Myofascial
Release

Myofascial Release Therapy is a form of soft tissue hands-on therapy that works with the fascial system to enhance movement and functionality in the body.

When fascial restrictions are released, space is created, restoring movement and glide-ability in the body.

What is Fascia?

Fascia is a tough, densely woven connective tissue that surrounds every muscle, bone, organ, nerve, artery, and vein in the body. Fascia is one giant sheet, a single uninterrupted web that encases, connects, and interlaces everything in the entire body all the way down to the cellular level. Connective tissue also includes our blood, cartilage, fat tissue and bone. Fascia is involved and influences every action, activity, and function within the body.

We also store emotions and active memories in the physical body in the fascia, so stress, our lack of self-worth, fear and anxiety have an effect on our physical body and influence what symptoms and disease ultimately present for us. Our life experiences, and more importantly our emotional reaction and beliefs around these experiences, actually become the blueprint of our tissue.

So by understanding the basic physiological functions of fascia and connective tissue, we begin to understand how fascia impacts all the functions of the body.

It influences the body’s fundamental ability to nourish and cleanse itself and fight off illness and disease. It is a very influential aspect of maintaining health and wellbeing in the whole mind-body complex.

The technique is done without lotion or oil and the practitioner sinks into the client’s body with their hand, engages the fascia and then does a slow movement to stretche the fascia. The work is done superficial to deep opening the layers just under the skin first and then working into the deeper muscle layers. The deep myofascia layers can be worked on the surface of the muscle, deep into the muscle tissue as well as on the layers between the muscles to separate the muscles as they often get stuck together.

The sensation to the client will be one of a slow, smooth and relaxing strokes. The client will feel a stretching or pulling sensation and often heat underneath the practitioner’s hand which can be a bit burning at times as fascial restrictions or adhesions are released. As restrictions are released the client will notice that the area is not as sensitive or painful and has more ease of movement. The ultimate sensation is the wave or ripple effect that can occur as the tissue unwinds.

It is not uncommon for clients to feel sensations in other parts of the body away from the area being worked. This is common with myofascial release work since we are tapping into the fascial web which is one continuous sheet in the body. Often when one area of the body is released it will have a ripple effect and release restrictions, tension and pulling patterns in other areas of the body.

This ripple effect also has an impact on our physiology. Much of our blood circulation, nerve conduction and lymphatic drainage happens in the superficial layer of fascia, that space beneath the skin and above the muscles and organs. When we create space in this area of the body, we enhance the body’s fundamental ability to nourish and cleanse itself and maintain the effective function of our circulatory system, nervous system, lymphatic system, and immune system functions.

Anytime we work with fascia we are working at all levels of functionality of the body. The work creates a chain reaction on all levels of the mind-body complex enhancing the efficiency and functioning of whole-body systems, enhancing key functioning at the cellular level, and facilitating the release of emotions and stored active memories.