Heal Elbow Pain with FAST™
Elbow pain can make even simple tasks unexpectedly difficult – lifting a mug, typing, gripping a bag, or turning a doorknob. What often starts as a small irritation becomes a nagging ache, then a sharp limitation that affects work, exercise, and daily movement. And when rest or braces don’t create lasting relief, it’s easy to feel confused about what’s actually causing the pain.
At New Dawn Acupuncture, I use a modern, integrative approach rooted in the FAST™ method to treat the deeper soft-tissue dysfunction behind persistent elbow pain. By addressing the real source – not just calming the symptoms – we can restore strength, reduce inflammation, and help you return to the activities you love.
If you’re ready to finally get relief, call (202) 538-3995 to book your appointment today.
Understanding Tennis Elbow & Golfer’s Elbow
Tennis elbow refers to pain along the outside (lateral) elbow and arm. Golfer’s elbow refers to pain on the inside (medial) elbow and arm. While the names sound sport-specific, these conditions are extremely common in anyone who regularly grips, lifts, types, or performs repetitive arm motions.
Both conditions come from micro-tears in the tendons that anchor your forearm muscles to the bones of the elbow, often alongside tight, irritated trigger points in the surrounding muscles.
Trigger points cause the muscles to contract and shorten, which makes the tissue stiff, tender, and easily overloaded. When the muscles can’t lengthen properly, simple movements become painful. Over time, range of motion can decrease, objects become harder to lift, and weakness spreads down the arm.
Some people feel a very specific “point pain,” while others feel a deep, achy discomfort that radiates across a wider area of the elbow and forearm.
These issues are almost always caused by overuse – and they rarely involve just one muscle. Most patients have multiple muscles contributing to the pain, which is why relief can feel elusive.
How We Treat Elbow Pain
The most important – and most often missed – step in resolving elbow pain is releasing the trigger points that keep the muscles short and tight. Until the muscles return to their normal resting length, tendons stay overloaded and healing is slow or incomplete.
Acupuncture is exceptionally effective for this because we can treat the exact points that are causing the restriction. It helps the body release endorphins, reduces pain naturally, and improves circulation so the tissue can relax and repair. Gentle heat softens the muscles further, allowing them to let go.
For the micro-tears in the tendons, I use low-level infrared lasers to accelerate cellular repair and extremely low-level electrical stimulation to calm inflammation and support deeper healing.
Together, these steps form the FAST™ method – a modern, evidence-informed approach designed to heal chronic soft-tissue pain at its structural source, not just manage it on the surface.
If you’d like to learn more about FAST™, you can read about it here.
A More Thoughtful, Supportive Approach to Healing
Your care here starts with listening – understanding your pain, your goals, and how this is affecting your life. From there, we build a clear, step-by-step treatment plan that respects your time, honors your needs, and focuses on real, meaningful results.
If elbow pain is limiting your work, movement, or daily comfort, you deserve a solution that finally makes a difference
Call Us at (202) 538-3995
She is extremely skilled in pinpointing treatments to address a wide array of issues.
What is FAST™?
FAST™ is a breakthrough technique that combines:
Cross-fiber manual therapy to break down scar tissue.
Targeted acupuncture to release tension and improve blood flow.
Photobiomodulation (laser therapy) to accelerate repair at the cellular level.
This integrative approach doesn’t just cover up symptoms. It works at the structural level to heal the true source of pain that other approaches ignore - so you can get back to doing what you love without the constant worry of re-injury or flare-ups.
How FAST™ Works
Most chronic soft tissue pain is caused by micro-tears, adhesions, and scar tissue that restrict movement, limit oxygen flow, and trigger inflammation. Standard treatments ignore this source of chronic pain, even considering these types of damage “healed” despite the continued pain.
FAST™ targets this dysfunction directly by:
Reactivating the body’s natural healing response in damaged tissues.
Stimulating collagen production and blood flow using targeted laser therapy.
Releasing tight muscles and restoring proper alignment through acupuncture and manual techniques.
Stop Managing Pain. Start Healing It.
You don’t have to live with it, and you don’t have to mask it anymore. FAST™ heals the source of chronic soft tissue pain so you can get back to your life.
It’s natural, effective, and non-invasive, stimulating your own body’s healing deep in the tissues using a combination of traditional therapies and modern science and technology.
Schedule Your Initial Consultation
Source:
Sports Medicine Acupuncture by Matt Callison, Close to the Bone by David Legge, Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Clair Davies, Clinical Manual of Oriental Medicine, 3rd edition by Lotus Institute of Integrative Medicine, Laser Acupuncture and Laser Ear Acupuncture by Volkmar Kreisel and Anja Fuchtenbusch