Tight leg muscles - acupuncture

[Boristhecats]

My son has been told he has extreme tight leg muscles in his entire legs. The pain for him has been awful.
I have read somewhere that acupuncture can help in this situation. He is now going to weekly sport massage. But wanted to know if anyone has had this and did it help?

Is this due to high tone, or muscle shortening? Has he had some condition that had affected his mobility that has lead to this or has it always been this way?

As far as we can tell this started affecting him over a year ago. They are putting some of it down to his massive growth spurts. He has always been an active boy. But they have told me nothing else

What age is he? If he's old enough and willing to tolerate acupuncture it can certainly help as a form of pain relief, but I doubt it would affect the actual muscles structurally.
If it is linked to growth spurts, then it could be something like the bones growing faster than the muscles can lengthen if that makes sense. Something like Pilates would probably help in that it is gentle but also strengthens the core and stability muscles

Also wondering if he has any hypermobility (double jointed) issues, as this can also cause a lot of pain in the growing years/puberty

I've had acupuncture (by accident, long story) but by the the time I realised, the needles were in, on the backs of my legs. So there's nothing to "tolerate", you don't feel the needles.

FWIW, it didn't help me. Regular sports massage and foam rolling does, but my tightness was/is caused by running.

For me it was a case of tolerating! I've had traditional Chinese acupuncture for chronic hip pain, and while it does help with the pain levels the next few days, I find having the pain points stimulated, and even my hands and feet sometimes too much.

If her child wasn't wholeheartedly into the idea and understanding of it, I wouldn't recommend it.

Have you had him checked for conditions such as forefoot equinus? This causes joint and muscle pain from muscle tightening and worsens during growth spurts. GP referral to a physio who can diagnose.

Thanks for all your comments x

For those of you that had massages. How often did you have them