Dry needling - intramuscular stimulation - is often done to promote healing, reduce soreness, and loosen tight muscles.
You can’t really massage tissue that is very deep, because you can’t reach it. So needling is simply a way of getting to the deeper muscles.
I have had needling many times for pain in my calves. But getting to the physical therapist takes time.
Since I have seen it done so many times, I decided I’d give it a try myself.
I used the longer 1/2 inch pen needles. I attached them to the pen, put them in, and then unscrewed the pen. Seemed to work pretty well. I may do this more often because it was pretty easy.
Here is what it looks like when a professional does it:
It felt pretty good today but I want to do it a second time. It usually takes at least twice for needling to work for me, to sufficiently loosen everything up.
Two years ago I had a collapsed disk in my neck. While waiting for surgery I needed pain relief in order to work and I can not tolerate pain killers. The PT suggested dry needling which turned out to be a life saver but the result did not last as long as the insurance company wanted me to wait between sessions. In desperation one day my left forearm was locked up in spasm and was killing me so I pulled out my insulin pen and jabbed it into the same spot the PT used and voila success!
Other parts of the body where I had issues (shoulder blade…) were inaccessible but the forearm needling allowed me to type and drive for the 3 weeks while waiting on surgery.
