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Active Release Technique (ART) is a patented soft tissue mobilization system invented by Dr. Michael Leahy.  With relevance to ART, soft tissue includes fascia, connective tissue, ligaments, muscles, tendons, and nerves.  ART is an anatomically detailed system that is efficient in the treatment of several pathological and potentially pathological entities from fascial adhesions to nerve entrapments, which are commonly observed in traumatic and overuse injuries.

On the surface, one may think that this is a system or technique for individuals that have suffered an “injury” such as an ACL tear, ankle sprain, or sciatica.  While individuals with these injuries will benefit from ART, those with physical performance issues and residual muscle soreness will find that ART can in fact help them as well.  Those in search of ART can find relief in Certified Active Release Technique Providers via a provider network at www.activerelease.com.  For the purpose of this selection, we will focus ART relevant to physical performance.

It is well known that three fundamental aspects of physical performance are mobility, stability, and neuromuscular efficiency.  It is also important to remember that while these three fundamental aspects will be addressed independently, just as the systems of the human body (i.e. – neuro, cardio, muscular, etc.), they are interwoven/interdependent upon one another to achieve efficient functional movement.  Mobility speaks to the ability to achieve a particular position passively.  For example, when performing a squat, a certain amount of dorsiflexion is needed at the ankle, along with some knee and hip flexion.  If any of these areas are lacking in motion, then the squat will be dysfunctional, as an adjacent joint with go through compensation in an attempt to achieve the squatting position, placing the individual at an increased risk for potential injury.  Once the individual is able to achieve a desired position, the next question is can they safely perform that motion actively against resistance (i.e.-gravity), which is stability.  Stability is contingent on multiple factors such as, but not limited to, mobility, motor control/coordination, strength, and endurance.  Neuromuscular efficiency is the ability of the central/peripheral nervous system (CNS/PNS) to communicate with muscular system via the neuromuscular junction thereby producing a desired effect with a degree of proficiency.  ART can be an effective tool in addressing issues in performance related to mobility, stability, and neuromuscular efficiency.

Mobility can be impaired by restrictions in muscular, tendonous, fascial, and/or ligamentous tissues.  The key in addressing this issue is the proper identification of the structure responsible for the deficit in mobility.  For example, a person may have a problem with ankle dorsiflexion and report that their achilles tendon feels tight with this motion.  One may think that all he/she needs to do is to perform some gastrocsoleus stretches.  While this may be appropriate, there is also a chance that the true problem is a restriction in the glide between the flexor hallicus longus (muscle to the big toe) as it passes under the achilles on its way to the lateral aspect of the lower leg.  If this level of acuity is not utilized, then there is an increased chance that the person will develop a compensatory movement pattern resulting in decreased performance and a possible overuse injury somewhere else along the kinetic chain, which may manifest itself as a mobility, stability, and/or neuromuscular efficiency deficit.  Individuals trained in ART have the detailed sense of anatomy along with the manual skills to effectively identify and treat the culprit for mobility dysfunction.

Problems with stability may be rooted in mobility, strength, and/or motor coordination deficits.  Often problems with strength and motor coordination are addressed via exercises specific to the impairments.  As far as strength is concerned, it is important to assess the continuity of the muscles responsible for a particular action.  When a muscle is trained intensely or injured, it is possible that adhesions and scar tissue may form in the muscle as it attempts to repair itself from the damage accrued through strength training or trauma.  If this is the case, then that muscle will not respond to strength training effectively to address stability deficits, as it is a dysfunctional unit.  ART is effective in both the identification and treatment of discontinuity of muscular tissue.  ART is also proficient in the management hypertonic muscles (of non-upper motor neuron origin) as they maybe responsible for coordination deficits via reciprocal inhibition.

