MYOFASCIAL ACTIVE RELEASE

Myofascial release therapy works to stretch, soften, lengthen and realign connective tissue to ease pain.

Myofascial release is a form of soft tissue therapy intended for pain relief, increasing range of motion and balancing the body. Techniques include manual massage for stretching the fascia and releasing bonds between fascia, integument, muscles, and bones are applied. The fascia is manipulated, directly or indirectly, supposedly to allow the connective tissue fibers to reorganize themselves in a more flexible, functional fashion.
The fascia is a seamless web of connective tissue that covers and connects the muscles, organs, and skeletal structures, located between the skin and the underlying structure of muscle and bone. Muscle and fascia form the myofascia system.

The fascial system is totally one structure that is present from your head to foot without any interruption.

Injuries, stress, inflammation, trauma, and poor posture can cause restriction to fascia. Since fascia is an interconnected web, the restriction or tightness to fascia at a place, with time can spread to other places in the body like a pull in a sweater. The goal of myofascial release is to release fascia restriction and restore its tissue health.

In medical literature, the term myofascial was used by Janet G. Travell M.D. in the 1940s referring to musculoskeletal pain syndromes and trigger points. In 1976 Dr. Travell began using the term “Myofascial Trigger Point” and in 1983 published the famous reference “Myofascial Pain & Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual”. Some practitioners use the term “Myofascial Therapy” or “Myofascial Trigger Point Therapy” referring to the treatment of trigger points, this is usually in medical-clinical sense.

Here the term Myofascial Release refers to soft tissue manipulation techniques. It has been loosely used for different manual therapy, soft tissue manipulation work (connective tissue massage, soft tissue mobilization, Structural Integration, strain-counterstrainetc). There are two main schools of myofascial release: the direct and indirect method