By Hana Medina
DESPITE MY ATTEMPTS at an active lifestyle, sports injuries and I are, sadly, old pals.
It started with a sprained ankle playing soccer; next, a two-week sentence to a doughnut
seat due to a lack of snowboarding skills; then
a hip labral tear from long-distance running;
a shoulder injury from boot camp class; and,
most recently, a hiking injury to my left knee.
It’s a wonder that I leave my house without a
protective helmet. But luckily for me, and the
rest of my aching brethren, in recent years
there’s been a renewed approach to injury
prevention and treatment emphasizing soft
and connective tissues, or fascia.
“Soft tissues are [the] muscles, ligaments,
nerves, tendons of the body. It is also the
organs and the connective tissue and
body fat,” says Dr. Chris Stepien,
owner of Barefoot Rehabilitation
Clinic ( barefootrehab.com) and
Heroes Journey CrossFit gym in
Parsippany, New Jersey.
Western medicine has traditionally focused on rebuilding
muscle strength to rehabilitate
injuries and regain mobility. And
while that is still a critical component of rehabilitation, soft
tissues, and their role, were
historically misunderstood,
despite their centrality to many
treatments in Eastern medicine. “There’s so much research
FOR MORE INFORMATION on the interviewed
providers’ specialties, or to find similar practitioners in your area, visit the following websites:
■ Active Release Techniques
( activerelease.com).
■ Fascial Stretch Therapy
( stretchtowin.com).
■ Active Isolated Stretching
( stretchingusa.com).
■ Anatomy Trains
( anatomytrains.com).
■ International Association of
Structural Integrators ( theiasi.net).
A good fitness instructor should be able
to safely accommodate mobility limitations.
Siobhan Coleman, a fascial stretch therapist,
notes that there are many programs that
certify novice instructors, sometimes after
only a weekend course, so it’s worthwhile to
inquire about an instructor’s background. In
addition to a formal degree in kinesiology or
a similar medical field, there are many different certifications that can help verify an
instructor’s knowledge. Here are a few:
■ American College of Sports Medicine
(ACSM; acsm.org) credentials.
■ Certified Strength and Conditioning
Specialist (CSCS) or other certifications issued
by the National Strength and Conditioning
Association (NSCA; nsca.com). Dr. Chris
Stepien says this is also a good certification
to look for in a CrossFit instructor.
■ Yoga Alliance ( yogaalliance.org)
certifies Registered Yoga Teachers (RYT);
variations include E-RYT (Experienced
Registered Yoga Teacher), RCYT (Registered
Children’s Yoga Teacher) and RPYT (Registered
Prenatal Yoga Teacher). Classes result in
200- or 500-hour certification.
■ The Pilates Method Alliance (PMA;
pilatesmethodalliance.org) certifies Pilates
instructors. However, Coleman says if an
instructor isn’t formally certified, look for
education between 800 and 1,000 hours,
including internship.—HM
resources
More
New approaches
to rehabilitation
and injury prevention
Keep on
e
injuries and regain mobility. And
d
to look for in a CrossFit instructor.
Registered Yoga Teacher), RCYT (Registered
education between 800 and 1,000 hours,
being done on fascia right now,” says Costco
member Jennifer Soames, a licensed massage
therapist and a board-certified structural
integrator who owns In Stride Bodywork
( instridebodywork.com) in Renton, Washington. “Even less than a hundred years ago, it
was the stuff that got thrown out [during dis-sections], quite literally.
“[Connective tissue] surrounds all of our
muscles, but it also surrounds every single
individual muscle fiber,” she continues. “So it
penetrates everything, and it’s also continuous with ligaments, tendons [and] with bone.”
Soft tissues and movement
The No. 1 enemy to our soft tissues is any
type of repetitive movement or position—for example, sitting at a desk,
enduring long car commutes, standing for long periods and even doing
the same workout without variability.
“That’s where scar tissue
comes in,” says Stepien. “It’s sim-
ply an overuse problem where
the muscles aren’t strong enough
to handle repetitive stresses. To
protect itself, the body lays down
glue in the soft tissue, and that’s
what scar tissue is. That eventually
will lead to more significant pain con-
ditions by having that glue in between
the soft tissue, the muscle, ligaments,
nerves and tendons.”
The bad news is, you don’t need to
experience a significant injury for your
body to create scar tissue. “One of the
biggest fallacies out there is that you
need a trauma to have scar tissue.
And while that’s more commonly
known, the more common way
that it’s produced is through
simple overuse,” says Stepien,
CONTINUED ON PAGE 68
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