Acupuncture To Aid Running And Recovery In Athletes
3 June, 2010
A recent article in The Times Online highlighted what acupuncture may be able to offer to runners. Paula Radcliffe and other athletes like Maria Sharapova are acupuncture fans and use it to complement their training routines.
I have worked with a number of athletes who have had a variety of issues. The most common injuries involve the knee and ankle. Runners can be very anxious that they may not recover from the injury and be able to run again. Acupuncture offers a pain-free treatment which can help strengthen the tendons and sinews, support muscle and tissue repair, promote blood flow and reduce inflammation and alleviate pain.
I have also worked with some runners as part of their preparation for a marathon. The treatment has helped keep them strong and injury-free, has ensured their energy is good and has helped keep them calm. One person ran his personal best after an acupuncture session and put this down to the power of the needles!
Another recent study by Lin ZP, Lan LW, He TY, Lin SP, Lin JG, Jang TR, Ho TJ from MingDao Univrsity in Taiwan and published in the American Journal of Chinese Medicine looked at the effects of acupuncture stimulation on recovery ability of male elite basketball athletes.
Developing effective methods for helping athletes recover from muscle fatigue is deemed essential, particularly on the eves’ important competitions. This study aimed to investigate the effects of acupuncture stimulation on athletes’ recovery abilities. Subjects were selected from 30 male elite university basketball players who were randomly assigned to 3 groups: acupuncture group, sham group, and normal (control) group, each containing 10 subjects. Acupuncture was carried out on each athlete in acupuncture group on two acupoints, beginning at 15 min prior to exercise and continuing until exhaustion of the subject. Similar acupuncture was also carried out on each athlete in the sham group but the positions were 1 cm away from the acupoints. No acupuncture was conducted on the athletes in the normal group. During the experiments, each subject performed separate runs on the treadmill. The data of heart rate (HR(max)), oxygen consumption (VO(2max)), and blood lactic acid were measured during the rest period and at 3 recovery points of time (5th, 30th and 60th min) post-exercise. The results showed that the acupuncture group (PC6 and ST36) has significantly lower HR(max), VO(2max) and blood lactic acid than both the sham and normal groups at the 30th min post-exercise. Blood lactic acid of the acupuncture group was also significantly lower than that of the other two groups in the 60th min post-exercise. The reserachers concluded that their findings have shed some light on the development of effective acupuncture schemes to enhance the recovery ability for elite basketball athletes.
