SOFT TISSUE MANIPULATION

MYOFASCIAL MATRIX AND BEYOND

By Stuart Robertson, MSc, MCSP

INTRODUCTION TO AN INNOVATIVE WAY OF PALPATING The palpatory skills that are taught in this article are different and have greater effectiveness, not because of their light touch, but because the focus is not on what you are feeling, but developing an awareness and sensitivity of what your hands are feeling, when they are feeling. Conventionally, when learning to palpate, we are taught what specific structures should feel like, as opposed to what we are feeling in our hands when we are feeling those tissues. In other words ‘It’s not what you feel it’s how you feel it!’, as the actress said to the bishop.

Whether you are a joint or soft tissue based therapist these palpa- tory skills exercises will enhance your existing skills considerably. In order to locate restrictions, in either soft tissue or joints, through light touch, the practitioner must relax and pay attention to his or her hands, and the information they are receiving.

The process of how information is being received from the tissues is equally as important as the information itself. Indeed, I would argue that it is a prerequisite first step to have an awareness of how your hands feel before they turn to the tissues they are feeling. The better the sensitivity of the handling skills, the bigger the picture becomes and the easier it is to interpret what it is your hands find. The myofascial or fascial matrix is a wonderful place to put these new palpatory skills to the test.

INTRODUCTION TO THE MYOFASCIAL MATRIX At undergraduate level we were taught about muscles, their inser- tions and attachments, their eccentric and isotonic contractions, their innervation etcetera. The muscles were taught individually, indeed in isolation with their specific actions. Reflect upon other systems in the body for a moment in terms of their continuity and connectivity throughout the body. The vascular system is a good example, there isn’t a space between the ending of the axillary

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artery and the starting of the brachial one, they are continuous. Likewise the lymphatic system. The osseous system is intercon- nected throughout the body by a series of articulations. Bits of the body do not function in isolation. It is the same for muscles, they are interconnected by the fascial system, better known as the myofascial system.

On a gross level individual muscles are embedded in a fascial matrix that supports and links muscles together. Indeed, this fascial matrix envelopes and interconnects not just our muscles, but all the great bodily systems such as the nervous, cardiovascular, lymphatic and digestive systems.

INTRODUCTION TO THE GLOBAL FASCIAL MATRIX The connective tissue system not only forms a continuously inter- connected and interdependent network throughout the body, through the various bodily systems, but also at a cellular level as well. The structure and architecture of each cell is called the cytoskeleton, it too is constituted of connective tissue. The cytoskeletal network is considered to represent the nervous system of the cell with the ability to communicate and process electro- mechanical and electrochemical signals.

All movements of the body either tension some part or slacken another of the three dimensional matrix. So, on a gross scale one can see how important the internal fabric of connective tissue is to movement and structure. But on a more subtle scale connective tis- sue is a semi-conductor, which when distorted by movement, pres- sure, compression, or tension, sends bioelectrical signals through- out the body, at cellular level. So connective tissue is very respon- sive to the touch of your hands.

Accept what you sense as real J Upledger

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PALPATION OF THE