As stated earlier, neuromuscular efficiency is reliant on the functional capacity of the CNS/PNS, neuromuscular junction, and the muscular system.  When impulses are sent from the CNS to the PNS on their way to the neuromuscular junction, its ability to reach its destination is contingent on an unimpeded pathway.  One way that this pathway can be impeded is peripheral nerve entrapments.  Throughout our body’s system, there are multiple sites where nerves pierce through, run under, and run over soft tissue structures.  As soft tissue structures become tight and short, they may clamp down on the associated nerve resulting in entrapment and the potential problems associated with nerve entrapments.  Just as with the muscular system, ART is efficient in the management (identification and treatment) of peripheral nerve entrapments.  Relevant to the neuromuscular junction, certain areas of the body, such as the myofascial attachment at the distal plantar surface of the calcaneus, are prone to calcium retention with stress and minimal circulation deficits.  As is with the case with “plantar fascitis”, calcium retention may be identified via x-ray.  If the calcium has ossified, then ART can only assist in the management of progression.  If ossification has not yet occurred, then ART is a vehicle to resolve the calcium deposit and to facilitate the restoration of functional mobility, stability, and neuromuscular efficiency.

Soft tissue trauma is a natural repercussion of physical activity as it often correlates with the intensity and/or frequency of the activity.  An individual’s physical performance is contingent on the ability to repair/restore soft tissue continuity and to maintain/progress mobility, stability, and neuromuscular efficiency.  While ART is by no means the end all be all factor in a person’s ability to perform physically, it is an excellent and effective adjunct and is sometimes the missing key in unlocking efficient functional movement.

Mike Davis is a Physical Therapist and Certified Active Release Technique Provider in the Northern Virginia area and can be reached via email s2mdavis@hotmail.com

Dr. Cameron Fort is an A.R.T. Provider at the Optimal Fitness Lifestyle Center. To schedule a session contact us today.

Check out this article published in the San Jose Mercury on Santa Clara University Basketball Center John Bryant. John has completed the 4 Week Group Metabolic Typing Program and the 21 Day Purification & Weight Loss Program (aka “Detox”) with us at the center. He has come along way as you will read below losing approximately 100 pounds. He is committed to success and we wish him the best of luck in his senior year!

John B. Before

John B. After

 Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/collegesports/ci_10922510

SCU Center Determined To Impress NBA Scouts

John Bryant had it all planned in his mind. He would step on the court this season and everyone would think: Wow, who is that guy? So, he lived in the weight room. He changed his diet. For months, he worked to melt off 30 pounds from his previously super-sized physique. Bryant, Santa Clara’s star center, even trimmed his bushy hair — as if to announce that this metamorphosis went beyond just a slimmer waist line.

But then the guy who had been careful to do everything right to make himself a better basketball player found himself at the wrong place at the wrong time.

In the early morning hours of Sept. 27, Bryant was stabbed three times in an altercation after leaving a party not far from campus. Luckily, the injuries were minor; the wounds on his back and side required only 14 stitches. Bryant, at 6-foot-11 and now a svelte 275 pounds, wasn’t even aware that he had been hurt until friends noticed the blood.

Now, on the eve of the season, Bryant is back on the court.

“I was just walking across the street,” he said after a recent practice. “It was an unfortunate event. You can’t control what other people do. It’s just a blessing that what could have happened, didn’t happen.”

A first-team All-West Coast Conference player last season, Bryant prefers to look forward. He is driven to elevate his game to a level where NBA teams will notice. To do that, he has changed almost everything about his appearance.

“I want people to not even recognize me,” Bryant said. “That was my goal. I want people to be amazed.”

To fully appreciate the more-streamlined Bryant, imagine the “before” snapshot that’s often shown in weight-loss advertisements. Bryant estimates his weight ranged between 360 and 370 pounds his senior year at Pinole Valley High.

“My mom always kept me on a well-balanced diet,” Bryant said. “But what killed me was the late-night snacking. At midnight I would go into the fridge and see what’s in there. I would grab whatever I could find, sit down in front of the TV and eat.”

And eat.

While it was immediately clear at Santa Clara that he possessed excellent hands and a deft short-range shooting touch, Bryant also lumbered on the court and was easily winded.

Listed at 325 pounds as a freshman, he still stepped right into the regular rotation and started 14 games. By his sophomore season, Bryant was entrenched in the starting lineup, although his conditioning limited him to about 23 minutes a game.

But when Kerry Keating took over for longtime coach Dick Davey in 2007, he made it clear that the center was going to have to vastly improve his fitness if he wanted to reach his potential.

