In the Fall of 2018, after a great race at the USTAF Trail Half-Marathon Championships, I suffered from a case of irrational exuberance. I’d put in a nice block of training over the weeks and months leading up to my target event for the year. I’d done a few preparatory races, hit most of my target workouts, and tapered appropriately. The result was a USATF National Master’s Championship and a big check (literally big—not big as in big money).
I was satisfied—for about a day. Then, like the greedy, ungrateful-for-success-runner that I can be, I didn’t take the downtime and rest I’d planned prior to the race. Within a couple of days, as my post-race soreness was wearing off, I became convinced, both irrationally and exuberantly, that I should utilize my fitness and good form to hop into a 50k a month later. The 50k never materialized.
Within two weeks of resuming training, something in my backside was on fire. This was not the productive “light a fire under your butt” kind of thing. This was a deep, debilitating burning radiating in multiple directions from my sit bone. Running became unbearable. The only thing worse was sitting down. I had to take rest stop breaks to drive from 10 miles from Esko to Duluth. At some point, my delusions subsided and I said it aloud. “I’m injured.”
That’s really where today’s post begins.
If you’re reading this, my guess is that we have some similarities. I’m driven, focused, and a little obsessive. This can be a strength or a weakness in life, but when it comes to injury rehabilitation, my personality has typically worked in my favor. I schedule the appointments, get the imaging done, see the physical therapists, do all of the exercises, ice, modify my activity, cross train, repeat.
While I might feel sorry for myself, I take action. Lots of it. My goal is to get back to activity as soon as reasonably possible, and I’m willing to do the annoying little things that it takes to achieve that goal. I figured this injury was a side effect of my stupidity and my advancing running age, but that I’d be back on the trail in a few weeks.
Wrong.
After an initial, and I believe correct diagnosis of proximal hamstring tendinopathy (high hamstring tendon dysfunction), I started down my usual course of seeing a team of well-intentioned, typically-successful medical professionals. I did everything I was asked to do.
To save you ten minutes of reading, I am going to skip ahead and spare you the details of the seven months of medical specialist visits, physical therapist appointments, chiropractic assessments and dozens and dozens of hours of rehabilitation exercises. Let’s just say nothing worked.
After seven months of trying really hard, I and the team of great medical people I’d enlisted had gotten exactly nowhere in terms of improving my pain in the rear. Let me give a shout out to those people who worked with and on me. You know who you are. I am not an easy patient. Thank you for your patience.
Everything changed in March of 2019.
On the recommendation of my little sister, a 43 year old CrossFit stud (she’s jacked), I scheduled a visit with Brad Leavelle, PT at Viverant in Duluth. My sister had great luck with dry needling for a CrossFit-related back injury from Brad. I believe Amy said, “The first time I got needled, it felt like I’d been in a car accident, but three days later I was pretty much cured.” She’s not known for being dramatic, so I was simultaneously intrigued and nervous for my appointment.
I showed up for my appointment at Viverant feeling, well, let’s be honest—I was desperate. I’d had no improvement or progress in seven months of rehab and the internet had convinced me that this could last forever.
That was not to be the case.
After three dry needling sessions with Brad over ten days combined with some simple but effective muscular re-education activities that followed our 30 minute appointments, I’d experienced 80% improvement. Three weeks later, I’d improved to 90% normal. This might sound like miraculous healing. It’s not. It’s science.
That’s not to say that it is science that I understand. I’m not a medical professional although the practitioners I see would tell you that I think I am one. If you want to read about the science and history behind dry needling, start at the Wiki page and click on links.
Here’s what I, English Major Greg, want you to know about dry needling:
- It is what it sounds like. Somebody sticks needles into your soft tissue, typically muscle knots. These are needles. They are sharp. They kinda hurt going in.
- The needles are used to probe for and poke into injured muscles. Sometimes electrical stimulation is added. When the practitioner hits a troubled spot, the muscle reacts. I’ve never felt anything like it. The muscle jumps around (even without electrical stimulation) feels like a balloon blowing up, quivers, and then it suddenly goes limp. So weird.
- The first couple of times you have this done both the needling and the first 24 hours after the treatment are likely to hurt. How bad? Everybody is different. For me the worst part was the anticipation of the needle.
- Each successive treatment, as you heal and adjust to the needling, both the session and the after effects are progressively less uncomfortable—or increasingly comfortable?
- Anecdotally, this treatment works very well on stubborn injuries in overused and abused tissue. I’d recommend trying it to any athlete who has a soft tissue injury that isn’t responding to other treatment or is lingering despite time and rehabilitation.
- Like deep tissue massage, Graston, trigger point therapy, Active Release Technique, Myofascial blah blah, the purpose of dry needling is to address soft tissue problems. No need to send me an email to say that all of those things are different and work on different mechanisms for different reasons. I know what I don’t know, and I have had great success with all of those kinds of treatment. I’m just saying that dry needling is in this class of mainstream treatments.
- Apparently the people who do dry needling and the people who do acupuncture want the world to know that they are not the same thing. I’m sure they are not. A similarity is that they both involve sticking needles into people. Both have good research to support their efficacy. My non-science take on the big difference is that dry needles are inserted deeper and directly into the troubled areas. With acupuncture, the needles (which may be thinner) are inserted just under the skin, along various pathways in your body. One is based on Western medical research, the other has existed for a thousand years of Eastern medicine.
- Watch this video to see a triathlete getting dry needled (or don’t if you hate needles). I’ve never see the needles actually going in. I don’t look cuz that way I can pretend nobody is sticking needles in me.
Like any therapy or anything in life you outsource, a key is to see the best people available. I’m sure there are other people in the Duluth area doing good things with sharp objects, but the two people I personally endorse in an unpaid, unaffiliated way are:
Brad Leavelle, PT at Viverant
https://www.viverant.com/providers_archive/brad_leavelle/
-and-
Dr. Adam Sundberg at Duluth Chiropractic
https://www.duluthchiropracticclinic.com/meet-our-staff/
The wrap up is this: If you’re frustrated with a soft tissue injury, try dry needling. It is uncomfortable enough that if it isn’t working you won’t go back, but there’s a very good chance it’ll help you—and there’s not too much that can go wrong. Dry needling is growing exponentially as a modality as it works for lots of people. If it sounds fringe or sketchy it isn’t. Your insurance will most likely cover it like any form of physical therapy. Good luck, friend.
-Greg Hexum