Myofascial Release vs. Stretching: Which One ACTUALLY Works?

Transcript

hey it's Dr Joe today's video I wanted to discuss with you why your particular injury may not be responding to stretching and if it isn't responding to stretching we're going to discuss today the importance of doing myof faster release work so let me just start off by trying to answer the question why do sometimes when you have an injury and you stretch it it feels awesome and the EV and the injury eventually goes away and other times you might have an injury and you stretch and not only doesn't it feel better but it actually sometimes aggravates the problem so here's the thing stretching is only effective when you're stretching something that is stretchy if if that makes sense and here here's what I mean a muscle is has a very a lot of elastic qualities to it and you can think of a muscle like this band so this band is stretchy so I can stretch it this this um strap is not stretchy so I could pull on this thing all day long and you know what I'm not stretching this material out it's not stretchy material and the same can be said for certain injuries you can have an injury where the muscle has maintained its elasticity and you go to stretch it and it's going to be able to be stretched out and it's going to feel good you can also have injuries sometimes that build up scy tissue or what we like to call fascial adhesions and that is non stretchy material it's the same as thinking of it just to give you a a visual as tying a knot in the band okay so if this is the normal band it's nice and stretchy and and and has a certain length to it when you have adhesions in there or Sky tissue in there two things happen the muscle usually will be shorter so you have a shortened muscle and you you've lost elasticity okay so now you go to stretch this type of tissue that is non-elastic or has lost a lot of its elasticity and when you go to stretch it what happens is this isn't stretching really very effectively and what you end up doing is you put pressure on the tendons of the muscle on each end of a muscle you have a connection into the bone by way of a tendon and if the muscle's not going to stretch when you go to stretch that muscle the tendons get tugged on and I'll let you in a little secret tendons do not like to be tugged on and if you start tugging on a tendon by stretching a muscle um that has fascial adhesion build up around around it you're going to irritate the tendons and that's why sometimes when you stretch certain injuries it actually makes the injury worse CU you're inflaming the tendons so this is where myofascia release techniques come in okay you have an area that has built up Sky tissue stretching is not helping it's aggravating the area we need to get in there and break up that Sky tissue now there's lots of different ways to perform myofascia release work my preferred method when I'm trying to give people techniques to do at home is to do myof fasion release work using massage balls now this is a regular siiz massage ball from ochre Met Health and my preferred type of massage ball is a spiky massage ball why because if I want to get into the tissue I can get in there a little bit deeper with a spiky ball as opposed to with my fingers or my Knuckles or using a smooth uh tennis ball or lacrosse ball okay so my preferred um tool is a spiky massage ball lots of different ways to do myofascia release my two favorite that I demonstrate a lot of times is one is called cross friction massage and what that is is determining with depending on the body part you're using is you determine by looking at the anatomy which way the FIB are going so if I'm dealing with my bicep I have muscle FIB is going in this direction cross friction massage would be I would take the spiky massage ball and massage it in this direction and usually I do that for 60 to 90 seconds with firm but comfortable pressure okay trying to dig into the tissue and I try to focus in wherever I can determine there is some tightening in there okay so that's cross friction massage the other technique that I'm a big fan of is called a pin and stretch technique a pin and stretch technique is where we use the ball to pin some of the tissue where there is adhesion and then stretch it and by doing that we help pull apart those adhesions so for example once again if I'm talking about the bicep when I flex the elbow the bicep fibers contract it get shorter so if I get in there with the ball now and I push in uh and trap that tissue say I feel like I have a knot right about here I push in I trap that tissue now if I extend my arm out while I have the tissue trapped I'm going to help break up any adhesions in there now once you've done cross friction massage pin stretch technique and we've done some work on it so sometimes it's a matter of a couple days sometimes a couple weeks and we've broken up some of that uh Sky tissue in there now you can begin uh adding back in your stretching because now you have something that's stretchy that you can work with but until that point the myof FAS release techniques are going to be the primary way we want to get in there and work on it until we break up some of that adhesion so let me give you some a demonstration on a couple different body parts on how you can use a spiky massage ball to do some myof fasion release work so let's start off with a demonstration of some myof fashion release work on a muscle known as the bracho radialis it's a muscle of the arm known as the haming muscle if I was to put some resistance against my arm you can see the brachia radialis right here it comes from the end of the radius it does not cross the wrist joint comes from the end of the radius comes right up the forearm and attaches between the bicep and the tricep it is a elbow flexor matter of fact when the forearm is in a neutral position or in a pronated position it's one of the primary flexes of the elbow along with a muscle known as the brachialis the bicep is actually at a mechanical disadvantage when the forearm is neutral or pronated if the if the forearm is supinated the bicep is is a primary elbow flexible but when it's neutral or pronated the biceps actually at a mechanical disadvantage the bracho radialis is doing a lot of work this muscle because it gets used a lot just in everyday activities and in the gym it can build up adhesion and when it does it creates a lot of forearm and elbow pain on people a lot I've had patients come time sometimes come into my office with elbow pain they think it's tennis elbow because it's on the outside of the elbow and it's really a soft tissue injury with the break your radialis so what can we do we can take our spiky massage ball the fibers of this braak your radialis are coming down the arm like this so first Technique we can do some cross friction massage so I'm going to get in between the bicep and the tricep and since the fibers are going this way I'm going to go this way so I'll get between the bicep and the tricep I'll come down and I'll