Quote:
Originally Posted by WideReceiver
I’ll have another physio treatment in a few days. I’ll ask my therapist.
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Not pure acupuncture, but dry needling was part of the treatment by my physio when I had a hyper flexion high ankle sprain. IIRC, along with the use of a TENS system, it was used to help relax the muscles around (usually calf and knee IIRC) to aid range of movement/reduce pain in other connected areas to the injured area.
For what you're probably aiming for, you want a longer term fix. Acupuncture, tens, massage etc. are good short term fixes. I don't know the science, but I'd guess it's perhaps useful to reduce longer longer term effects of overcompensation, but on their own, not a long term solution to the injury.
Stick to the physio treatment, and after the treatment, I've found that yoga and tai chi movements are good for maintenance and addressing longer term effects/aiming to return to the original range of motion+. Yoga is great when range of motion/pain is almost fully back, but IMO tai chi is far superior when you're still not fully back for range of motion/pain.
As much as I like yoga and its overall effects, I do find that the movements at times are too much for the affected areas, especially if your body is "unbalanced" in terms of range of motion. IMO, situations such as balancing on one side when you have a bad ankle or knee kinda sucks, especially when doing stuff like Vinyasa flows with a bad foot, ankle or knee.
Tai chi warm ups on the other hand (I've only been dabbling in recently), seems much more geared towards seniors. As such, the movements are much more friendly if you have restricted range of motion/unbalanced range of motion/pain. You can still do basic versions of the movement and slowly move towards balancing out the range of motion on each side of the body. If you become unbalanced in the movements, you're less likely to end up doing a bigger/more painful correction as you attempt to prevent a stumble. I've also seemed to notice some sitting or assisted tai chi movements (ie: a bar/walking stick). These are great options to incrementally increase range of motion with lower chances of re-injury. I don't think I've really heard of any scenarios where such movements are regularly recommended as part of an injury recovery, but I'm starting to think it should.