If you put in a lot of miles in your trail running shoes or hiking boots, ski hard all winter or send dyno moves at the crag, there’s a good chance that you’re no stranger to aches and pains and oftentimes, such annoyances are just that – niggles that go away on their own. Sometimes, however, when left unattended to, minor pain can grow into a much larger problem, where your brain and nervous system learn to bypass a muscle or muscle group entirely to avoid discomfort.
In all sorts of small ways, most of us are probably doing a little bit of this most of the time, but when it turns into major dysfunction, you might need an intervention. My most prominent example of this took place following my first knee surgery after I tore my ACL skiing. I was on crutches for six weeks following the surgery, then experienced a lot of complications. A year later, my brain seemed to have completely forgotten that my left glutes existed, no matter how many clamshells and resistance band workouts I did, so my physical therapist decided to pull out the big guns: dry needling.
