Motor Point Acupuncture - What’s All the “Buzz” About?

You most likely have heard about acupuncture, but you may or may not have heard about motor point acupuncture! If you’ve been around our clinic in last several months there’s a good chance you have heard people talking about this style of acupuncture and if you want to learn more, read along!

Motor point acupuncture can be an amazing and efficient way to treat musculoskeletal issues and can offer fast relief and fast recovery. It helps to restart muscle function and increases range of motion, something a lot of our patients have an issue with.

What is motor point acupuncture and what are motor points?

A motor point is where the motor nerve enters the muscle. It is the most excitable area of a muscle. In motor point acupuncture, the motor point is used to release hypertonic or tight muscles and to also strengthen weak muscles.

Muscle Motor Inhibition

Muscle Motor inhibition is when the nerve that sends the impulse to contract a muscle becomes unable to function at its optimal capacity. This results in a perceived weakness of that muscle which changes the biomechanics of the entire region.  This disfunction typically leads to pain.

During the assessment the stability, strength and range of motion of extremities are assessed using simple manual muscle tests.

Once it is determined which muscles are inhibited, function can be restored by needling the motor point of the inhibited muscles, and then stimulating that point using electro stimulation.  When an acupuncture needle is used on a motor point with an electric impulse, it creates a contraction and relaxation phase releasing tight contracted bands of muscle. You can think of this like hitting a reset button on the muscle. The results are immediate pain reduction/relief and improved muscle contractibility and mobility. 

What patients are saying about Motor point acupuncture:

“I have been seeing Nicole for treatment for the past couple of months. What a difference!! I was having a lot of nerve and muscle issues, and basically living in chronic pain. I was always getting massages and finding I wasn’t feeling relief and if I did it was very short lived.

I decided to reach out to Nicole as she came highly recommended from the gym I go to. Knowing she understood my style of fitness and the demands on my body made me know I was in good hands!

Wow.

I honestly couldn’t speak more highly of her therapeutic methods. This style of therapy worked tremendously well for me! I went from chronic pain to feeling next to no pain. My range of motion has increased, my muscle function was back, and my pain was significantly decreased.

I’m thankful I found a treatment method that works and a practitioner that executes it amazingly well. My body is feeling amazing, and I will continue to see Nicole proactively to manage any flair ups so I am always in tip-top shape.

Highly recommend.”

Ali
----------------------------------

"After a surgery that left me with impaired sciatic nerve damage I tried massage, physiotherapy and an osteopath. I had a lot of nerve pain, cramping and ongoing discomfort. The treatment that has worked best for me has been motor point acupuncture. I can’t imagine my life without these treatments. I can’t believe how instant and effective the treatments have been."

Val 


Nicole Albertson B.Sc, R.Ac

Registered Acupuncturist