A weekend warrior or a professional athlete, you push your body to perform at its best. As you move beyond your limits, you are bound to experience tension, aches, pains, over-exertion, repetitive injuries, sprains, pulls, physical trauma, and emotional stress. It comes with the territory, and if you don’t listen to your body, recover appropriately and get to the root cause of your pains, it can put a halting stop to your growth and game. Guess what? I have a natural and holistic solution for you. Time and time again, acupuncture and herbal medicine have been proven to be an effective therapy for sports injuries and pain to keep you performing optimally for the long haul.

I can speak from personal and professional experience. As an ultra runner, Ironman triathlete, and former San Shou/Muay Thai kickboxer, I know a lot about the physical pain and emotional stress of pushing my body and mind past its limits. The day-to-day hard work has resulted in my fair share of tension, injuries, aches, pains, and pressures. It has been essential to my longevity in sports to pursue modalities that get to the root causes of my injuries to keep me going strong for years.

Many athletes have come to Element 5, Acupuncture + Wellness for Acupuncture Sports Medicine. I have treated professional athletes of the Houston Dynamos and the Houston Aero Hockey teams to elite runners, armature athletes, and weekend warriors of all sports. Over and over again, I have witnessed the efficacy of acupuncture, herbal medicine, cupping, e-stem, and gua sha in treating various sports-related injuries that have interfered with my patients’ active lifestyles. Integrating acupuncture with other healing modalities combined with proper rest and recovery set them up for winning outcome that deserves a high-five!

What sets Acupuncture apart from other therapies? It gets to the root causes of conditions and treats naturally and holistically, resulting in pain relief and long-lasting benefits. For example, Western medicine is a gift, but it’s not always the best long-term solution. The primary treatment protocol for injury and pain is pain medication, anti-inflammatories, steroids, ice, and rest. Don’t get me wrong, these medications can be an effective short-term solution, but it doesn’t get to the root cause of the condition. It will often mask the pain and swelling. This cover-up can lead to an aggravating ongoing injury because it’s not addressing the root cause.

Here is a case for you. I have a patient diagnosed with quadriceps tendonitis, a pain located at the top of the knee cap. However, the root cause is not the quadriceps tendon. The pain originated from a fixed point of tension in the rectus femoris muscle, causing inflammation of the quadriceps tendon. In this case, pain medication and anti-inflammatories can work, but the tightness in the quadricep is still present, which can cause a relapse in tendonitis. How frustrating! Here is what worked. We addressed the fixed point of tension combined with other self-care techniques like rolling, massage, taping, and core strength. The quadriceps tendonitis disappears, just like magic!