Learn a free Kinetix Partner technique (the oh-so-good quads/quad hip flexor release), get access to my top 5 PDF guides for self fascia release AND a free PDF download of my Beginner’s Guide to Fascia Release when you join my email community: www.mobilitymastery.com/free-resources Join my Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/149019862373956/ Fast Fascia Facts #5 1. Fasciacytes respond to a loaded (weighted) compression combined with a "shearing" effect to restore fascial gliding. HOW HEAVY DOES THAT LOAD NEED TO BE? (answer is below) 2. Fascial fibers need to be "sheared" to restore glide, and fasciacytes won't respond to compression and stretching, or manual manipulation that isn't weighted compression plus shearing. WHAT THE HECK IS SHEARING? 3. Your fascia is responsive to your nervous system, which governs SAFETY. The amount of weight you use will be determined by YOUR nervous system (not anyone else’s). My answer is theoretical and anecdotal based on clinical experience in my practice as well as what I know does NOT work from personal and professional experience. On the lighter side I believe fascia (and fasciacytes) need at least 5lbs of compressive force, but I can tell you with certainty that they respond favorably to very heavy loads, as much as 200lbs! HOWEVER - and this is critical - if you don't feel safe, then the weight is too much. Also, the unhealthier your fascia the more dangerous it is to load it with that much weight because it's probably brittle and more prone to injury. Ideally you would build up to more and more weight until your fascia is fully optimized (which means it won't hurt AT ALL even with 200lbs on your IT Band for example! Promise). So the PERFECT amount of weight is as much as you can get or withstand while still feeling safe. For the record, you can feel really uncomfortable while feeling a lot of unpleasant sensation and still feel safe. You need to find your unique equation for this, and it may vary body part by body part. This is bound to be somewhat controversial. I did massage therapy for a year and never got someone out of pain for good. They'd feel better for a day or so, then the pain would come back. As soon as I started loading the fascial adhesions with weighted compression and having my clients move their body to "shear" the fascial adhesions in order to break them up for good, my clients started getting out of pain in as little as one session and sometimes in a manner of minutes. In order to "shear" fascial fibers effectively, you need to pin a dense area between two objects. One will be your bone (like your femur if you're working on quad fascia). The other object could be a foam roller, lacrosse ball, someone's elbow or a foot (like I use with Kinetix, my in person method of ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIAyKnkYhFQ

Get the technique here: www.mobilitymastery.com/subscribe Low back pain can be debilitating, making it hard to work, hold your kids or work out. I’ve had clients walk in my door bent in half, unable to stand up straight because their back pain was so bad. Many of these clients already “tried everything” by the time they came to me - like chiropractic, massage therapy, acupuncture, physical therapy and more. When it comes to low back pain, this is the most important thing to know (my opinion): LEAVE YOUR BACK ALONE. Don't touch it. Find the ROOT cause. The location of pain is rarely the CAUSE of the pain, in my experience. I’ve helped hundreds of people with low back pain eliminate it completely by finding the root cause and most of the time - that root cause is restricted fascia in the LEGS causing a pelvic imbalance and chain reaction of muscle compensation until the body can’t compensate anymore - which is when you get a pain signal! In a full session with me we’d “map” the fascia of the quadriceps, quad hip flexors, adductors, IT Band, TFL and hamstrings. Sometimes the calves play a role. We'd learn what your imbalances are left to right and front to back. We would bring you back into balance by releasing the dense, restricted areas of fascia. I believe low back pain happens when the pelvis becomes unstable, shifts to one side or tilts forward or backwards…which causes the brain to recruit muscles neurologically to “clamp down” to create stability. Those muscles could be gluteus medius, the QL, the iliopsoas, erectors, multifidi etc. One of the main priorities of the human brain is to keep our spine intact, because if it’s not - we’re as good as dead! The brain needs to communicate with the body (and vice versa) via the central nervous system and spinal cord, and it would rather us be in pain than dead. The solution? FREE the muscles that got recruited by the brain (all those hip and back muscles) so they can get back to their “normal” jobs of contracting on demand for simple tasks - like STANDING UP straight (which uses the posterior chain). How? Release the restricted fascia in muscles that pulled the pelvis out of alignment to begin with. If I had to pick only ONE area of the body to check for a major imbalance that could be causing low back pain - it would be the quads and quad hip flexors. Without question, this is where the majority of pelvic imbalances come from that I see in my private practice. I always do this Kinetix quad and quad hip flexor technique first, with every low back pain client (whether the low back pain is SI joint, QL or glute pain like previously diagnosed piriformis syndrome). The TRICK is finding the more restricted or adhesed side - because if we work both sides ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JrBlCfsWJY