Bryant was noticeably thinner last season, down to 305, when he had a breakout year — averaging 18 points and a WCC-best 9.6 rebounds and 2.5 blocks in 28 minutes per game. Yet Bryant, who has an easygoing demeanor, wondered what he could do if he were really in shape.

“My movement wasn’t very good,” he said. “I couldn’t get off screens well. I couldn’t help on defense. I couldn’t box out somebody. I remember vividly times in games where I would see a ball on the floor and thought: ‘I can’t move to get it.’ ”

That, he concluded, would change.

Bryant worked out with school trainer Joe Siara. He went on a program designed by Bay Area nutritionist Brien Shamp, who taught Bryant to think about what he was consuming rather than just eating whatever happened to be available.

“Brien is big about staying away from things that he calls the ‘white devils,’ like sugar and flour,” Bryant said. “Brown rice is a lot better for you than white rice. You stick with the whole grains. It was a strict diet. And whenever I would eat something like a quesadilla, 20 minutes later I would feel like: ‘Why did I just do that?’ ”

His mother, Jodie Bryant, knew her son had adopted a more serious attitude about his basketball career when he decided to trim his hair. (Bryant, who entered college with a buzz cut, had grown it out long and the length had been a minor test of wills between the player and Keating.)

“We had this little family event where he got it cut,” she said. “That was when we all realized that he was making big changes in his life.”

Keating saw more than mere symbolism in Bryant’s clean-cut look.

“I don’t want to say that he was embarrassed by who he was, but I think the hair took away attention from his body,” Keating said. “Deep down inside, he just knew he could be better. Now he had changed everything about his body, and that was just the end of the transformation.”

After working so hard, Keating added, Bryant deserved a strong season and then a shot at the NBA.

But those dreams almost ended in the wee hours of a Saturday in September.

“John has learned,” Keating said, “that nothing good ever happens after 1 o’clock in the morning.”

According to police, Bryant was leaving a party at 1:20 a.m. when he encountered three men near Market and Lafayette streets. Words were exchanged and Bryant was stabbed. Police said Bryant was an innocent victim who did nothing to provoke the attack.

“I told them, ‘I don’t want to mess with you guys,’ ” Bryant recalled. “I was with a couple of friends, just walking home. They were a little ahead of me, which is why I think I got it. I didn’t even know what had happened until my friends told me I was bleeding.”

Shock and adrenaline probably explain that. One of the first officers on the scene happened to be Travis Niesen, Bryant’s former teammate who now is a Santa Clara cop. Niesen later would be on the phone trying to calm a frantic Jodie Bryant.

“When you have four children, you think you can handle emergencies,” she said. “But I was a mess. Travis kept saying ‘He’s fine, but he’s been stabbed.’ I didn’t breathe until I saw him. It was horrible.”

But Bryant was fine. In fact, he was away from basketball for only a week or so.

Then on Oct. 4, after four other Santa Clara students were robbed at knife-point, police arrested three suspects. One of them, Jose Segovia, was identified as Bryant’s assailant and charged with the stabbing. Bryant, who will graduate this spring with a sociology degree, said he now looks at the incident as a “little speed bump” that is behind him.

“Life isn’t about what happens,” he added. “It’s about what you do with what happens. I’m going to make sure that this doesn’t affect me much. I’m moving past it. All I was concerned about was getting back on the court.”

The Broncos, who will be young this season, need Bryant to be dominant. The WCC is stacked. League powerhouse Gonzaga, St. Mary’s and the University of San Diego all made the NCAA tournament last season and figure to once again be tough. (Twelve of those team’s 15 starters return.)

Now, everyone close to Bryant can’t wait to see how his improved conditioning translates to the court.

“I kidded John after the incident that he couldn’t sit on his butt and gain all that weight back,” Niesen said. “But he didn’t let that happen. I’m just happy he wasn’t seriously injured, that he’s healthy and now he’s ready to show everyone what he’s capable of doing.”

But no one is more eager than Bryant himself.

“I can’t tell you how much better I feel,” Bryant said. “I think it’s going to be a lot different year this season for me. Just watch.”

Contact Mark Emmons at memmons@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5745.

Here is an article is the University of Santa Clara Newsletter about John’s Body Transformation: