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Soft Tissue Release (STR) is once again the leading ‘cutting edge’ approach to acute and repetitive strain injuries, and more importantly, for chronic pain syndromes.
Soft Tissue Release Training pioneered by Stuart Taws in the early 90’s was the most effective and powerful answer to sports injuries. Until the ’96 Olympics these techniques were used by Stuart on the fastest sprinters in the world.
This new ‘technology’ of pain relief is faster, easier and relatively painless because it involves the higher centers of self-healing, it is also mostly permanent.
Now, anyone using STR releases for sports injuries and Carpal Tunnel problems should gain immediate pain relief in one or two treatments.
Sound too good to be true? Not, with Soft Tissue Release!
Chronic Pain conditions such as Whiplash injuries and neck pain, shoulder and rhomboid problems, including Thoracic Outlet. Even Fibromyalgia, are the ‘final frontier’ and these results have been obtained routinely in a clinical setting.
- There are no long-term benefits to back surgery.
- Herniated discs resolve by themselves.
- Adults with no pain have degenerating disc conditions even by the age of 20.
- Degenerating or bulging discs are not responsible for nearly all low back pain.
- About 97% of low back pain is caused by soft tissue problems.
- There is no value to surgery for so called "spinal instability."
"Myotherapy: A method for relaxing muscle spasm, improving circulation, and alleviating pain. The therapist applies finger pressure to “trigger points,” usually in the muscle tissue or area surrounding joints. The success of this method, developed by Bonnie Prudden in 1976, depends on the use of specific corrective exercise of the freed muscles."
-- Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary
A trigger point is an irritable spot in the muscle. They get into a muscle when the muscle is injured, or "insulted". Injury from accidents will put down trigger points. Repetitive motion such as from sports and occupations can "insult" the muscle and also put in trigger points. Disease processes and even birth can put in trigger points. And, once they are in the muscle they are likely to stay there
Trigger points in a muscle can create all kinds of problems. They can be quiet for long periods of time looking for an excuse to go into spasm. That excuse, is physical and/or emotional stress, and is often accompanied by a precipitating factor (such as a sneeze, or hiccup).
There are a variety of ways to relieve the pain of muscle spasm. Whether it be massage, or pain-killers (which hides the pain), the muscle eventually lets go and the person thinks the problem is gone. The trigger points are still there however, and they wait for another excuse to go into spasm again.
Long term results of trigger point involvement are shortened knotted muscles, which in time pull on neighboring muscles and cause large areas of involvement. Shortened knotted muscles can reek havoc with the body, not only in the form of pain, but also, fatigue, limited range of motion, pinched nerves, decreased circulation, just to name a few.
Myotherapy works by eliminating trigger points. Trigger points are located by applying gentle pressure to the muscle and finding spots of extreme tenderness. Pressure is then held on the muscle for 5-7 seconds. The amount of pressure used is determined by the person on the table. Applying pressure to the trigger points hurts! Every person is different, every area on the person can feel different, and every trigger point can have varying levels of severity. Therefore, the amount of pressure used will vary from person to person, area to area and often trigger point by trigger point.
After Myotherapy is done corrective exercises follow immediately. They are necessary to retrain the muscle to return to it’s normal resting length. Muscles that have been shortened and knotted for long periods of time get used to it. Myotherapy works to change this, but without exercise the muscles tends to revert to their shortened and knotted condition. The exercises are gentle range of motion movements. They are safe, easy to do, and are to be done without causing pain.
Once a muscle is free from pain the exercises should be continued with some strengthening exercises added in as a preventative tool against future problems.
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