something that works so well for you and provides you with non-material satisfactions. It's not the number of times someone visits you that's important, it's how many new people they send you to treat because you didn't waste their time and money. But you are already operating within that parameter or you wouldn't have become a soma simpler! :)

To me, the physicality of trigenics seems much like ART... if fact at the training I attended, many particpants had ART already, and commented on how alike the two techniques were. The instructors were hard-pressed to explain how the two were different (.. and why the participants who were already ART-ers weren't wasting their $ and time learning trigenics!)

The difference seemed to boil down to... ART pushes along the length of the muscle, trigenics pushes in different directions including across, in a clockwise circle or a counterclockwise circle. That's all. There is exhale, contact over the antagonist, and light resistance to an agonist. That part is the same. The packaging with trigenics included reference to muscle testing and to acupressure.. that might be where it begins to be a little wooey..

I never became certified as a "trigenist", but I added the technique to the many others I've adopted as useful. (I've always been a somewhat non-committal sort of individual..)

Here is a link to a discussion I started on another forum that is populated by PTs who treat pain in various ways. I brought up some stuff I found on skin proprioceptors. Just in case you might be interested..
http://www.rehabedge.com/cgi-bin/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=15;t=000115;p=1#000022

Anyway, cheers,
Diane

[oljoha]

I think the video I watched about the Trigenics stuff was some of that acupressure deals... Looked like a healing session... just short of the crystals :shock: Anyways the video made little sense to me. I plead ignorance on this one - But I'll go back and look at it one more time.