At first, I misunderstood. When my colleague was telling me about this I thought it was some kind of accupressure thing. Like, if you pinch your earlobe, your calf cramp would go away, or something... But no! It's "fascial", not "facial"; as in "fascia" not "face"!
Here is a quote from the link she gave me:
"Fascia is a dense connective tissue that surrounds muscle, bones and joints which provides support and protection to the body.
Occuring along the fascia are trigger points [there's that term again!]. Trigger points are areas that are extremely sensitive to palpation and feel like tough, dense knots along the muscle. Some research has theorized that trigger points can cause injuries over time because they are believed to break up the normal structure and operation of the fascia. What once was a uninterrupted fascia, now has knots and scar tissue disrupting the pathways.
Self Myofascial Release is designed to break up those knots and return the fascia to its proper state."
It's very similar to the "massage" therapy I have been reading a lot about lately. The main difference is that they use a foam roller instead of a "stick" or your thumbs for the massage. The techniques are slightly different but they all seem to be aimed at those "pesky" trigger points.
The good news is for about the past week I have been massaging my calves several times every day with either the "stick" or my thumbs. I ran yesterday and today when I was in Florida for about 45-50 minutes each day with absolutely no pain or cramping or even tightening of my calf muscles. Now I have a third massage technique to try and I am gaining confidence that I am on the right track to fix my calf problems for good. Thanks to my cousin and to my Mako colleague (both women, by the way) for steering me in what certainly seems to be the right direction.
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3 comments:
I am a huge believer in the myofascial release. I have had Achilles tendonitis for about six years, from dancing. It flares up at the beginning of every semester. When it started coming back this January, I had a friend do the fascia release on me, and the pain was gone the next day. It hasn't come back since.
Good brief and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Thank you for your information.
It is useful to try everything in practise anyway and I like that here it's always possible to find something new. :)
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