Myofascial Release - Let’s Start with the Technical Stuff

When humans experience trauma—injury, surgery, etc.—a vector of force is thrust into the body. All aspects of trauma—physical, mental, emotional—are stored in the fascia.

Often, these microtraumas accumulate until the person is thrown over the edge into horrible pain and dysfunction. These micro traumas may be the result of a series of life’s stresses and/or a combination of smaller injuries that finally become too much. Regardless, this vector of force is energy that is driven into the body.

In the past, the fascial system was considered to be nothing more than the body’s packing material or insulator. This assumption, though, does not account for the energy carried by the fascial system. When physical and emotional microtraumas accumulate, it appears that the natural flow of energy is interrupted and the fluidity of the fascial system is changed, causing the ground substance to become more viscous.

For many years, research on the fascial system had been done postmortem, on cadavers that are dehydrated and brittle, leading to misconceptions. Recently, there has been research on fascia in the living body that suggests the fascial system is the main transporter for all that we ingest nutritionally, the fluid we intake, the air we breathe, all hormones, biochemistry, and every one of the trillions of cells in the body.

The fascial system has mistakenly been thought of as an insulator of energy, but instead, it acts like a fiber-optic system that carries light and an enormous amount of information through the fluidity of the microtubules of the fascial system at an enormous speed. Recall Einstein’s famous equation, E = mc², which says that energy and mass are interchangeable, different forms of the same thing.

Nikola Tesla told us, “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.” Science is starting to help us better understand that the fascial system is a piezoelectric tissue. Piezoelectricity is a Greek word for “pressure electricity.”

Myofascial release is about converting the pressure from our hands into a bioelectrical flow. From here, a phenomenon called mechanotransduction is initiated, which is a biochemical and hormonal reaction stimulated by sustained pressure. Practices and activities like massage, manipulation, mobilization, and exercise do put pressure on our bodily system.

The problem when practicing massage therapy is that the technique is too quick to allow for these phenomena that have to do with mind-body self-correcting mechanisms. Without sustained pressure on myofascial restriction, the results will often be superficial and temporary.

Everybody is unique, and every person’s traumas are unique; therefore, myofascial restrictions are unique to every person. The therapist must first find the myofascial restriction, and then apply gentle, sustained pressure, typically five to eight minutes, to get maximum benefit.

The sustained pressure described above creates a current, stimulation of the electromagnetic field that allows for rehydration of the ground substance that has been made viscous by myofascial restrictions. As fluidity returns to our system, the proper flow of the healing energy of our bodies is also returned.

Maggie Lesnik, LMR
Myofascial Release Therapist at Eden Place Healing Arts