ART Level 2 Seminars – Are You Ready?

Are you a health care provider who has been dabbling in soft tissue work and find yourself needing some direction?

Or perhaps you feel you have achieved expert-level status but want to add another technique to your repertoire.

Are you already level one certified in Active Release Techniques^® (ART^®) treatment, but want more?

If any of the above describes you, then keep reading to see what ART Level 2 seminars all are about.

Recap on Level 1 ART seminars

ART Level 1 seminars offer health care providers certifications in Spine Level 1, Lower Extremity Level 1, Upper Extremity Level 1, and Full Body Level 1.

Providers are required to know or be ready to learn in a functional capacity: must be able to find the structure (muscle, tendon, ligament, nerve, etc.) and make it move.

Level one seminars focus on finding errant movement within a structural system and breaking down the adhesion or contracture responsible for causing the errant movement.

Movement of the structure is used along with an application of depth and tension by the ART Certified Provider^™ to break down the adhesion/contracture and restore proper movement.

For example, a runner with tight hamstrings might have a particular adhesion within the short head of the biceps femoris. As a provider, you would be able to find this using the ART Diagnostic Algorithm, treat the adhesion, and have a happy runner.

Onto Level 2 ART seminars

After becoming proficient in Level 1 ART protocols, and perhaps more importantly, achieving a high level of palpation skills, an ART Certified Provider will be ready for the Level 2 ART seminars offered for Spine, Lower Extremity, and Upper Extremity.

Level 2 seminars focus on relative motion between structures.

In these seminars, palpation skills are a must to feel for adhesions/contractures between two structures.

The ART Certified Provider must be confident in anatomy and palpation to feel for the adhesion and move the structures in such a way as to maximize movement between the tissues. It is not as simple as lengthening two structures because relative motion is a more complicated concept, though necessary to achieve optimal movement between tissues.

By the end of a Level 2 seminar, an ART Certified Provider will be able to palpate the seam between two adjacent tissues and apply appropriate tension and movement to free the adhesion/contracture, treating two structures simultaneously.

Here’s a real-life scenario:

Take the upper extremity for example.

In a fast-pitch softball pitcher, you might have a complaint of upper arm pain, right over the proximal bicep.

In Level 1, we might have the pitcher go through the problematic motion and feel tension along the bicep first followed by the pectoralis major. We would then treat the two muscles separately. The pitcher would most likely feel quite a bit of relief and within a few visits have a near resolution of their complaint.

With Level 2, we would take into consideration that there is proximal tension in both the bicep and the pectoralis major. The bicep and pectoralis major may be treated separately as needed, but the seam between the two muscles will be evaluated.

It would be here that one might feel that the bicep is sticking to or adhering to the pectoralis major rather than gliding under it.

A level 2 certified provider would then use the pectoralis major/bicep ART protocol to free the bicep from the pectoralis major.

A resolution of adhesion here would fully free the bicep and could end with full resolution of symptoms more quickly than treating the two muscles independently of one another.

You will see similar ART protocols throughout the Level 2 seminars: pronator teres/flexor digitorum superficialis, deltoid/triceps, teres minor/major, etc.

Level 1 ART seminars are the cake, and Level 2 ART seminars are the icing.

With the use of the ART Diagnostic Algorithm, Level 2 ART protocols will often solve issues that were more difficult to fix or took longer with Level 1 ART protocols.

Adding in concepts from the Masters seminar and the Active Diagnosis seminar, problems with a root in soft-tissue dysfunction will not stand a chance.

Level up your ART certification

Are you ready to take a Level 2 ART seminar? Search for one that interests you here.

Dr. Lezlie Maloy, D.C. 

Dr. Maloy has been an ART Certified Provider since 2008, an ART Instructor since 2012, and an Elite Provider since 2014. She owns Spring Valley Spine and SportsCare^™ in Addison, Texas. In her spare time, she attempts to control the chaos of her children, Brooks and Sam, and enjoys watching Sooner Sports with her husband and boys and running Disney races.

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