Can Fascial Stretch Therapy Make You Faster?

Last week I used a Groupon for a one-hour stretch therapy session at a local women’s fitness center. I will admit that I was a little skeptical at first – I mean, I can stretch on my own, so why would I need someone else to help me stretch? I had the choice of using the Groupon for a massage or for stretch therapy and I went in actually looking for a massage. But then the woman who owned the place told me more about fascial stretch therapy and I decided to give it a try.

I knew I was a little tight – I’m in the peak of my marathon training, so being tight is normal for me. But apparently the therapist thought I was equivalent to working on a piece of wood. And I will say that one hour on the table being stretched by someone else was awesome. It was almost as relaxing and felt just as good as a massage. And when I got up, I felt looser, taller, and more relaxed.

So what exactly is fascial stretch therapy? As I’m told…Fascia is the material surrounding all muscles in your body. Like other tissues, fascia can become tight and less mobile. The result is decreased range of motion (ROM), discomfort with stretching, and decreased ability to recover from activity. The stretch therapy helps release the tension in the fascia, resulting in an increased range of motion, decreased pain, and improved athletic performance. By extending the stretch to the joint capsule, you increase the benefits of traditional stretching, and the assisted nature of the treatment allows for greater gains than traditional stretching.

Fascial Stretch Therapy has some unique characteristics that distinguish it from other types of assisted stretching. It is guided by ten principles:

1. Synchronize your breathing with your movement.
2. Tune your nervous system to current conditions.
3. Follow a logical anatomical order.
4. Make gains in your range of motion without pain.
5. Stretch the fascia not just the muscle.
6. Use multiple planes of movement.
7. Target the entire joint.
8. Use traction for maximal lengthening.
9. Facilitate body reflexes for optimal results.
10. Adjust your stretching to your present goals.

According to my stretch therapist, she was able to help one woman decrease her running time by 45 seconds per mile through regular stretch therapy sessions. For someone who is trying to qualify for Boston and not feeling very confident about it, she certainly had my attention. And I definitely noticed a difference after that first session, so she didn’t have to work too hard to convince me to buy a package for more appointments. Since I am so stiff, I am going to go twice per week for the next two weeks and then once per week thereafter until my marathon in December. Then I can give you a more true report as to whether fascial stretch therapy really can make you faster. In the meantime, I will at least feel less stiff and more relaxed.

If you’re interested in trying fascial stretch therapy, the Stretch to Win website can help you locate a certified therapist.

 

 

Nagging Foot Pain

It seems that every time I train for a marathon and my mileage gets up to 35-40 miles per week, there is a spot on the inside of my left foot that starts to nag me. And it turns out that this round of training is no different. I’ve tried to ignore the pain, but I know that ignoring it won’t really make it go away (as much as I would actually like that to happen).

Back when I lived in Seattle, I had a great chiropractor/sports medicine doc who was good at what he did. So I figured I would take advantage while we are in town and go get my foot looked at.

It turns out that the problem, like most running injuries, results from an imbalance and several weak spots through my hips, glutes, and psoas muscles.  This causes a chain reaction all the way down to my foot, causing some inflammation. The good news is that it is nothing major and that I don’t need to stop running. All I need to do is stretch more, foam-roll more, and strengthen those weak muscles. He also taped my foot and ankle, which for a few hours afterwards felt so tight I thought my foot was going to go numb. But I really do think it has helped as my foot has felt great for the past couple of days during my runs.

All of this is to say – again – how important it is to pay attention to your hips, glutes, and the rest of your core. All of the traveling I have been doing lately has made it too easy to slip out of my routine and forget to incorporate strength training exercises into my training. Even though I have been swimming and doing yoga, it hasn’t been enough – there are still imbalances and weaknesses. A pain in the foot, after all, is not likely the result of something happening in your foot. It could come from your hips, back, glutes, etc. So while icing and ibuprofen may good in the short-term, a good overall strengthening program for your entire body is best for the long-term.

Dry Needling

A good friend of mine is a physical therapist specializing in women’s health and is always seeking the best treatments and options for her patients. A few months ago she went to a weekend-long course on dry needling and came back offering to do the treatment on my calf (during the period after I took 8 weeks off and then was running intermittently). That way, she would get to practice what she learned while I benefited from free physical therapy.

Let me take a step back and explain what dry needling is for those who have never heard of it (I never had until my friend told me about it). Dry needling is the use of a solid needle for therapy of muscle pain, sometimes also known as intramuscular stimulation. It is an invasive procedure in which a very thin needle is inserted into the skin and muscle directly at a myofascial trigger point. So in my case, the needle was inserted directly into my gastrocnemius muscle right where I was experiencing pain. The needle is then gently moved up and down into the muscle in order to elicit a local twitch response. As I was explained, this helps the muscle release built-up lactic acid, which helps speed recovery and decrease muscles soreness, as well as endogenous opioids, which help with pain relief. Dry needling is practiced by physical therapists and is allowed in most states, however some states (Hawaii, Tennessee, New York, and Florida) prohibit physical therapists from penetrating the skin or specifically practicing dry needling.

When my friend was doing the dry needling to my calf muscle, the sensation was very strange. When she hit the trigger point (exactly where I was experiencing pain), my whole calf started twitching until she released the needle. She performed the technique at several spots throughout my gastrocnemuis muscle as well as the muscle on my shin and a few spots on my lower back, all of which are trigger spots connected to the gastroc muscle. My leg felt normal for about 10-15 minutes after she was done, however after that, I felt an intense pain and tightness in my entire calf, making it difficult and painful to even walk. Luckily she was doing this at night, so I could go home and crawl into bed, giving my calf a break. When I woke up in the morning, my leg felt great and some of the pain was gone. I won’t say it is a miracle therapy – it didn’t heal the injury with one treatment. However, she did it several times (about once per week for three weeks) and I will say that it felt better with each treatment. She recommended not doing any strenuous activity for 24 hours after having the dry needling done, so I waited for 48 hours and then tried running, and when I did, my calf felt great.

When the pain would eventually come back, I realized that dry needling is great for acute injuries or soreness, but in order for it to help HEAL an injury, the underlying root or cause of that injury also needed to be addressed. In my case, since I was still running, the injury was not given a proper chance to heal. The dry needling helped in the short-term, but if it was going to play a role in the long-term healing of the injury itself, I would need to stop running. If you read my previous post, you know that this where I am currently at. I am not running and will not resume running until the calf strain is completely healed. During my time off, my friend is going to continue practicing dry needling on me, and this time, it should actually help heal the strain.

So if you have a nagging muscular injury or sore area that just won’t go away and you live in a state that has no regulations against it, you might want to look into dry needling. My friend also performed the technique on my husband when he had terrible back soreness from sleeping on a hard bed and within two days he said that the pain was 99% gone. He was the most skeptical of all and now he is a believer.