Acupuncture: a technical description

I've been getting acupuncture to heal the old hamstring. From what Hanna (my acupuncturist) says the hamstring tear resulted in lots of broken blood vessels, and torn muscle. That and the resulting swelling lead to a disruption in the flow of energy, in some meridian or other. So the idea is to stimulate the muscle to repair itself and also get the energy to start flowing again. Each session has lasted approx an hour. I lay down on my front and for about the first 15 minutes she'll place the needles (more like pins) all along certain point on my leg. Not the same place each time. Some times there have been pins in my ankle and once in my back, always some around the back of the knee (where the ripping was most severe). Putting them in is really cool. She just taps the end and poink, they just pop in. Usually I don't feel a thing, and if I do it goes away in less than a minute. Then she puts a nice warm light, some rainforestee music, and then goes away while I take a really great nap. At the end she just swipes the pins out.

I've had 3 sessions so far. I think I'll only do one more cause I'm feeling great. The first session in which she also used an ultrasonic thingee to really stimulate the muscles repair, really didn't feel like it did anything. I got off the table from the second one and could walk normally but with some pain. From talking with others who've had a similar injury they're amazed that I'm back on the bike. And honestly, if I didn't have that hideous picture, I wouldn't believe it ever happened.

Some of my friends have acupuncture for sinus infections, allergies, trauma. I'm not sure what the indicators are but it is definitely effective.