go all the way down the forearm now at a certain point the uh break your radialis just turns into a long tendon as it comes down to the end of the radius so there's not a lot of soft tissue once I get about halfway down here so make sure you're going pretty gent gently across the radius as you come all the way down and then all the way back up okay one thing I always tell people when it comes to doing myof FAS release work and using a spiky massage ball make sure two things one is you're properly warmed up before you get started so never do this like first thing in the morning right out of bed make sure you're moving around you're running around you've warmed up and also if you're new to it and you haven't used any type of myof fasion release tools any type of spiky massage balls go very gently the first few times that you're using the the massage ball to make sure you feel okay the next day you know sometimes people get a little overly aggressive when they're using um when they're working doing M faster release work for the first time so so really make sure you go you know go easy at first because you can get some discoloration you can wake up the next day you can have some bruising on the tissue so be make sure you go you go easy at first but I'm going to spend about 60 to 90 seconds doing that cross friction massage all the way down to break your radialis and all the way back up okay now if as I'm coming up into the area if I happen to feel a particular knot and that would usually be an area where I feel like some like a clump of soft tissue it sometimes it can feel a little rubbery it can be a little tender I'll spend a little extra time maybe an extra 30 seconds just on one spot and just do a little extra work wherever I can feel a notot okay so we do some cross friction massage now we're going to move on we're going to do some pin and stretch techniques so once again as I bend the elbow i' I'm shortening the fibers of that break your radial so that's the position I want I want to so I'm going to start at the top of the muscle so I bend the elbow I short in the muscle fibers I'm going to push right above the elbow I'm going to push into the braak your radialis and I'm going to pull up on the tissue like that so I'm trapping the tissue by pulling pushing in and up I'm going to hold that now from here I'm going to stretch the arm out like this so I'm going from a shortened position to a elongated position with those muscle fibers and I'm going to do that eight to 10 times just in that one spot and after that I'm G to come down to a different area once again I'm GNA Flex the elbow I'm GNA push in now I'm gonna I'm a little bit below the elbow I'm gonna push in and pull up towards the elbow and again I'm going to straighten out that arm and I'm going to do eight or 10 of these passes just like that and I'm going to go into different areas through here so maybe I'm going to hit three four different times I'm going to do that pin and stretch type of technique okay I would do that every other day a lot of times myof FAS release work is most effective when you go every other day it gives the tissue sometimes to recover if you're trying to do it every day a lot of times it's like going into the gym and doing biceps every day it's not very productive the muscle never gets a chance to recover so keep that in mind let me show you one other area you can do some myof fasion release work okay another muscle that deals with a lot of fascial adhesion buildup is the trapezius in particular the upper trapezius muscle a lot of people that either whether it's from exercising or from sitting too much during the day and having our head down at our phone or at our computer this is an area that builds up adhesions okay and once again stretching it a lot of times aggravates it so let's get in that upper trapezius and do some cross friction massage and some pin and stretch work okay so I'm going to take the ball here the upper trapezius comes all the way to the base of the skull and then it comes down and that's that the muscle right in here and a lot of times this is an area where you can put your fingers in and you feel what feels like a rubber ball in there it's such a lot of times I've had patients come in the adhesion build up in there almost feels like a a super ball in there like a little rubbery ball okay so it's a it's an area that gets a lot of buildup of adhesions so if I'm going to do some cross friction massage the fibers are running from the base of my skull down in this direction so I'm going to go from the base of the skull just like this okay and I'm going to do some cross friction massage I'm going to come down the neck I'm going to come over that upper trapezius and I'm going to come back up to the base of the skull again and I'm going to go back and forth once again 60 to 90 seconds what if you find an area where you really feel that knot spend an extra 30 to 60 seconds on the one knot doing cross friction massage nothing wrong with that that'll actually get a little more release in that particular area spend some time up and down now how are we going to do a pin and stretch on this I want you to get in on that uh upper trapezius by pushing the ball in on that on a knot so if you find the knot push in and kind of pull towards the shoulder a little bit so push in down a little bit towards that shoulder and from this position I'm going to hold the ball I'm going to look down the opposite to the opp Opposite shoulder like that nice slow and controlled and then I'm going to come back up and then I'm going to look back down and come back up eight to 10 times I'll show you from this angle I have the ball here I push in I pull towards my my shoulder so I'm trapping tissue and then I'm going to look down to the opposite side just like that 8 to 10 times and once again just like the break your radialis we're going to do it in three or four different spots you can start from way up near the base of the skull come down and just work your way along that upper trapezius muscle three or four different times it's going to feel really good you're going to get a lot of blood flow in there you know should you work on these muscles both sides yeah I mean focus in on the muscle that's the the main problem but there's nothing wrong with getting in on the opposite side and doing a little myof fasion release on the opp Opposite side you know a lot of times the opposite side might feel good but when you go to do the myof faster releasing there you you find that you have knots in there they're just not bothering you at this particular time but it's almost like a time bomb ready to go off so you might as well do some work on them and and get ahead of the problem okay so there's two two different uh muscles that you can do some myof release work with a regular size massage ball give it a try remember those techniques you can use them on any muscle group cross friction massage and pin and stretch anyways I hope this video was helpful stay young and train hot