The Effects of Exercise on Acupuncture
According to professional health experts, performing light exercise before the session increases blood flow that enhances the effectiveness of acupuncture. Exercising after acupuncture highly depends on the type of exercise you plan on doing. Acupuncture treatment can help relieve pain that was inhibiting your workout or sports activity. However, vigorous exercises after the session are not advised because it undoes the effects of acupuncture. It causes mixed treatment results because exercises overwhelm your system by channeling the energy away from the initial needlework. What acupuncture treatment does is move energy along the energy lines in your body.
Health concerns can involve a deficiency, excess, or a combination of both. The acupoints direct the flow to even out the flow and heal itself. The acupoints give strong instructions as to where the energy should flow so that they can help relieve pain and promote healing. When you perform a vigorous exercise after the treatment, energy pathways are disrupted causing an imbalance in other areas of your body. Because of this action, you may get a headache, dizziness, or feel worn out.
How to Take Care of Yourself After an Acupuncture Treatment
- Get Enough Rest
Acupuncture causes a few reactions that your body is not used to every day. To ensure the treatment ends successfully, having plenty of rest gives adequate time for the body to nurture and heal itself after the session. Although it is not necessary to lie down or take a nap, it can help you relax and lay low for a while. Avoiding strenuous activities after acupuncture allows the emotional and physical energy surge you experienced after the session to continue.
- Eat Healthy
Acupuncture helps flush out toxins from your body. However, eating poor-quality food is counterproductive because it puts these toxins back and the process repeats. It is important to think about food as a way of sustenance and eating as an opportunity to enhance healing after acupuncture. Focusing on eating a healthy balanced diet after acupuncture makes fast food and other junk less appealing.
- Use Heat
According to acupuncture, most pain conditions are caused by stagnation. This means that when things are not moving smoothly along the energy pathways, it leads to blockages that cause constant pain. Acupuncture treatment eliminates these blockages, and thus restores the flow. This means that ice is counterproductive after acupuncture as it slows down the healing process by causing things to remain stagnant. Therefore, it is advisable to use heat to relieve pain in areas that feel sore after the treatment.
- Avoid Alcohol and Coffee
Acupuncture aims at bringing greater awareness and clarity to how we feel. However, alcohol and coffee mess with your bodily awareness because coffee falsely heightens your senses while alcohol impairs them. Both can potentially mask or counteract the effects of acupuncture and should be avoided altogether. Staying hydrated after acupuncture is a key point to remember as it helps flush out toxins from the body. Alcohol and coffee can cause dehydrating effects, which slow down the process of flushing toxins out of your system.
- Only Indulge in Light Exercises
If you feel like you cannot do without exercises because you like working out or going to the gym, then light and gradual movement can be a nice addition to an acupuncture treatment. If you are a runner, consider walking instead after the treatment. Instead of taking advanced yoga classes, try a beginner or an intermediate class for a day or two. If you planned on hiking or lifting weights, then the day you have had acupuncture is not the best day to try.
Acupuncture gets things moving and allows your body to heal itself naturally. It is important to honor this day by giving yourself enough time to relax away from strenuous exercises and activities that affect you mentally and physically. Vigorous exercise after an acupuncture treatment is not advised because it disrupts the energy flow created by original needlework. You should take care of yourself by getting enough rest, eating healthy, and staying hydrated after the session.