Dry needling Adelaide
Relieve overactive muscles with precise needling and guided movement
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Our dry needling services
Dry needling can help when muscles feel tight, overactive, or protective. Physiotherapy For Women provides these services as one option within a broader plan. Your physiotherapist will listen, examine gently, and explain what they notice. If dry needling suits your goals and feels right, we outline what to expect and ask for consent before starting.
A very fine, single-use needle is placed into a targeted point in the muscle. You may feel a brief twitch or dull ache that settles quickly, and light post-session soreness similar to exercise. We pair needling with simple movement or breathing work so changes carry into lifting, walking, desk time, and sleep.
Dry needling isn’t for everyone. We will discuss your health history and offer alternatives if needed, such as hands-on treatment, stretching, graded strengthening, pacing, or self-release.
Frequently asked questions about our Adelaide dry needling services
On this page
What is dry needling?
What is a trigger point?
How do dry Needling and acupuncture differ?
What conditions can dry needling help?
What is dry needling?
Dry needling is the insertion of very fine, single use, sterile, acupuncture needles into myofascial trigger points. The diagnosis of trigger points relies on the physiotherapist’s skilled examination of muscle. Palpation or pressure produces a point of extreme tenderness in the muscle, along with the presence of tight muscle bands and pain, possibly referred to other areas.
What is a trigger point?
A trigger point can be thought of as a contracted knot of muscle fibres. This results in a muscle not working efficiently and contributes to dysfunctional movement. Autonomic changes of the skin (sweating, coldness, goosebumps) can be experienced in the trigger point zone or referred pain area.
How do dry needling and acupuncture differ?
Dry needling and acupuncture are often confused. Acupuncture is needling based on the principles of Chinese Medicine where meridian lines and Chi points are involved in the assessment and treatment to enhance energy flow in affected parts of the body. Dry needling has a western medicine basis where principles of neurophysiology and neurochemistry provide the scientific reasoning for the release of myofascial trigger points in muscle. This forms the basis for the reduction of pain and restoration of normal function.
What conditions can dry needling help?
Current research is supporting the use of dry needling in the resolution of pain and tightness in musculoskeletal conditions. This includes acute and chronic back pain, shoulder pain, neck pain, headaches, knee pain, tennis elbow, hip/gluteal pain and foot/ankle pain.
Physiotherapists at Physiotherapy for Women have the required training to use dry needling. This can be the treatment of choice for painful conditions, or it can be combined with other manual therapies and exercise.
In providing over 20 years of musculoskeletal physiotherapy to women, we have years of clinical experience and training to be able to relieve your discomfort safely and efficiently
Our physiotherapy services in Adelaide
We offer extensive women’s health physiotherapy and pelvic health physiotherapy services in Adelaide. Learn how we can help and what to expect in each service.
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