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Release Tight Fascia Here
Release tight fascia here. We discuss two common chronic issues. Hip and lower back pain and neck and shoulder pain. There are many different presentations that a patient can come into the clinic with. For these conditions, 10 people can have different presentations. This is one example. Watch our video, now, to learn more.
A Quick Review about Fascia
In order to release fascia, a therapist must have an understanding of what it is and what it does. The fascia is the connective tissue that lies underneath the skin. It wraps around bones, muscles, organs, nerves, tendons and ligaments. It runs deep, wide, lengthwise and connects everything together.
When fascia becomes tight, it can cause pain and dysfunction locally and also away from the area of tightness. Release the fascia and you can get significant improvements in your treatment.
When should I start augmenting or modifying my treatment?
These are 4 points to consider when deciding on augmenting or modifying your treatment.
- You have had the issue for a few months
- You have had consistent treatment and have been doing the homecare consistently
- Local treatments have minimal effect
- Deep muscle work only helps a little
If you tick all of these 4 points, it can be time to seek a professional who has an expertise in working with the fascia. This means an individual who will actually spend significant time assessing for fascial restrictions and focusing more on the fascia versus “just” the muscles.
Shoulder and Neck Chain
In regards to chronic neck and shoulder pain, there is a a need to release tight fascia of the palms and forearms. The forearms and palms can become very tight. In fact it can actually be tighter than the area that is the primary complaint.
Whenever there is a patient that has chronic neck and shoulder pain with extremely tight forearms I will target that section. At times, the palms are a forgotten region to treat. The tissues in and around the palms can be extremely stuck. Almost like it is glued. Release the palms and the forearms and one can notice a significant change up the chain, to the neck and shoulders.
Hip Lower Back Chain
When I mention the term “chain”, I am illustrating lengthwise connections of sections of body parts. These sections within the chain can become very stuck. For example, with the lower back and hips, The chain can be (it “can b”e because there can be multiple lines/chains) from the lower back, glutes/hips, hamstrings, calves to the bottom of the feet.
In this particular presentation, the sections are the calves and the bottom of the feet. Release tight fascia of the calves and feet and you can notice powerful changes to the hips and lower back. Oftentimes, what I can notice is that the muscles of the claves can be very soft and supple BUT as I pull on the tissues versus pushing, I can notice how tight and restricted the fascia is. It can be very deceiving.
The bottom of the feet, just like the palms can also feel like it is glued to the other structures of the feet. These two areas are need to be targeted to attain longer standing relief.
What can a treatment look like?
Once, it has been assessed that the tissues are more symptomatic versus being the root, we can further investigate. If the conclusion is that the palms/forearms, feet/calves are most likely the area to zone in on, the “real” treatment begins.
Oftentimes treatment to these areas can be from 15-20 minutes. In fact, many times there will be minimal work to the local area of complaint and more focus on the release of tight fascia further down the chain.
The real fascinating thing is that, the areas can become significantly softer. Patients will comment at times how much better the neck/shoulders or lower back/hips feel.
Remember, this sort of treatment can be unpleasant at best to excruciating, depending on how tight the areas are.
If you feel that you can relate to this discussion and want a different pair of eyes and hands to look at you, please contact us and we can discuss your treatment!
More Resources:
Have you been encountering neck pain and are a gym rat? This video discusses how the dip exercise can be a culprit. Watch this video on our other site, vprc.ca. This video discusses 8 Questions, regarding chronic headaches.
