Stretch therapy helps loosen up tough tissue

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Massage therapist Ryan Young treats a patient at Medicine in Motion in Dartmouth on Friday. (INGRID BULMER / Staff)

The old song tells us that the knee bone is connected to the thigh bone and the thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.
A new type of physical therapy takes the concept of body connectivity to a whole other level.
Fascial stretch therapy is based on the idea that natural and healthy movement is directly related to the fascia, the network of fibrous tissue that covers our muscles and joints.
While traditional massage focuses on particular areas, fascial stretching is more of a holistic approach, said Ryan Young, a Dartmouth massage therapist who has taken up the banner of this new approach.
The first step is getting people to literally loosen up, Young said in a recent interview at the Medicine in Motion physiotherapy clinic.
“It’s called tuning the nervous system,â€￾ he said. “Most of us are walking around not taking full breaths.
“We may not feel stressed, but posturally it’s there. I’m trying to get people to relax.â€￾
During a session, the patient lies face-up in comfortable clothes such as a T-shirt and shorts. Young begins with breathing exercises to relax the diaphragm. The next target is the pelvis, which Young calls the archway of the body’s architecture.
“If the pelvis is out of whack, as it is with most of us, we start having compensatory things happening above and below,â€￾ he said.
With some patients, a soft restraining belt is used to stabilize the body so it’s not “fighting backâ€￾ against the unusual movements, Young said.
He gently moves one leg in a circular motion, waiting for the pelvis to loosen up. Once past that step, he moves on to palpating the fascial area that he figures will most benefit the patient.
Young, one of only four massage therapists in Nova Scotia who do fascial stretching, was introduced to the therapy after reading the book Stretch to Win, by Ann and Chris Frederick. He was so intrigued that he travelled to their centre in Arizona for training.
At this point, he uses fascial stretching to augment his practice, but he plans to take more training in the technique so he’s able to tackle more complex cases.
Young emphasized that his advocacy of the new method isn’t a criticism of traditional massage therapy. Nevertheless, he said, it’s been a “game-changerâ€￾ for his work.
“I was making gains with people that I had never seen before,â€￾ he said.
One of those clients, Allison Hayman of Dartmouth, began fascial stretching a few months ago. She sustained injuries to her neck and shoulders, as well as a concussion, in an accident in June.
The therapy — “an incredible experience,â€￾ Hayman, 30, said in a recent interview — has helped relieve the tension and stiffness in her body that resulted from her injuries.
“It feels like my body is working together, not just one area of my neck and shoulders,â€￾ she said. “It’s still sore, but it feels like my body’s warming up, therefore it’s open to being able to do things with not as much difficulty.â€￾