Anyone have experience firsthand with ASTYM therapy

Hey all,

I have been referred to see a ASTYM certified specialist and was wondering if anyone here has had any first hand experience with it for their elbows/triceps?

I have had many different treatments done with little to no success and this was something a physical therapist mentioned/recommended to me.

What I've had done -
PRP injection
Cortisone
Physical therapy
MRI
Xray
Acupuncture

I have had elbow and tricep pain going on 6 years.

Here are some links to people commenting on Astym therapy on elbow conditions:
tennis elbow: blog.astym.com/blog/astym-3…
tennis elbow blog.astym.com/blog/astym-s…
shoulder pain blog.astym.com/blog/astym-s…
stiff arm blog.astym.com/blog/astym-s…

These are just a few, you can find more here, most people talk about how many other treatments they went through which weren't successful, and then Astym therapy resolved their problem
blog.astym.com/blog/astym-s…

yoga style push-ups with arms next to body and knees on floor. yoga 'dolphin' pose and push-ups.

theraband red

I'm not sure what treatment modalities are included under your PT heading but if you've tried all of those things with little to no effect, then chances are ASTYM isn't going to be of much help.

I've used Graston on patients for 5+ years now. It's another flavor of instrument assisted myofascial release. But these modalities are meant to be used on myofascial problems like tendonosis, enthesopathy, and plain old traumatized soft tissues.

Point of that is: sounds like your treatments have primarily been focused on the myofascial tissues. If it's not responding then it may be a chronic pain/neurological glitch from a previous insult to the area.
I'm not sure where you're located but you could check around and see if there's a local clinician that uses Functional Dry Needling. It uses acupuncture needles, but is most definitely not acupuncture. The treatment technique and goals are very different.

Good luck and hopefully you find an answer.

Brent Apgar wrote:I'm not sure what treatment modalities are included under your PT heading but if you've tried all of those things with little to no effect, then chances are ASTYM isn't going to be of much help. I've used Graston on patients for 5+ years now. It's another flavor of instrument assisted myofascial release. But these modalities are meant to be used on myofascial problems like tendonosis, enthesopathy, and plain old traumatized soft tissues. Point of that is: sounds like your treatments have primarily been focused on the myofascial tissues. If it's not responding then it may be a chronic pain/neurological glitch from a previous insult to the area. I'm not sure where you're located but you could check around and see if there's a local clinician that uses Functional Dry Needling. It uses acupuncture needles, but is most definitely not acupuncture. The treatment technique and goals are very different. Good luck and hopefully you find an answer.

I'm a PT with 24 years in practice. I've treated dozens of climbers using ASTYM and Trigger Point Dry Needling. Works very well for elbow problems. Much better than the traditional methods of NSAIDS, ice, cross fiber massage, ulrasound, estim etc...
Eccentric exercises are also helpful.

Jeff, that's great to hear. I have had 1 session of ASTYM so far. Can't tell yet if it is going to work or not. Hopefully after session 3 or 4 I will start to feel a difference.

The only exercise I was told to do is push-ups with elbows close to body. Other than that some basic stretching to accompany the push-ups and that's it.

I have now undergone 3 sessions and I have not noticed any improvement.

I'm giving it 6 sessions before I make a conclusion.

protocol is 6-9 sessions. Trigger point dry needling is an excellent way to augment the treatment. Should also be doing eccentrics.

massagewarehouse.com/produc…

these flexbars are an excellent way to do the eccentrics. Google flexbar for tennis elbow and you should find some videos showing how to do it.