Soft tissue mobilization is a form of manual physical therapy where your certified provider uses hands-on techniques on your muscles, ligaments and fascia in order to break adhesions and optimize your muscle function.
Adhesions are your body’s attempt to heal a soft tissue injury with a lengthy inflammation process, resulting in long strands of collagenous scar tissue. These new tissues pull against one another, forming trigger points of pain.
Soft Tissue Mobilization Techniques
This is done either by hand or with specifically crafted tools that scrape, push, pull and knead your muscles, ligaments, tendons and nerves in precise ways to help bring you pain relief and return you to functionality.
Specific techniques for tissue mobilization include:
Sustained pressure – pushing directly on the restricted tissue and holding
Unlocking spiral – pushing on the restricted tissue in alternating clockwise and counterclockwise rotating motions
Direct oscillations – rhythmic pushing on the restricted tissue
Perpendicular mobilization – pushing on the myofascial tissue at right angles
Parallel mobilization – pushing along the seams of muscles
Perpendicular strumming – rhythmic pushing along muscle border, followed by rubber of top of muscle
Friction massage – pushing across the grain of the muscles, tendons and ligaments
Being able to implement soft tissue mobilization techniques requires a significant amount of training in human anatomy and physiology and understand how manipulating the tissues will impact physical function. We specialize in evaluation, assessment and treatment of movement. Soft tissue mobilization is just one of the strategies that we use to help our patients meet their functional goals.