Dry Needling: What It Is and How It Can Help
You've stretched it. You've foam rolled it. You've jammed a lacrosse ball into it on the living room floor after the kids went to bed. And that tight, achy spot in your shoulder (or calf, or low back) is still there the next morning.
If that sounds familiar, you're not alone, and you're not doing anything wrong. Sometimes a stubborn muscle needs a different kind of input than we can give it from the outside. That's where dry needling comes in.
At Pursuit, we use dry needling as one tool within your physical therapy plan to help decrease pain, calm down tense muscles, get underactive muscles working again, and help you get back to the things you love: the long run, the F45 class, the game of catch in the backyard.
So, What Is Dry Needling?
Dry needling uses a very thin, sterile filament needle placed into specific muscles or areas of tissue. Nothing is injected (that's why it's called "dry" needling).
The needle gives a specific signal to your muscle and nervous system. That signal can help change how sensitive an area is to pain, how tense a muscle is, and how well it activates.
Isn't That Just Acupuncture?
It's a fair question, since the needles look the same. But the approach and the goals are different.
Dry needling focuses on the musculoskeletal system. We target specific muscles and areas that aren't working well to decrease pain, ease muscle tension, and improve movement and muscle activation.
Acupuncture is rooted in traditional Chinese medicine and is based on concepts like meridians and the flow of qi (energy). It's used for a wide range of health concerns, depending on the practitioner.
Both may help with pain, but they come from different frameworks, use different treatment approaches, and require different training.
Why We Use Dry Needling
To Turn Down the Pain
When tissue is injured or irritated, it can get sensitive, and the muscles around it often tighten up to protect it. That's helpful for a little while, but it can leave you stuck.
Dry needling provides an input that can help decrease that sensitivity. Research supports dry needling for pain relief in several musculoskeletal conditions, especially when it's combined with other physical therapy treatment. That can be a big deal when pain is the thing keeping you from moving or exercising.
To Ease Tight Spots and Trigger Points
You know that "knot" that's tender when you press on it? Those spots are often called myofascial trigger points: tight bands in a muscle that can contribute to pain or limit how you move.
When a needle reaches a trigger point, the muscle may do a quick, involuntary jump called a local twitch response. It feels like a brief flicker under the needle. It's a reflex involving both the muscle and the nervous system.
Research suggests a twitch may give an immediate drop in pain in some cases, but you don't need to feel a twitch for dry needling to work.¹
To Help an Injured Area Move and Recover
When something hurts, your body naturally changes how it moves. Some muscles start working overtime, while others quietly stop pulling their weight.
Say you strain a muscle in your leg. One nearby muscle may stay guarded and tense, while another isn't doing its normal share of the work. Dry needling can help address those imbalances so we can restore normal movement and strength.
To Help a Muscle "Turn On"
Not every muscle problem is a tight muscle problem. Sometimes a muscle has trouble firing at the right time or with enough force.
Pain, injury, surgery, or compensating for another issue can all change how your nervous system talks to a muscle. This is where we may pair dry needling with electrical stimulation (e-stim).
Small electrical impulses go through the needles to create repeated contractions in the targeted muscle. That gives a strong, specific signal to the muscle and nervous system while it's working. Then we pair it with active movement or strengthening exercises to help lock in the movement pattern we want.
There is research supporting dry needling with e-stim for certain conditions, including shoulder pain, though the evidence does not show that adding e-stim is consistently better than conventional physical therapy.²
When Might Dry Needling Help?
Dry needling can be useful for a variety of musculoskeletal problems, including:
Muscle strains
Sports injuries
Joint pain
Tendon and overuse injuries
Headaches with a muscular component
Plantar fasciitis and foot pain
Muscle tightness and mobility restrictions
Painful trigger points
Muscles that aren't activating properly
Areas of persistent muscle tension
Your physical therapist will decide whether dry needling is a good fit based on your symptoms, injury, movement, goals, and overall picture.
What Does It Actually Feel Like?
Everyone responds a little differently. You may feel a small prick as the needle goes in, followed by pressure, an ache, or a quick twitch when it reaches the targeted tissue.
Some people notice a change in pain or movement right away. Others notice it later that day or over the next few days.
It's also common to have some temporary muscle soreness afterward, similar to how you feel after a good workout.
Dry Needling Is One Piece of the Puzzle
Dry needling is a great tool, but it isn't the whole plan. If we calm your pain down but never address why it started, it's likely to come back.
That's why we pair dry needling with mobility, strengthening, motor control, and functional movement. The goal is to take the window that treatment opens and turn it into lasting change through exercise and movement.
Whether we're helping a tight muscle relax, calming pain around an injury, or helping an underactive muscle turn back on, the goal is always the same: help your body move better so you can get back to doing what you love.
Ready to See If Dry Needling Is Right for You?
If a nagging spot keeps pulling you away from your runs, your workouts, or keeping up with your kids, let's talk about it. Book a free 15-minute discovery call. No pressure, just a real conversation about what's going on and how we can help.
References
Fernández-de-las-Peñas C, Plaza-Manzano G, Sanchez-Infante J, et al. The importance of the local twitch response during needling interventions in spinal pain associated with myofascial trigger points: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Acupuncture in Medicine. 2022;40(4):299-311. doi:10.1177/09645284211056346
Baumann AN, Fiorentino A, Oleson CJ, Leland JM III. The impact of dry needling with electrical stimulation on pain and disability in patients with musculoskeletal shoulder pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Cureus. 2023;15(7):e41404. doi:10.7759/cureus.41404
Want to Dig Into the Research?
iDryNeedle is one of our favorite resources for education and for purchasing our needles. They have a great library of research available free on their website.