There was a time, not too long ago, when I would introduce myself as a Myofascial Release therapists and the response would often be "you give facials?". No, I do not put masks on your face and clean your pores. Thankfully, that is not the case so much any more. But there is still a long way to go before Myofascial Release (MFR) is as common a therapy as Massage Therapy or Chiropractic care. However, Myofascial Release is gaining credibility among the medical community as well as the general public as an effective health care therapy in the treatment of chronic pain such as fibromyalgia, low back and neck pain, and chronic headaches just to name a few. It is also very effective in treating acute pain, injuries and for post treatment of surgeries.
Fascial Tissue
In order to talk about treating either chronic pain or acute pain caused by fascial restrictions it is necessary to talk about what fascial tissue is. Once thought to only be the covering surrounding the muscular tissue, thus defining each muscle, fascial tissue is now known to be a much more complex system in our body. Fascial tissue is a connective tissue in the body. It surrounds and permeates through everything throughout our entire body including muscles, bones, organs, circulatory tissue, nervous tissue, brain matter, and everything in between. Fascial tissue has even been found at the cellular level. It can be visualized as a complex, three-dimensional web (or net) connected from the top of our heads to the bottom of our feet.
Fascial tissue is so integrated in our body that when one area of the fascial system changes, it can have a profound affect throughout the entire fascial system. Imagine a three-dimensional, connected web that has no beginning or end running through our entire body. Imagine pulling just one string of the web, let's say at your shoulder. Go ahead, visualize for a moment, I'll wait...Got it? Well, as you pull on just that one string can you see the immediate, attached surrounding strings? They are feeling the effect of that pull. What about what's happening to the secondary strings? Then the strings attached to those strings? And then the ones attached to those...Well, you can see where I am going with this. This is exactly what is happening in the fascial system in our body every minute of every day. Where these fascial restrictions pull in the body is very unpredictable but once a restriction has been established it can tighten around very pain sensitive areas and unbalance the structures in the body causing acute pain symptoms that when left untreated will turn into chronic pain.
Fascial Restrictions
There are several different causes for restrictions to occur in the fascial tissue including inflammation processes, injury, trauma to the body, and holding patterns. These restrictions cannot be seen on any of the standard medical tests like X-rays, MRI's, CAT scans or PET scans. Because of this symptoms due to fascial restrictions have often gone misdiagnosed, mistreated or, worse yet the patient has been told that no one really knows what is wrong and there is nothing that can be done. However, a trained Myofascial Release therapist can help you to unravel and loosen these restrictions thus freeing you from the pain these restrictions cause.
Myofascial Release Treatment
Like the proverbial bucket filling up one tiny water drop at a time, the body develops fascial restrictions one cell at a time. If the bucket is not watched, over a long period of time it seems to have magically filled with water once you notice it again. So, too, the body develops restrictions in the fascial system. We may notice the "water drops" in our fascial system tightening and from time to time say things like "boy, I'm getting older and stiffer" or "I just don't seem to be able to move the way I used to". Then when the "bucket" is full its "I tore my rotator cuff and all I did was pick up a bag of groceries" or "I just bent down to pick up a book and threw my back out". By the way, these are actual quotes from my clients.
Myofascial Release treatments have been described as a deep, deep prolonged stretch and can be very relaxing. It is important to realize that although highly effective, you begin to see that MFR therapies are slow-paced and take time to facilitate. It did not take you an hour to get you into the situation that you are in. It will not take one hour to get you out of it. Each person is individual so each session will be different depending on what is going on with your body at the time of your session. Some sessions will take you to different levels of relaxation and some sessions will be very active. Some sessions you will be left with a feeling of great change with a resolution to your symptoms and others you will be wondering if anything happened at all. Because of the unpredictable nature of the fascial tissue there can be no promises made of what changes will happen with each session only that there will be changes. Therefore, it is important to see this therapy in the big picture. Over time Myofascial Release therapy will help ease the symptoms of acute pain and chronic pain such as in low back pain, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, knee pain, foot pain to name just a few.
This article is written by Judith Glennon, CMT student of John F Barnes. John F Barnes courses completed: MFR I&II, Unwinding, Rebounding, CT, FP. If you are interested in learning more about Judith Glennon and Myofascial Release and how it can help you or purchase sessions on line go to: http://www.myofascialreleasemassage.weebly.com
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