Active Release Technique
 

Has anyone tried the Active Release Technique for your muscles. I had my first session last Thursday and paid for it over the next two days but seems to be better now. I don't know if I am going back for more or not. I just ran out of sick time at work and currently using vacation time and have filed for disability which will take another two months for approval. I am really battling whether I can be back at work. My SCM and scalene muscles are like rocks and it causes all kinds of problems. The therapist really worked the traps,scalene and pecs and said I have a lot of scar tissue. ACT is working to break up scar tissue so you can stretch better. I am a police officer and I am not sure I can handle all the driving and report writing. I know that my days as a SWAT officer are over since the physical demand is to much. I still have a lot of spasms, tingling, and of course pain in neck, shoulders and arms. I can not take pain meds or muscle relaxers if I was to return to work. I seem to have all my strength still, but do have some shoulder instability. I am working with PT to strengthen back muscles, but I am going to need another surgery to repair a torn labrum. This TOS is so frustrating right now.

You are doing the active release technique post surgery? How would they assess your scalene muscles being rock hard if they were removed? I am not surprised that there is scar tissue if there was a surgery. I could imagine that the technique is good for breaking it up. Did you find it helpful overall? Or is it too soon to tell?

Yes, I did a few rounds of ART. It helped bring down my muscle tension some, but not enough. I also found it very painful during the sessions, although not so much after a day.

I stopped the ART after I plateaued with it. I wasn't sorry I did it at the time as it helped some, but in retrospect there are better approaches that are less painful. I have gotten better results with other soft tissue techniques that my current PT employs. These include:

-- osteopathic manipulation technique (OMT)
-- craniosacral therapy
-- joint mobilization

All done by the same person. I also have a chiro who does myofacial release on my neck muscles. That was helpful too.

But if you don't have someone on your health team that knows that stuff then you'll probably want to continue with ART some more. You can also ask your practitioner to ease up on some spots.

I tried massage, but for me at least, the results were too temporary to be worthwhile.

Ultimately I did need a muscle relaxant to help me through this. I still take it (diazepam 2mg, 2 X per day). I was originally on 5mg per day, now 4. I hope to reduce every 6 - 8 weeks or so until it's 0.

Another thing that helps is that when I wake in the morning, I scan my body for tension, especially my neck and shoulders, and let it go, usually counting out 10 breaths. It's a daily habit. I also check at night as I'm going to sleep. And when I'm at my desk. And when I watch TV. :)

I also started supplementing magnesium (you can find other threads) and quit caffeine (gradually over 4 weeks). I found both were helpful, but at least for the mag, it can take a month or more to see results.

Muscle tension has been a real problem for me and although I've improved a lot, I have not completely solved it. I still get problems with my neck (though not nearly as severe as before) and when I check for tension, I find I'm tensing too often (though not as much as before).

My guess is that you will have to work on this on-going like I have in order to get marked improvement.

Next in my queue is to learn Somatics by Thomas Hanna.

HTH

scalene on non surgery side, but scm on both sides. Yes after two days of rest. Hurt when they were doing it and a day afterward but then it eased up.

Muscle tension/spasms is TOS
Burning, throbbing is RSD
Aches is Fibromyalgia
RLS all the above

One ugly monster with many tenticles

There are so many things that can help calm
I use alternative medicine along with western by the way of

• Hypnotherapy
  Massage therapy
  Acupressure
  Acupuncture
  Eastern medicine of combine therapy's
  physical therapy
  myofacial release
  flossing and elongating of the nervous system
  contrast showers
  steam showers
  cold showers
  lidocaine patches
  music