Whether you’re a high school athlete, a weekend golfer, or training for your next race, a pulled hamstring or sore tendon can take you out of the game fast. Active Release Techniques (ART) is a hands-on treatment many athletes use to recover from muscle and tendon injuries and get back to moving the way they want to. At All Island Chiropractic & Physical Therapy, Dr. Craig Selzer is certified in Active Release Techniques and regularly treats athletic injuries at our Bay Shore and Wading River offices.

Here’s how ART works, which injuries it treats, and how it fits into a complete recovery plan.

What Is Active Release Techniques?

Active Release Techniques is a movement-based soft tissue treatment. It is a patented system, and providers have to complete hands-on training and pass exams to become certified.

ART treats problems in the body’s soft tissues: muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia (the connective tissue that surrounds muscles), and nerves.

How Muscle and Tendon Injuries Heal

To understand why ART is used, it helps to know what happens after a soft tissue injury. Healing generally moves through three overlapping stages:

Inflammation: In the first few days, swelling and pain protect the injured area and start the healing process.
Repair: Over the following weeks, your body lays down new tissue, including scar tissue, to patch the injury.
Remodeling: Over months, that new tissue gradually strengthens and reorganizes based on the stress you put through it.

Scar tissue is a normal part of healing, but it isn’t as flexible as the original tissue. It can also cause neighboring muscle and fascia layers to stick together instead of sliding smoothly. That can leave you with tightness, reduced range of motion, weakness, or pain that lingers after the injury should have healed. Repetitive strain from training can create a similar problem over time, even without one specific injury.

How ART Works

ART combines the provider’s precise pressure with your movement. During a typical treatment:

Your provider finds the specific area of tight or restricted tissue by feel.
They place the muscle in a shortened position and apply targeted pressure with their hands.
While they hold that pressure, you actively move the body part (or they move it for you) so the tissue lengthens under their hand.

The goal is to improve how the tissue moves and glides, reduce tension, and restore normal range of motion. Each treatment is specific to the structure involved. A hamstring, a calf, and a forearm are each treated differently.

What does it feel like? Most people describe a deep, firm pressure. It can be uncomfortable in tender areas, but it shouldn’t be unbearable, and your provider will adjust the pressure based on your feedback. Treatment on each area is usually brief.

Common Athletic Injuries Treated With ART

ART is commonly used for soft tissue injuries and overuse problems, including:

Muscle strains: hamstring, calf, groin, and quadriceps strains
Shoulder problems: rotator cuff irritation and tightness in swimmers, pitchers, and tennis players
Elbow tendon pain: tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow
Lower leg pain: shin splints and Achilles tendon pain
Knee pain: patellar tendon irritation (jumper’s knee) and IT band tightness in runners and cyclists
Foot pain: plantar fasciitis
Back and hip tightness: from running, lifting, or rotational sports like golf

What the Research Says

ART is widely used in sports medicine, but published research on it is still limited and mostly involves small studies. Some of these studies have found short-term improvements in flexibility, range of motion, and pain. Because the evidence is still developing, we don’t use ART on its own. We use it as one part of a complete recovery plan that includes strengthening and rehab exercises, which have strong support for helping muscles and tendons heal and handle training loads again.

Why ART Works Best With Rehab

Soft tissue treatment can help your muscles and tendons move better, but strength is what keeps them healthy. Tendons in particular respond to gradual, progressive loading, meaning exercises that slowly increase the stress on the tendon as it heals.

That’s why our office combines several approaches under one roof:

Active Release Techniques to improve tissue mobility and reduce tightness
Physical therapy to rebuild strength, control, and sport-specific movement
Chiropractic care to address joint restrictions in the spine and extremities that can change how you move

Together, the goal isn’t just to make the pain go away, but to help you return to your sport with the strength to prevent the same injury from coming back.

When ART Isn’t the Right First Step

ART isn’t appropriate for every injury. See a medical doctor first, or let us know right away, if you have:

A sudden injury with a “pop,” major swelling, or bruising
A limb you can’t put weight on or can’t move
A suspected fracture, dislocation, or complete tendon rupture
Numbness, tingling, or weakness that’s getting worse
Redness, warmth, and swelling with a fever
Calf pain and swelling, which can be a sign of a blood clot

A proper exam comes first. If your injury needs imaging or a specialist, we’ll tell you and refer you.

What to Expect at Your First Visit

Your first appointment starts with a thorough evaluation. We’ll ask how the injury happened, what your sport or training looks like, and what movements bring on your pain. Then we’ll check your range of motion, strength, and the specific tissues involved. From there, we’ll build a treatment plan that may include ART, physical therapy, chiropractic care, and a home exercise program.