Different health professionals bandy about the term “adhesion”, which is supposedly sticky attachments that take hold between the muscle and surrounding fascia, thus preventing muscles from sliding properly. I’m curious as to what the evidence is for its existence.
So, for those in the know, please refer me to scientific literature on the topic. I’ve googled it and can’t find anything worthwhile. Thanks in advance!
Try looking up Active Release Therapy, or ART, as that’s the massage technique which seems to focus most on this issue.
Tell us if you ind anything useful!
Last I had seen on this, when actually doing a muscular section of a tight trigger point in a muscle, they found nothing remarkable about the muscle tissue when examined.
Though I have gotten relief from that type of treatment without a doubt.
This guy is great if you are in the Austin area. He really knows his stuff and could put on the (good) hurt to get rid of any adhesions.
Yes of course I will. You don’t happen to recall the source of the work you referred to, do you?
I agree that “tissue work” or massage seem to “work”, i.e., make me contort in excruciating pain during the treatment and then feel better afterwards. But, as you know, that doesn’t mean the “theory of adhesions” is worth anything.
I’m with Kevin. The only “science” I have seen is from some talks given by ART people. The way it was described to me was that when muscles are damaged through abnormal use, the resulting scar tissue that forms during the healing process is what prevents the muscles from moving correctly. Doing something like Graston, or ART etc… helps to break apart the scar tissue and thus allows the muscles to regain proper movement. From that point on you often need to retrain the muscles movement (ie fix gait issues) through strength and flexibility training to prevent the buildups from happening again.
It sounds good to me, and it seems to work really well. And I can certainly feel the difference between my good working muscles and the not so good working ones. But alas, I have not seen a paper on the issue.
Well, wikipedia links to some studies, including those done with MRI that seem to be able to locate trigger points, granted this is related to but not exactly your question. I’m afraid I can’t go digging about to find more.
try this link for some info http://www.fasciacongress.org/about.htm there are some good studys out there.
_myofascial pain and dysfunction:the trigger point manual; Janet travell and simons… physiologic basis for muscle work. pretty much as good as it gets for rationale for treatment. as for practitioners ART and Graston are quite different with ART being more active (practitioner/patient involved) and Graston being passive…