#injury – The Fascial Effect

Get things moving again

We all damage our bodies from time to time. Whether you’ve tripped while walking from the kitchen to the lounge and twisted something or overdone the jogging and developed a painful part, it’s easy to over-stretch, strain or tear your soft tissue.

The problem is that life goes on and, unless the injury is bad enough to require a visit to the doctor, we just tend to get on with it. Not only does it take time for soft tissues to heal, but the damage is compounded as your body tries to reduce the pain – usually by reducing the movement in the damaged part.

Your body is a highly sophisticated ‘machine’, all the parts are designed to move smoothly together, so when one part is damaged, everything around it is affected. That’s why we limp when we’ve strained an ankle or avoid gripping when there’s a wrist, arm or shoulder strain. Although I do know of a little girl who would limp even with a cut on her finger – but she was only four!

Instead of your soft tissues moving freely, the fascia – the membrane that wraps around all your organs, muscles and ligaments – gets stuck. This prevents movement and results in more pain.

Random aches and pains

Sometimes you end up with a pain that you can’t attribute to an injury or particular event. You’ve probably woken up occasionally with a stiff neck from sleeping in a position that’s caused soft tissues to get stuck. If you sit with your smartphone in one hand for an extended period you can find the muscles in your upper arm and shoulder ‘complain’ and, these days, we all know about the fallout from sitting hunched over a keyboard for hours.

Effectively this is the same as favouring an injured area – but without the injury! You’re in one position, perhaps with tensed muscles, and the result is pain.

If any of this sounds familiar, then you’ll know that these aches and pains sometimes go away on their own, but unless you change your habits, more often they’ll just get worse.

Release, relieve and restore

Typically people resort to heat creams, anti-inflammatory tablets and massage to relieve aches and pains, but all these are doing is dealing with the symptoms.

A more effective way to treat these kinds of injury is myo-fascial release (MFR), which works on releasing the soft tissues which have got stuck and restores a wider range of movement. It’s fine to use the anti-inflammatory treatments to help the tissues heal, but they won’t heal as quickly if everything is stuck.

If you are prone to aches and pains in particular areas then learning a series of moving stretches can also help to keep things moving.

Find out more about MFR for injuries, aches and pains.

Body

When waving ‘goodbye’ is painful …

If you get pain in your shoulder area when you raise your arm to wave goodbye to your friends and family, you may have a problem with your rotator cuff!

It may sound like some kind of garden machine, but it’s actually four muscles that work around your shoulder to allow you to move your arm up, down and forwards and backwards.

Many shoulder pain conditions are caused by injury to one or more of the rotator cuff muscles, or to the soft tissues around the shoulder joint.

So if you get pain in the neck and shoulder or find it difficult to complete movements such as:

Reaching up to get something off the top shelf
Reaching behind to hook up your bra or get your arms into a fitted coat or shirt
Pulling a cord starter on your motor boat or lawnmower
Reaching to pull your seatbelt into place
Installing ceiling tiles
Pulling a suitcase along

Or any similar movements; even sitting over a computer keyboard or driving for extended periods can cause problems. It can get particularly bad when there have been tears in the muscles fibres and the resulting scar tissue restricts movement in the shoulder further.

The solution is a course of Myofascial release (MFR) which works on the soft tissues, easing restrictions in the muscles and their encasing fascia around the shoulder joint, neck and upper chest. Trigger point therapy reduces pain and frees up the muscles range of movement. Some muscle stretching and contracting is included for improving flexibility and an increased range of motion in the shoulder.

For more information or to book an appointment call Jas on 07775633798

Body

What to do about whiplash

Whiplash is a neck injury which most people associate with road traffic accidents. It can, however, happen in any situation where the body accelerates forward and then quickly decelerates throwing the head forwards, backwards and sideways, for example:

During sporting activities such as rugby and boxing
A slip or a fall where the head is jolted forwards and backwards
While on a rollercoaster ride, especially if it stops suddenly!

The vigorous movements of the head put enormous strain on the neck, shoulder and upper back and injury occurs. After the initial shock, neck pain and stiffness can be followed with related symptoms such as headaches, jaw pain, dizziness, nausea and tinnitus.

Depending on the severity of the injury, the pain and stiffness will restrict movement for 2-3 days, but after this period, if it’s not treated:

Tight, inactive and injured muscles will shorten and weaken.
Muscles surrounding the injury will overcompensate and become strained.
Too much scar tissue will form in any torn muscle and reduce its ability to do what it normally does.
Fascia (connective tissue) surrounding everything including the vertebrae, thinks the new way of moving is normal and adapts to hold everything within their new positions, restricting movement even further.
Long term this leads to postural problems and recurring symptoms of whiplash.

This means that movement is more likely to aid recovery than prolonged immobilisation. Myofascial stretch and trigger point release will help in this process, softening the taut tissue and allowing muscles to move naturally as they are meant to do. Assisting the head and neck to “Unwind” is another advanced fascial release technique which allows the head and neck to move through a range of motions without force.

For more information call 07775633798