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Micro Tissue Conditioning (MTC) was developed after thousands of sessions with clients in pain. It has often proven to be the "missing piece" needed for more complete recovery after injury or surgery.
After trauma, soft tissue (muscle, tendon, ligament, fascia, subcutaneous, skin, lymphatic, etc) has an abnormal feel to the touch, when it does not recover properly. It has a stiff or leathery consistency, compared to the pliability of normal tissue. The stiffness is caused by adhesion between the layers of tissue or between fibers of the tissue (fibrosis) or between the tissue cells themselves. This stiffness prevents the tissue from functioning properly and eventually causes chronic pain by shortening the tissue. In addition, the adhered tissue has no "give", making it prone to repeated injury .
When the fluid part of a deep bruise or significant inflammation is reabsorbed by the body, what is left between fibers and tissues can sometimes act like super glue. This type of adhesion is responsible for much of the pain we have. The inflexibility of tissue "frozen" in a contracted state also causes joints to be too compressed, which over time wears down the surface of the joints (osteoarthritis)...and becomes the "silent cause" of so many joint replacements.
A way to picture fiber-to-fiber adhesion is to imagine cooked spaghetti left out to dry. It becomes more difficult to work with once it's stuck together even if the pieces are all facing the same direction. It becomes impossible to get the pieces back into the package, neatly sliding along each other.
Our muscle fibers are basically the same. If we want to use a muscle, the fibers need to be able to glide separately but contract together. They can't do this efficiently when stuck to each other.
Fascia is the strong "skin" around each fiber, groups of fibers and the whole muscle itself (think of the "white stuff" woven around & between chicken meat.) It has pain receptors. When the fascia is pulled too hard, we feel pain. So, if an area of muscle fascia is adhered to something next it, pain can result when it tries to either contract or stretch out. Fascial pain often has a burning quality to it.
To further complicate things, when a large area of tissue is adhered for a long time, it tends to go numb. We are not referring to numbness caused by damaged nerves. This lack of normal sensation has more to do with the need for tissues to have movement in order for them to register with our brain. When tissue can't move normally, we lose track of these areas, without even knowing it...the normal feeling just fades away.
Some areas are thick, with several layers of tissue, particularly the buttock/hip/sacrum area, low/mid/upper back, and thighs. In these areas, it is common for only some of the layers to develop numbness (usually superficial and mid depth since this is where more impact injury happens.)Then often only very deep pressure feels good when being massaged. The deep area does need help...but only working on the deep layers, going through everything else, results in only temporary relief. The work has not been complete, since it wasn't focused on the the layers which were the most affected by the original injury.
The good news is that we are normally able to get this feeling back using Micro Tissue Conditioning (tm) at past surgical sites or injury areas, since the numbness is most often not caused by actual nerve damage.
Micro Tissue Conditioning (tm) techniques were developed to gently return the pliability to the tissues, without force or re-injury in the process. The specific, layer-by-layer, fiber-by-fiber, separation techniques are more permanent than simply stretching the fibers as done with many massage, bodywork and stretching techniques. The cross-linking is actually mechanically released between the affected tissues.
For a more permanent solution to your pain...call 805-500-6975 or 651-633-9106