Fascial Stretch Therapy (FST)
Fascial stretch therapy improves the mobility of your nerves & the flexibility of your muscles and fascia by focusing on the fascial lines that connect through and wrap around muscle, nerves, organs, and just about everything else in your body. Clients booking an FST session are recommended to wear stretchy or loose fitting clothing.
After a conversation about your needs and goals, and then an assortment of functional movement tests and other assessments, you lie on a comfortable table, which has soft stabilizing straps that may be used to secure your body. The straps are used because the FST practitioner will be moving your body in particular ways to both assess and restore movement that has been lost, is painful and/or weak or is simply of poor overall mobility. Extremely gentle movements may be used if you are in pain or they may be more vigorous if you are training for an athletic activity. In any case, the session is created around your needs so specific goals are addressed.
Movements unique to FST will strengthen, lengthen and comprehensively balance your entire body. The brain and body are re-educated when neurological receptors called mechanoreceptors are stimulated because the majority of them are located throughout fascial tissue, which is the primary target of FST. Other receptors called ‘interoreceptors’ are also located throughout fascia, even around all the organs and have direct connections to deep parts of the brain (e.g. insula) that, among other things, are related to your sense of self and wellbeing.
By Chris Frederick, PT, KMI, Co-Director of the Stretch to Win Institute (Stretch To Win Institute)