Direct Myofascial Release – a Perspective from Mike Grafstein CAT(C), SMT(C)

As both a practicing Certified Athletic Therapist and Certified Sports Massage Therapist I have been fortunate to have come across many myofascial release courses. They have ranged from fascial chains to various forms of direct and indirect myofascial release.

Do I prefer one over the other? Not really, it’s just a matter of the clients situation and what I think best works at that time.

Why Direct Myofascial Release

I guess the biggest thing for me is that with most of the direct myofascial release techniques, I use my forearm and elbow. I am able to save my wrists, hands and fingers.

The ability to use mainly my forearm and elbow speaks loudly to me for a couple of reasons.

1) I have “wonky” wrists. Years ago before I got into massage school I sustained a significant wrist injury in a ball hockey game. Simply put this one idiot took it upon himself to try to eliminate me from the game with a slash attempt below the belt; lucky for me I saw it last minute and was able to protect myself at the expense of both my wrist joints.

2) I love to work with out oil! I enjoy giving half hour to hour massages oil free. Recently one of my clients went 90 minutes without any lotion!

3) Many times I find it more effective than traditional swedish massage.

That being said I understand that it is not necessarily a treatment for every client or a tool of choice by all massage therapists.

I have specifically found this technique very helpful for treating knee issues such as patellar tendonitis, iliotiband friction syndrome and lateral patellar tracking.

When I am able to “separate” the vastus lateralis from rectus femoris (video) and the vastus lateralis from the iliotibialband there tends to be more freedom and less painful movement at the knee. I see this  a lot with soccer players when they run.

I find that if I work slowly and deliberately on specific muscles I am able to gradually get “deep” with this approach.

The biggest challenge is working within the clients comfort level.

I inform my clients on the technique I plan to use and allow them to decide whether or not they want this type of work done.

The last thing a client needs is for some agressive therapist to stick their elbow into their psoas and “dig” deep.

Rolfing

My first exposure to direct myofascial release was in a course I took on soft tissue mobilization back in 1992. The instructor for the course was a structural integration therapist with training from the Rolf Institute.

If you look around at most direct myofascial release practitioners they have a background in Rolfing or Structural Integration.

Direct myofascial release is tool like any skill that you learn that you can can put into your toolbox to help you get postive results for your client.
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Mike Grafstein has designations both as a Certified Athletic Therapist CAT(C) and Certified Sports Massage Therapist SMT(C). He is a senior instructor and clinic supervisor at Bryan College in Toronto, practices out of Upper Canada Sports Medicine Clinic in Newmarket and is an Athletic Therapist with Bryst International.

Mike is also the creator of the MyolageTM Myofascial Release Treatment System recognized as the “Grandchild” of myofascial release.

Visit the Myofascial Release youtube Channel .