Dr. Andy Galpin

If you are pinned down constantly, that's a connective tissue fascial.

And so what you're doing with that is you're rubbing it both horizontally and vertically.

And when we typically think about like massage, it is a vertical compression, right?

I'm pushing down on the tissue.

I'm down on the tissue.

What you'll see often is actually horizontal movement and pulling away.

This is, if you've ever seen like cupping, people do that.

You're pulling skin away from fascia rather than smashing fascia back into it when it's kind of knotted down already.

So any relief you're getting there is not probably for the blood flow.

It's the fact that you're pinning that fascia and then you're moving the tissue around the fascia and getting that kink, if you will, to let go.

So completely different mechanism of action there.

That is acute and chronic, but mostly that is an acute issue.

If you're dealing with things like runners will get a lot of side leg pain, TFL pain, IT band, a lot of times same issue there, right?

So you're getting more glide and slide, that fascia can move appropriately, and that's where the pain signal is going.

People don't realize that there's a load of nerve endings in fascia.

There's a ton, right?

So if that stuff gets irritated and aggravated, that's going to be pain.

And that's probably not a muscle issue.

You might not necessarily be able to tell.

A lot of people can't tell their fascia versus their muscle.