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Oberholser knows pain and gains: Golfer lauds ‘secret’ program for injury recovery. He's perfectly willing to share the secret freely, secure in the belief he's not giving up any advantage on his competition. Not this week at the Shell Houston Open, which begins Thursday at the Redstone Golf Club Tournament Course. Not in the foreseeable future. " It's something that not everybody on the tour," Oberholser
said, "is going to do." Oberholser is a recent convert to Accelerated Recovery Performance, a Minnesota-based program designed by exercise physiologist Denis Thompson and physical trainer Jay Schroeder. The program combines an Eastern-influ- enced workout routine devised by Schroeder with an Accelerated Performance Recovery machine invented by Thompson. The ARP machine is a box-like unit with dials, a timer and wires attached to pads placed on the body. Low-voltage electrical currents shoot into the body during workouts on the principle that the stimuli will reduce injuries and refresh the body. "It's extremely intense," Oberholser said. "You hear people crying in the gym." Oberholser's fiancée, LPGA player Angie Rizzo, has been trying to lure him into the program for ages. Among the practitioners are NFL players Dwight Freeney, Adam Archuleta and Todd Heap and major leaguers Geoff Jenkins and Mark Ellis. Rizzo has been at it for three years - an assortment of wall holds, Russian lunges, leaps and squats, combined with low-voltage currents into the muscles. Looking for relief " I tried everything," Rizzo said. "All the other stuff
is a Band-Aid." Then his back went out at the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship forcing him to miss defending his 2006 title at Pebble Beach, where he won by a tournament-record tying five strokes, in February. With doctors recommending cortisone, Rizzo begged Oberholser to try her program. Having suffered muscle injuries in the past four years, Oberholser reluctantly relented. " You don't go to these guys when you are feeling good," Oberholser said. "You go to these guys because this is the last stop. This is the last resort; you've tried all of the other methods. I've done all kinds of other stuff, but as my lovely fiancée puts it: I never really exercised like an athlete." Oberholser has played only five events this season. His spirits are considerably higher than his No. 92 standing on the money list. He said he needed only a week of strenuous ARP workouts - he'd start at 7 a.m. and finish at 1 p.m. - at a Mesa, Ariz., center to notice a difference. When he's out on the tour, he backs off to a maintenance regimen of 25-30 minutes a day. " It's unbelievable what they can do," Rizzo said "A lot of people don't want to go through that to get healthy. You take an average person that has a sprained ankle, they'd rather put it in a cast and wait eight weeks to get better. They'll take a sprained ankle, and in two weeks, you're walking (with the ARP training). But it's very painful for those two weeks to get the recovery."
Arron Oberholser, after all, has a secret. As painful as the secret may be to bear, he is counting on it to change the rest of his golf life for the better. — Steve Campbell, Staff Writer Houston Chronicle, 3-star Edition Sports Section, Page 1 topUSA TODAY: Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, sidelined for three
NFL games in October by a hamstring injury, says his prevention strategy
includes a plug-in device. The Accelerated Recovery Performance [ARP] trainer, made by a Minnesota company of the same name, is a box-like unit with dials and a timer. Wires are attached to pads placed on the body to deliver what the company says is a "unique bio-electrical current" designed to "reduce injuries and keep athletes fresh." "It helps loosen my hamstrings, my groin, my back, my quadriceps," Fitzgerald
says. "I wasn't using it as much as I should have early in the season,
but it's helped me out a lot." " Anything foreign coming into your body, your muscles instantly
contract to protect you. This does not send that signal. It is identical
to what the body is, so therefore it doesn't send those alarm bells," says
Thompson. Thompson says players typically use the devices on their own after hearing
about it from other players. " You can argue with how you get the results. You cannot argue
with the results," says Thompson. Tanya Hagen, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at the University
of Pittsburgh Medical Center/Center for Sports Medicine, says the "theory" behind
electrical stimulation in general is that it speeds recovery. She hasn't heard of the ARP machine. An Accelerated Recovery: BY: Jaine Andrews If you've ever been injured in an accident or put up with the aches and strains of growing older, you know how debilitating pain can be. While many people resign themselves to living with it, a program designed to get you back into action, sooner, and many say, even better than before. For many people, recovering from an injury means accepting weeks of
physical therapy and, sometimes, a lifetime of pain. But here at the
Optimum Performance Clinic, that's not acceptable. Did I mention that accident was 5 years ago? Bachman adds, "I still had that on-going pain and I just could not shake it. And it got to the point where I wasn't willing to take the medications on a regular basis." Then he heard about the Optimum Performance Clinic, one of just seven places in the country which uses a system known as the Accelerated Recovery Program or ARP. … Bachman says, "I love to snow ski. I want to be back to skiing like I did 20 years ago and I think that's very possible." topThe Healing Machine: BY: KENT SOMERS, THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC
FLAGSTAFF --- To a handful of Cardinals players, the MVP in training camp this year never saw the practice field and doesn't know an X from an O. It's a device about the size of a DVD player and, boy, does it pack a wallop, players say. It's the Accelerated Recovery Performance machine, and it's being used
to treat injuries as well as to stretch and strengthen muscles. Players
use it after practices and while they sleep, and they claim the machine
has helped to keep them fresh through the rigors of training camp.
