DIN-3a: Dry Needling for Chronic Pain

DIN-3b: Dry Needling for Sports Rehab, Recovery & Performance

Saturday & Sunday

• 8 am to 5 pm

DIN-3b is a two-day course designed for clinicians who have previously undertaken training in dry needling and wish to improve their practical skills in the clinical reasoning and treatment of injury treatment, rehabilitation, recovery, and performance for professional, tactical, and recreational athletes. Participants should have already successfully undertaken a recognized dry-needling foundation-level course.

Course Design:

DIN-3b is designed to be a mentoring case study presentation-style course that emphasizes clinical reasoning, technique selection, treatment progression, needle handling, and patient positioning.  Participants are challenged through case presentations to recognize the primary pain state driving the patient presentation (Walton, et al 2018), contributing biopsychosocial factors, and lifestyle contributors, as well as which phase of rehabilitation the patient is in and to apply and progress their needling strategy appropriately.  Participants are given feedback on technique selection based on pain state and phase of rehab, progressions, patient positioning, needle handling, and technique refinement.

Case presentations include a combination of:

1. 1. Shoulder impingement acute to performance strategies.
   2. Acute cervical and lumbar radiculopathy.
   3. Acute, subacute, acute chronic, and chronic ankle sprains.
   4. Contusions, scars, muscle strains, and tears.
   5. Repetitive use injuries.
   6. Acute to chronic tendinopathic presentations.
   7. Sleep, jet-lag, and circadian rhythm strategies.
   8. Chronic tendinopathic presentations.

Techniques explored:

1. 1. Superficial and deep dry needling.
   2. Systemic needling strategies.
   3. Trigger point needling.
   4. Loading vs. loaded tissue reasoning and progressions.
   5. Threading and matrix needling.
   6. Needling techniques for proprioceptive feedback and improvement.
   7. Periosteal pecking and tendinopathic needling strategies (lateral elbow, hamstring, Achilles, plantar fasciitis, etc.)
   8. Perineural, periarterial, paratendon, and periarticular needling.
   9. Segmental and peripheral needling.
   10. Homo-segmental vs. hetero-segmental needling.
   11. Parasympathetic vs. sympathetic needling strategies for autonomic regulation.
   12. Needling strategies for insomnia, recovery, circadian regulation, and neuro-endocrine stress response.
   13. Electrical needling applications in sport.

1. Linear progressions.
2. Dynamic progressions.
3. Pendular progressions.

1. To introduce the concepts of pain states as they relate to sports injury, rehab, recovery, and the use of needling as a treatment modality.
2. To receive mentoring and feedback on the participant’s clinical reasoning, technique selection, treatment progression, needle handling, and patient positioning.
3. To refresh the participant’s knowledge of the health and safety aspects and anatomy related to the clinical application of needling.
4. Explain the mechanisms of the five main physiological reasons to needle.
5. Safely and effectively needle a variety of anatomical structures for the purpose of the treatment of sports injuries, rehab, recovery and performance.
6. Clinically reason the application of local muscle, segmental and systemic needling in the treatment of sports injuries, rehab, recovery and performance..
7. Integrate needling into the complete management of sports injuries, rehab, recovery and performance.
8. To be able to progress and adapt treatments in a given patient presentation through the three phases of rehab.

At the conclusion of the course, students must demonstrate a minimum of 80% proficiency in the following course assessments to achieve a passing grade. The assessments will demonstrate that the student has met the listed objectives:

1. 1. In-class technique safety demonstration and sign-off sheet.
   2. Required post-class survey.