Active Release Technique

Active Release Technique® (ART®) is a highly successful approach to the diagnosis and treatment of muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves, and fascia, known as soft tissue.  It is a non-invasive hands-on therapy performed by licensed health care providers who have completed post-graduate certification through multiple ART® seminars.

Many professional athletes have been using ART® for years. Dr. Robert Silverman is ART® board-certified in all 8 areas – Upper Extremity, Lower Extremity, Spine, Nerve Entrapment, Biomechanics, Ironman® Provider, Masters and Active Palpation, and Complex Protocols.

ART® providers utilize highly developed skills and anatomical knowledge, in conjunction with symptom patterns and functional testing, to locate scar tissue on and in between muscles and nerves.  A precise hand or thumb contact is applied to the problem area and the patient is directed to move the region of the body through a specific range of motion. Through the combination of tension to the tissue from the provider, and motion by the patient, the tissues will slide under the provider’s contact.  This process has been proven to rapidly break up scar tissue and yield recovery of many types of soft tissue conditions.  ART® is so unique, that in 2000 it was granted a federal process-patent.

Why doesn't the pain go away by itself?

The body has no mechanism to reduce scar tissue naturally.  It requires treatment.  Although the body can sometimes adapt to and tolerate, a certain amount or scar tissue, it will not function optimally and can cause further injury.

How long does treatment take?

Most sessions require only 10 to 15 minutes to complete.  Depending on how long the individual has had the injury, the number of treatments, almost always, fall between 2 and 20, with an average of 6 to 8 visits.

Active Release Technique (ART®) provides two levels of care –  Injury Care and Performance Care:

About ART® Injury Care

ART® Injury Care is used to treat and resolve a broad range of soft-tissue injuries, and return these tissues to full function.  ART® Injury Care resolves soft-tissue injuries by removing the adhesions and restrictive tissues that are laid down when the tissue suffers repeated trauma.

ART® Injury Care removes the cause of the dysfunction, and restores full function, movement, and translation to the affected tissue. ART® Injury Care provides the methodology and tools required to return a patient to their chosen occupation, pain-free, and fully functional again.

About ART® Performance Care

Once patients have received ART® treatments to resolve obvious soft-tissue injuries, they are often keen to return to activities and sports that were previously denied to them by their injury.

At this point, ART® can provide patients with a means to enhance their sports performance by identifying and releasing restrictions that reduce their performance in that activity.  This typically occurs after the practitioner conducts a biomechanical analysis of the patient’s motion.  During the biomechanical analysis and the subsequent treatment, the practitioner:

• Evaluates your gait, motion, and posture

• Identifies the biomechanical dysfunctions that are restricting your performance

• Finds the soft-tissue structures that are the primary cause of the biomechanical dysfunction as well as affected structures along the kinetic chain

• Treats the soft-tissue dysfunctions with ART® to restore full function to the affected structures

ART® Performance Care is applied after trauma-based injuries have been resolved.

ART® Performance Care concentrates upon removing those restrictions that inhibit full range of motion, and in restoring full function and performance to those soft-tissues.  This process can result in significant increases in sports performance – power, strength, and flexibility.

ART® Performance Care has been used to improve athletic performance for everyone from the amateur athlete to Olympic Gold medallists.  Many well-known athletes and celebrities have benefited from ART Performance Care, including:

• NHL hockey player – Gary Roberts

• Figure skaters and Olympic gold medallists – Jamie Sale and David Pelletier

• Mr. Universe – Milos Sarcev

• Members of several Olympic teams, including the nations of Canada, the United States, New Zealand, and Australia

• Numerous PGA Golf professionals

Why is ART® So Successful?

To effectively treat a soft-tissue dysfunction, the practitioner must be able to feel the adhesed tissues and restrictions.  ART® is unique, when compared to other techniques, in that ART® practitioners are taught methods for:

• Feeling the location and direction of all restrictions

• Feeling the breakdown of the adhesed tissues

• Feeling and change in the soft-tissue as the nerves, tendons, ligaments and muscles translate and move easily across each other

ART is used to:

• Find the specific tissues that are restricted

• Physically work the soft-tissues back to their normal texture, tension, and length by using various hand positions and soft-tissue manipulation methods

This strong sense of touch awareness can take a considerable amount of time and experience to develop.  ART® is successful, where other traditional methods fail, because ART® practitioners:

• Locate the true, root cause of the problem.  An experienced ART® practitioner can successfully resolve many soft-tissue problems within 6 – 8 treatments

• Locate the restrictive adhesions that have formed, identify the direction in which these adhesions are aligned, and remove these restrictive adhesions.  Compared with ART®, most other myofascial techniques are not as specific or as effective

• Work along the entire kinetic chain.  Advanced ART® practitioners are also trained in biomechanical analysis and can understand exactly how injuries within the kinetic chain affect the biomechanics of the patient

• Consider the body to be one complete, dynamic, functional unit- they do not restrict their attention and treatment to just the area of complaint.

For more information on ART® please visit: www.activerelease.com