The machine resembles electrical stimulation therapy, with wires extending from the machine to pads that are placed on the player. The difference, Thompson said, is ARP treats the cause of the injury, not just the symptoms. "I would place these pads right on the spot where it hurts, and if that's where the problem is, you are going to elicit a degree of discomfort," he said. "I move the pads around until I find an electrical disturbance, which is the origin of your problems. " If you tell me all the pain is on the inside of the ankle, that may be where you feel the pain because that's where it ended up, not where it came from." Thompson can deliver a technical explanation about how the machine works and the problems with modern training methods. Fatigue, injury and traditional weight-training methods cause muscles to contract, decreasing their ability to absorb force, he said. The ARP relaxes the muscle and "in seconds I can improve the athlete's ability to absorb force and reduce injury," Thompson said. Players don't care nearly so much about the methods as they do the results. They say the machine has increased their flexibility and strength, and has eliminated much of the soreness normally associated with training camp. " Between practices I put it on my ankle to make sure it stays loose and keep all the inflammation out," said running back Marcel Shipp, who suffered a broken leg and dislocated ankle in 2004. "It's unbelievable."
Pay for quality A few days later, however, James said the device was a key part of his training. " It's sweet," said James, but "you can't just put it all on one thing. There is a lot that goes into making sure you are right." A conversation with James piqued Shipp's interest in the machine. So he and fullback James Hodgins, who is coming off a knee injury, flew to Minnesota to take a look. They were soon hooked. " It's reduced my soreness and I've been able to recover pretty good from . . . workouts," Hodgins said. Hodgins uses the machine to stretch every night and between workouts, and he also sleeps with it. "It's really loosened me up," he said. "It's been amazing." Players in other sports use it, too. The machine is popular in the NHL and in Major League Baseball, Thompson said. The Diamondbacks' Craig Counsell has used it to rehabilitate his rib injury. " It works, but I'm not sure what it does," Counsell said. "It's
like one of those things you try because anecdotally people say it helps." Take
Rolle, for instance. He had no idea what James was talking about when
he first discussed the ARP. Now Rolle thinks he got a bargain for his
[...].
Dix's kinetic correction The Olympics is over, but images of athletes performing at their peak remain indelible in our minds — especially when one of those Olympians is from Tallahassee. Walter Dix, bronze-medal winner in both the 100- and 200-meter Olympic sprints, seems to vaporize on the track. His muscles, tendons and nerves propel him down the curving track with sheer power. From the starting block to, seconds later, the finish line, Dix materializes
arms up and smiling. Terry Long, the Olympian's exclusive personal trainer and head track
coach for FSU men and women from 1985-2003, said that Dix had been injured
for most of the spring season. Long says that the decision was made that their star sprinter would miss the NCAA Regional meets because his injury had made him unable to qualify through earlier races. Instead, he'd be shelved, try to recover and maybe be ready for a try at an Olympic spot. The odds weren't promising. But, enter Tim Russell from Triumph Health and Fitness at Gold's Gym,
and his partner, chiropractor Dr. Cal Melton. " I truly believed we could get Walt in shape to compete, not only for the Olympics, but the NCAA Regionals as well . . . and Walt was willing to work like the devil for it," he said. What Russell and Dix put their faith and efforts into was a bread-box-sized machine called the ARP — Accelerated Recovery Performance — and a careful chiropractic assessment of Dix's nervous system and kinetic performance. The first step was for Melton to determined whether there were "structural, chemical, or neurological blocks to Walt's performance," said Russell. " Such an assessment may involve X-rays or blood work, but very likely a chiropractic adjustment. We refer to it as applied kinesiology." Russell said the idea is to make sure that "neurons are adequately able to communicate with muscles." Next, the team addresses the inflammation that comes from a chronic
injury. Russell said that the ARP machine can "find the inflammation," which "often
is not where the patient is feeling the pain." The final stage of the regimen is strength training. " Up to 80 percent of the . . . (contracting) strength of a muscle can be lost with an injury," said Russell. Regaining that strength and keeping the muscles and tendons flexible and toned will enable them to absorb the force that comes with athletic performance, he added. So, was it worth the discomfort and commitment for Dix? " All I can say is that after two treatments a day for four days, he was pain-free. Six more treatments, and he ran full out at the NCAA trials. At the NCAA finals, Walt came in fourth in the 100 meters and won the 200 meters. In the Olympic trials a few weeks later, he got a second in the 100-meter race."Even Russell sounds impressed. " Walt thinks so much of the ARP that he's bought his own machine and took it to Beijing." Dix isn't the only one who's a believer. Michael Ray Garvin, track whiz and quarterback at FSU, says he's bought a machine, and like Dix, uses it before and after workouts. " I couldn't run the 200 meters without pain, even on meds," said Garvin. After trying Dix's ARP, he says, he ran his fastest 200 of the season. Russell acknowledges the ARP machine sounds pretty magical. But he points to research being done at the University of Hawaii and the University of Milan that have shown accelerated healing of ligament tears and hamstring injuries with the device. Others aren't so sure it's not just the placebo effect in action. Chad Gray, physical therapist at the Center for Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy, who hasn't treated Dix, said that electrical stimulation and ultra-sound wave therapies have been used for years to treat injured muscles. " However many professional journals have published recent studies showing no scientific evidence for the benefit of these therapies. There may be a soothing effect on a symptom, but research-backed evidence just doesn't support a decrease in healing time with electrical stimulation," he said. " I guess the proof is in the pudding," smiled Russell. And a couple of bronze medals around Dix's neck seem good enough for this trainer and his Olympian patient. ARPwaveNJ- home office Ultra FIT- ATTENTION: For All Jr. High, High School, College And Pro Athletes
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