Acupuncture for Sports Injuries

How Chinese medicine understands sports injuries

In Chinese medicine, an injury is first a problem of flow. A strain, knock or torn fibre is seen as Qi and Blood getting stuck in the channels that run through the area, and stuck circulation shows up as pain, swelling and bruising. How long ago it happened, and how your body is recovering, decide which pattern is in front.

The common patterns are:

• Acute Qi and Blood stagnation. A fresh injury: sharp, fixed pain, swelling and bruising, worse with pressure and movement. Treatment aims to move circulation and ease pain, often with points away from the injured area in the first days.
• Lingering stagnation. Weeks or months later the swelling has gone, but a tight, sore spot remains and the area feels stiff after rest. Treatment works more directly on the area to loosen it.
• Cold and Damp settling into an old injury. The area aches in cold, wet weather, feels heavy and stiff, and is better with heat. Treatment warms it.
• Qi and Blood deficiency. Recovery is slow, the area feels weak rather than painful, and you may feel run down from heavy training. In Chinese medicine the muscles and tendons are not being nourished well enough to repair, so treatment also builds you up.

What treatment involves

Your first visit at the clinic in Keswick starts with a lot of questions: the sport, how the injury happened, what makes it worse, what rehab you are doing, and your sleep, diet and general health. I also look at your tongue and take your pulse. The initial visit is 75 minutes and includes the diagnosis and a first treatment. Follow-ups are 60 minutes.

Acupuncture is usually the main treatment. Points are chosen near the injury and elsewhere along the channels that pass through it. I treat the whole body at every treatment, not only the area that hurts. That matters in sport, because an injured knee or ankle changes how you move and the hips, back and shoulders often tighten to compensate.

Other treatments may be added depending on the pattern:

• Cupping for large, tight muscle groups such as the back, hamstrings and calves.
• Tuina massage to work the soft tissue around a strain once the acute stage has passed.
• Moxibustion to warm an old injury that aches in the cold.
• Chinese herbal medicine, a formula written for you and dispensed at the clinic, when recovery is slow or you are run down.

Treatment works alongside your physiotherapist, athletic therapist or doctor, not instead of your rehab. Plan on 5–10 treatments to judge progress.

Between visits

• Follow your rehab plan. Strength and mobility work is what gets most injuries back to full load. Keep doing it.
• Return gradually. Build training back up in steps, and back off if pain is worse the next morning.
• Warm up properly. Five to ten minutes of easy movement before hard efforts gives muscles and tendons time to prepare.
• Use heat for old, stiff injuries. A heat pack for 10 to 15 minutes eases stiffness. Skip heat on a fresh, swollen injury.
• Sleep and eat enough. Tissues repair between sessions, and heavy training with poor sleep slows that down.

When to see your doctor first

See a doctor or go to emergency before treatment if:

• You heard a pop or snap and cannot bear weight or use the limb.
• There is an obvious deformity, or you suspect a fracture or dislocation.
• You hit your head and have headache, confusion, vomiting, dizziness or changes in vision. A possible concussion needs medical assessment before any return to sport.
• The area is hot, red and swollen and you have a fever.
• You have numbness, tingling or weakness that is spreading, or a cold, pale limb.
• Pain is severe at rest or at night, or keeps getting worse despite rest.