6 Ways Acupuncture Can Help You Achieve Your Fitness Goals

6 Ways Acupuncture Can Help You Achieve Your Fitness Goals

Hello Everyone,

Most women want to get in shape. We all know that regular exercise can help us look and feel better and have more energy, no matter what stage of life we’re in. Holistic treatments are becoming more and more popular in recent years, too. Many people are turning away from the typical Western lifestyle and diet to focus on healthier living through diet and exercise to prevent illness.

 Today, we’re going to talk about how acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine can play an integral part in achieving your fitness goals.

 Acupuncture for Sports Injuries, Joint Pain, and Back Pain

Every workout enthusiast or athlete has done it at least once. You are mid-workout, and then suddenly you just know something isn’t right. Maybe you’ve lifted the weights incorrectly or just overdone it altogether. Now you’re in pain and you can’t get back into the gym again until you heal.

Acupuncture can be used to treat both acute traumatic injuries and chronic injuries. An acute traumatic injury is one that happens suddenly, such as in the example above. Chronic injuries occur over time when you repeat the same damaging activity on a regular basis, like elbow and shoulder pain in tennis players. These injuries commonly present themselves as swelling, bruising, joint pain, sprains, and strained muscles.

Acupuncturists from the YinOvaCenter recommend using acupuncture treatments to help you get back in the gym sooner. Not only can acupuncture help you heal faster, it can provide pain relief and help prevent recurring injuries by strengthening the area. In fact, acupuncture can not only promote healing and relieve pain, it can also improve your circulation and reduce inflammation in your muscles and joints.

Acupuncture for Sprains and Strains

Two of the most common injuries that can keep you out of the gym are sprains and strains. These types of injuries can happen just as easily outside of the gym as they do during a workout. All you have to do is step off a curb the wrong way and twist your ankle to cause an injury that could keep you from working out for weeks or even months.

While the treatment is basically the same, many people don’t realize that there’s a difference between these two types of injuries. Strains affect muscles and tendons.

Strains happen when the tendon or muscle is torn or stretched. They can occur instantly or they can happen over a period of time, especially if you are repeating the same activity regularly.

Sprains, on the other hand, affect ligaments (the connecting tissue from the bone to the joint). A sprain occurs when a ligament is torn or stretched, usually a result of twisting, falling, or getting hit hard.

Both sprains and strains can take a long time to heal. Resting the injured area, using ice, and keeping the area supported with an Ace bandage will all help to speed up healing, but if you add acupuncture into your treatment plan, you will speed up the healing process even more. Acupuncture will encourage healing and reduce pain and inflammation in the strained or sprained area.

Acupuncture for Weight Loss

While acupuncture doesn’t actually make you lose weight, it can help in areas that are critical for weight loss. We’ve already talked about how acupuncture can heal injuries and relieve pain so that you can work out more often and more effectively, but your digestive health is important for weight loss, too. When you are not digesting your food properly, your body is not getting all of the necessary nutrients it needs to be healthy and give you energy for things like working out.

Poor digestion makes you want to eat more to make up for the missing nutrition. Acupuncture can be used in conjunction with Chinese herbs to heal the digestive system so that you feel less hungry and don’t need to eat as often. 

Acupuncture for Faster Recovery Times

You don’t need to be injured to benefit from acupuncture after a workout. A good workout always comes with aches and pains, especially if you overdo it. Seeing your acupuncturist right after your workout can promote healing and speed up your recovery time so that you can head back to the gym sooner. Speeding up your recovery time means that you can intensify your workouts, burn more calories, and build more muscle.

 Acupuncture for Better Mental Health

A woman’s mental health can be a very important factor in achieving her fitness goals. Anxiety and mild depression can affect your desire to work out and even cause you to have poor eating habits. Acupuncture therapy can promote feelings of relaxation and reduce stress. It can also balance hormone levels that can be a common cause of depression.

Acupuncture and Chinese medicine are different than Western medicine because they focus on treating the mind and body, not just the symptoms of the problem. An acupuncturist will create a personalized treatment plan that combines the use of acupuncture treatments with Chinese herbs, as well as diet and lifestyle changes to treat depression and anxiety.

Bodywork (massage) might also be incorporated into the plan to promote relaxation and reduce anxiety and stress levels.

 Acupuncture for Chronic Fatigue

Chronic fatigue syndrome is a common problem for many women and it can go hand in hand with mild depression. The symptoms of chronic fatigue can include a weak immune system and, ironically, difficulty sleeping. Sometimes a woman suffering from this problem will even have unexplained pain. These symptoms can be very difficult to overcome and will usually affect your desire to be active. In fact, many women who have even mild chronic fatigue symptoms find it difficult to get the motivation to perform even everyday activities, much less work out.

It’s important to rule out underlying medical conditions that could be causing your fatigue, but often the cause of chronic fatigue can’t be diagnosed, and that’s why acupuncture and Chinese medicine can be so effective in treating it. These methods of treatment focus on treating the entire mind and body. Diet and lifestyle changes will be prescribed along with Chinese herbs and acupuncture therapy to improve your overall health and correct the hidden cause of the problem.

Acupuncture is an affordable, safe, and effective way to treat injuries and improve overall health. All women should consider incorporating acupuncture treatments to help them achieve their health and fitness goals.