Meet Your Acupuncturist
Hi, I'm Gavin from Acupuncture Grove Bondi Junction, Sydney
At Acupuncture Grove, we tailor acupuncture for sporting and repetitive strain injuries specifically to you. Typically, if it’s going to be helpful for you, we will know very early on, within the first 4-6 treatments (often earlier).
If you would like to try acupuncture for a sporting or repetitive strain injury in Sydney, then reach out below and book your initial consultation.
Gavin Martin-Rentz
Chinese Medicine Practitioner and Acupuncturist
How do we use Acupuncture for Sport Injuries and RSI?
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Local and Distal Acupuncture
Your body has an amazing ability to heal, repair and adapt from injuries, so an acupuncturist’s job is to identify how best to help the body do what it needs to. Most of this comes down to regulating circulation and restoring muscle function to the surrounding areas.
The beauty of acupuncture for painful injuries is that we can avoid treating the injured area directly in the early stages by using “distal acupuncture” (points distant to the affected area). You may have experienced where you’ve had massage or other treatment to the area only to find that it aggravates your pain and inflammation initially. We like to avoid that where we can.
As your injury heals, we may also include “local acupuncture” (treatment points in the affected area) to help address tissue adhesions that are still present. For certain injuries, this may involve electro acupuncture to help more strongly stimulate healing of connective tissue and address muscle inhibition.
If you would like to find out more about the different acupuncture techniques we specialise in, you can check out our dedicated acupuncture page.
At Acupuncture Grove, we tailor acupuncture for sporting and repetitive strain injuries specifically to you. Typically if it’s going to be helpful for you, we will know very early on within the first 4-6 treatments (often earlier). That doesn’t mean that it will be completely better in that time, but you should feel some early signs of relief or improvement from the acupuncture if it’s going to help.
Once we know how you’re responding to the acupuncture, we’ll then work out a treatment plan for you that will include rehab exercises where appropriate. The ultimate goal is to get you back to sport or regular activity without the need of acupuncture anymore, or to keep it as something you do for maintenance.
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Tailored Treatment for Each Individual
Chinese herbal medicine may also be a useful adjunct when working with injuries. It’s the same idea as acupuncture, we use it for a period to help address certain imbalances, but as you improve, we aim to get to a point where it’s no longer necessary. If it’s something that we feel will help you along, we’ll discuss it as part of the treatment plan.
If you would like to try acupuncture for a sporting or repetitive strain injury, please don't hesitate to book your initial consultation, or reach out with any questions below.
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Chinese Herbal Medicine
Frequently Asked Questions
How much and in what ways it might help, will depend on the injury and a variety of different factors. There is research that supports acupuncture’s effectiveness for musculoskeletal sports injuries such as meniscus ruptures, sports hernias, rotator cuff tendinitis, shin splints, and more; providing relief from pain and aiding functional recovery. See here.
This will come down to a case by case basis and treatment will need to be tailored to the unique needs of any athlete. There is research to suggest that acupuncture may be beneficial for improving rang of motion, flexibility and certain aspects of performance. See more here.
Repetitive strain injuries like tennis elbow (or lateral epicondylitis) and carpal tunnel often result from restriction in the muscles of the forearm. Your acupuncturist will then look to identify these key areas of restriction and work towards restoring healthier muscle function and circulation to the area. There may also be issues around the shoulder and neck that need to be addressed also.
Acupuncture works with you as a whole person, so if there are mental aspects affecting your sports performance, these will become a main focus of treatment. The mind and body are seen as a continuum and so can both be worked with.
Acupuncture is known to stimulate the body's natural pain relief systems, like endorphin and serotonin release, while enhancing blood flow and reducing inflammation. All of this may work together in promoting quicker recovery from intense workouts.
This will depend greatly on what you’re coming in for. If it’s for an injury, 6-12 sessions are a good starting place, depending on how chronic and/or severe the issue is. Further sessions may be suggested as needed if responding well. For performance and general athletic maintenance, ongoing sessions would be realistic, based around training schedules, however a course of 6 sessions initially would be recommended to gauge how you respond and if it will be something that helps you.
Visit Our Clinic
PHONE
LOCATION ADDRESS
2/15 Bronte Rd,
Bondi Junction NSW 2022
Located across the road from Westfield Shopping Centre
OPENING HOURS
MON: 9:00am - 6:30pm
TUE: Closed
WED: Closed
THU: 9:00am - 6:30pm
FRI: 8:00am - 1:30pm
SAT: Closed
SUN: Closed
Some Injuries Acupuncture Can Help With
As an athlete or an active person, the last thing you want is a sporting injury to keep you from doing what you love. There are many different types of injuries that can get in the way of sport and day to day life, such as:
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Tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis)
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Golfer’s elbow (medial epicondylitis)
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Achilles tendinopathy
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Plantar fasciitis
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Rotator cuff tears
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Shoulder bursitis
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Knee meniscus tears
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Patella tendinopathy
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Hip bursitis
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Various muscle strains and tears
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Various ligament sprains
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Post concussion syndrome
Just to name a few. For some, surgery may have been necessary to repair damaged structures, and now you’re recovering from surgery. For others, you may not even play a sport or be very active but have ended up with a repetitive strain injury. For example, it’s not uncommon for people like desk workers, tradies or hairdressers who have never picked up a tennis racquet, to develop tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis).
Whatever your injury, you want to be able to recover quickly and get back to normal exercise and activity as soon as possible. You also probably want to avoid re-injuring yourself in the same way in the future.
Proper rest and rehabilitative exercises are going to be an important part of recovery, but rest alone is rarely enough, and doing the rehab exercises effectively can be difficult due to pain and muscular imbalances around the injury. Having treatment to help reduce inflammation, improve circulation, reduce pain, increase range of motion and restore muscle function can go a long way in speeding up recovery. Hello acupuncture…