Myofascial Release

Myofascial Release is a very effective hands-on manual therapy that involves applying gentle sustained pressure into the myofascial connective tissue restrictions to eliminate pain and restore movement.

Fascia is not linear; it is three dimensional.  Fascia has two parts.  The first part is the elastin and that releases fairly quickly.  The second part is the collagen and it is the most important part and it does not start to release until after 2 to 3 minutes of sustained pressure.  When this release occurs the release will move in the direction of the restriction.

Fascia cannot be released by equipment such as a ball or a roller or machines; they can only soften an area.  For the release to take place there must be sustained pressure that moves with the release in the direction of the release.  The direction can be to go deeper, forward, back or even in a circular motion. The direction must be followed for the benefit to occur.

A patient presented with arm pain and numbness as well as shoulder pain.  During evaluation it was noted that the fascia was severely restricted in the chest region and the patient was told that we would need to release that area.  She stated that she had been having problems breathing and that her chest felt like it had a fifty pound weight.  All tests were negative and nothing had previously helped this problem.

After myofascial release she was able to take deep breaths and had no chest pain and the weight on her chest was gone (fascia can exert up to 2000 pounds of pressure when restricted).  Continuing with the myofascial release technique we were able to eliminate all the pain and numbness in her shoulder and arm.

Also see the fascia article.