interweaves with bones and muscles, then confining your treatment to manual adjustments and soft tissue mobilisations on muscles is not enough. Fascia is a network: we must feel into this network – by doing so, we will feel the unique fascial restrictions pertinent to the patient. Like our fingerprints, each person’s

Figure 2: The cross hand MFR technique

untwists and the solidified ground substance returns to a fluid state. This technique should take between three and eight minutes as you slowly and gently follow the releases, layer upon layer, allowing the tissue to release without force. The release of this area helps to de-rotate unilateral rotated ilia and to balance the sacroiliac joints, sacrum and pelvis in general.

Figure 1: Effects of fascia on counterbalances in the body

over the body (Fig 1). One of the most fundamental

modern MFR techniques is the cross-hand technique. With this hand technique, we simply place our crossed hands on the body, with the heels of the hands close together and the fingers pointing in the direction in which we wish to facilitate the release. The hands are on the skin at all times. The therapist places one hand on the upper anterior thigh, fingers pointing cephalad, and the other hand just below it, fingers pointing caudad (Fig 2). Allow your hands to soften slowly into the tissue – and then wait. This is the first dimension. You may begin to feel a thick toffee-like substance under your hands. This is the deep collagenous layer of restriction. As this yields and allows you to soften inwards, maintain the inward pressure and gently take up the slack between your hands. This is the second dimension. Wait for the release and continue to take up the slack. The third dimension is when you feel the tissue yielding under your hands in a twisting or side- bending movement; we call this “local unwinding” – it occurs as the fascia

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EFFECTS I always find it amazing to see and hear the feedback from a patient receiving the modern form of MFR for the first time. The patient can feel exactly where the therapist’s hands are, but they can also feel the yielding and softening in a completely different part of the body. If fascia supports and

THE AUTHOR

Ruth Duncan has been involved in complementary therapies for a number of years. She graduated with honours as a clinical massage therapist in Florida, USA. Her training included therapeutic, remedial, soft tissue, trigger point and myofascial approaches. Her postgraduate study included sports injury rehabilitation and clinical hypnotherapy. She has furthered her soft tissue training with Tom Myers and John F. Barnes, who is the world’s leading authority on myofascial release. Ruth has assisted with the Barnes American MFR seminars and offers MFR workshops for healthcare professionals in the UK. For more information visit www.myofascialrelease.co.uk for dates, venues and costs or call 0845 602 6274.

fascial network is unique because it has the history of fascial restrictions from that person’s traumas, posture and inflammation. When we treat a patient with the modern form of MFR, we feel their unique bracing and holding patterns. When we release tension from this tensile structure, we allow other areas to release their hold too, and so patients often feel multiple releases in different areas of the body. To summarise, when one looks at

the depth and influence that fascia can have on the function of the body, in my view it becomes clear that the ‘buzz’ over fascial work, is therefore very well justified.

References 1. Laszlo E. Science and the akashic field: an integral theory of everything. Inner Traditions 2007. ISBN 9781594771811 2. McTaggart L. The field: the quest for the secret force of the universe. HarperCollins 2002. ISBN 006019300X 3. Oschman JL. Energy medicine in therapeutics and human performance. Butterworth Heinemann 2003. ISBN 0750654007.

sportEX dynamics 2008;18(Oct):14-16