🪡 The Deets on Dry Needling: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It’s Not as Scary as It Sounds

Knots, pain, recovery...—dry needling might be your new best friend.

Let’s break it down.

❓What is Dry Needling?

⚠️Dry Needling is NOT acupuncture (traditional, Eastern, Chinese Medicine). Although some of the tools and reference points may be the same, they are different in nature and principles.

Dry needling is rooted in Western Medicine with an emphasis on addressing musculoskeletal dysfunctions. Dysfunctions that may be causing you pain, movement impairments, movement compensations, etc. To scratch the surface, dry needling consists of inserting a fine, filament needle through the skin and into the underlying tissues (fascia, ligaments, tendons, muscles, etc.) that have been identified as causes of your pain and dysfunction.

🧠 How It Works

When a needle is inserted into a tight muscle or trigger point, it creates a micro lesion in the tissue. This signals your body to increase blood flow, reduce inflammation, and release endorphins—all of which help the muscle relax and heal.

You might feel a quick twitch or even a slight ache—that’s totally normal and actually a good sign that the muscle is responding.

Trigger Point Dry Needling

To understand the principle behind trigger point dry needling, one must understand the basics of what a trigger point is. A trigger point is a localized tight band in the muscle tissue that can occur as a result of muscle overuse, contracture, overload, and/or trauma. When a trigger point starts to form, there becomes a back up of chemicals at that site, a release of pain producing chemicals at that site, and the localized muscle contraction starts to impede blood flow to the muscle which then reduces oxygen and nutrients to the muscle. Subjectively, your trigger point produces pain, tenderness, and movement pattern dysfunctions. When a needle is inserted into a trigger point, it helps to clear out the back of up chemicals in that area and sends information to the spinal cord in order to mediate your pain. This acts as a "reset" for that site and normalizes the inflammatory response.

Electrical Dry Needling

This is often used in conjunction with dry needling where the needles are manually manipulated (spun) and then left in the skin and connected to electric stim to further produce a mediation of pain via specific information to and from the spinal cord.

All of the above responses together assist in resetting your body's healing and repair processes, improving blood flow to the intended area, reducing your pain, and improving normal muscle function.

💪 Benefits for Athletes

• Releasing deep muscle tension

• Improving range of motion

• Reducing pain in joints

• Speeding up recovery between training sessions

• Fixing that one annoying spot that’s been holding you back

• Improving blood flow to an area for healing

  
  

🗣️ Real Talk: Is It Painful? Is Its Safe?

Dry needling isn’t exactly spa-day relaxing, but it’s also not something you should fear. Most clients say it’s more weird than painful. You’ll feel a tiny prick with insertion, and possibly a quick muscle twitch or cramp-like sensation.

I always walk you through it step-by-step, and we adjust based on your comfort level.

With proper training and due diligence, dry needling is a very safe treatment method to use in conjunction with other physical therapy techniques! Although, as with everything, the risks are not 0, risks for complications are extremely low as shown by a number of studies on the topic. Not only is it safe, but a number of studies have also shown dry needling to be an effective supplemental treatment for improving mobility, improving muscle function, decreasing pain, promoting blood flow and repair, and improving movement patterns and overall function.

🧊 What to Expect in a Session

At Redemption PT, dry needling is often combined with movement-based therapy and other modalities like cupping or scraping. You’ll lie in a comfortable position while I treat the targeted area, and in total it takes about 15-20 minutes.

Afterward, you might feel a little sore—kind of like you did an intense workout in that area—but that usually fades within 24-48 hours.

🏁 Final Thoughts

Dry needling is one of my favorite tools because it gets real results—fast. If you’re dealing with persistent pain, tightness, or just want to move better, it could be the game-changer you didn’t know you needed.

👇 Ready to give it a shot?

Book a session or DM me on Instagram @marissarose_redemptionpt to learn more!