Indiba Activ: Healing a Barbell Injury
We’ve had the Indiba Activ radiofrequency technology in use since June 2019, and we have seen some great results with acute soft tissue injuries. This is Ariel’s story, and how Indiba helped her recover from a barbell accident.
Ariel was training on a hot July afternoon, and the workout included heavy hang power cleans. Due to the combined heat and humidity, her hand slipped mid-lift, and the 185# barbell landed on the bottom of her thigh, just above her kneecap. Pain was instant, swelling quickly followed, and within minutes she lost about half of the motion at her knee. After a quick assessment, all signs were pointing to a massive contusion brewing in the quadriceps muscle.
I pulled her into the office immediately, and we did a 15-minute treatment with Indiba, focusing on the site of the hit, as well as her upper thigh to promote fluid drainage through the lymphatic system. The flexibility of settings with Indiba allowed us to focus on a non-thermal treatment. (The tissue was hot enough already, so we didn’t need to warm it up any more!) The radiofrequency waves stimulated her body to move fluid from the area, decrease inflammation, and start making the building blocks for soft tissue repair. Things like collagen and elastin and ground substance (the goo that holds connective tissue together) are vital to healing damaged muscle and fascia.
She reported an immediate drop in pain and improved mobility after the first treatment. Her instructions for the next few days were to keep moving gently and often: stationary biking, easy walks, bend and straighten the knee when sitting down. The main goal was to using the body’s muscle pump to prevent her knee from locking up.
The second treatment was two days later. She reported no pain with walking, but she was having trouble bending down to pick things up off the floor. The squatting motion caused pressure and pain at her thigh, and knee flexion was limited. The second treatment was also non-thermal, 15 minutes in duration, and focused on the same areas. Afterwards, she had no pain, motion was only limited at the last little bit of flexion, and the outlines of her kneecap were visible, indicating that swelling had decreased.
Her third and final treatment was the next day, and this was the most surprising of all. Normally with deep contusions, a mottled purple-black bruise will gradually pop through several days later. Given that Ariel is a fair-skinned redhead, I thought for sure she would end up with a tie-dyed mess on her thigh. But 3 days after the accident, a very slight yellow-green bruise started to emerge—a bruise that looked weeks old, instead of days. That could only mean that the Indiba treatment helped her body stop the damage, break down the blood, and accelerate healing far, far ahead of schedule. She had minimal discomfort with squatting, full range of motion, and almost no swelling after JUST 3 TREATMENTS!
This is truly a fantastic success story. Ariel was back to training pain-free and at full capacity later that week, and she crushed a CrossFit competition just two weeks after her accident. In my 20 years of experience, I was anticipating two-weeks just to get back to light work! Normally all I can do as a clinician is tape it up, have the athlete move as much as possible, and wait for the body to heal itself. With Indiba, we have a powerful tool to accelerate the healing process for soft tissue injuries and get clients back in action way ahead of schedule. In Ariel’s words, “That machine is MAGIC!!”
Images (left to right): immediately after injury to her right knee, three days later after final treatment, and the Indiba Activ CT9 unit.