the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

I had some form of this "instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization" on my plantar fascia and achilles tendon yesterday.
http://www.physio-pedia.com/Instrument_ ... bilization

Pretty amazing. Any soreness went away. Seems to be helping today as well.

Curious what you make of it if you're a PT?

Some tools:


Some other tools for DIYers:

Straight rip off of gua sha techniques. I think the Vietnamese chiro I went to learned Graston Technique just so he could do gua sha with a Western name.

from a practical point of view ( I want to heal, then prevent injury and stay well), doesn't matter to me who stole what from whom.

how should I learn a little amateur gua sha, iastm, whatever, to keep my plantar fascia and achilles tendon and maybe my shoulder/biceps tendon happier?

I have done stuff with IASTM myself as a chiropractor, kinesio-taping as well. All fine in the fine in the short run but if you're not focused on fixing movement patterns, and doing mobility work, it's pretty much money down the drain IMHO.

My movement patterns need the most fixing in terms of the arch shape of the foot.

Currently using better insoles which has made a world of difference.

The tools were designed by the Grasten group. FWIW they are pretty well thought out, but quite expensive. They have also done a good job of expanding upon and rationalizing instrument assisted myofascial therapy. It is not a rip off of Gua Sha, in my opinion. Instrument assisted deep tissue therapy has been practiced since ancient Egypt and is still widely used in Turkey and Eastern Europe - I saw it decades ago from a Czech manual therapist. As for doing it on yourself - you really need a decent grasp of the anatomy.

Ok thanks. I don't need too much grasp of all anatomy, luckily. Mainly the plantar fascia and achilles tendon (these two seem fairly straightforward). Also would like to understand the shoulder (seems relatively complex).

A lot of manual therapy has made me feel like "wow so that's what it's like to have a normal feeling muscle, joint, whatever" and this was no different, but what surprised me was that my legs and feet felt ok for days after, including after playing sports that are usually irritating to these tissues for 3-7 days. Not all attributable to iastm, because the other variable that changed a lot was my arch support.

greytowhite wrote:Straight rip off of gua sha techniques. I think the Vietnamese chiro I went to learned Graston Technique just so he could do gua sha with a Western name.

Gua sha is also a very good film about cultural conflict made in St. Louis in 2001.

I guess the metal tools are an adaptive alternative for use with soft tissue manipulation!
One of my old gierfriends was a Rolfer and her technique (as I understand Rolfing) was that the hands in soft tissue not only "molded" the skin area/muscles/soft tissues but the sensory stimulation (beyond the usual skin touch) allowed for a conscious sensing of variation and level and types of "stagnation" "nodules" "stasis" etc during the sessions.
My only other experience was with stone massage of indigenous Mayan "healers" (Belize) where various stone were used as part of treatment!

Perhaps I am old school but if there is benefit, by all means that is more important as individuals react differently to various tools in the box.