Scars

I love scars...I find them beautiful and intriguing and each one holds a unique story to be told, the majority of us don't escape life unscathed by scars in some shape or form whether that be from a simple childhood scar or a scar resulting from surgery. Over the past few weeks I have been working more and more with these interesting structures as they can and often play havoc, restricting movement and function anywhere in the body from an organ to a joint, due to the scar tissue causing a pull in the fascial matrix. Fascia is our connective tissue which wraps around all of our muscles and bones and even our nerves, organs and arteries. As the name implies it connects and wraps around our whole body much like an intricate spider web. If there is a kink or a pull or restriction in one area of the body it has a ripple effect throughout the rest of your body, so when you hear someone say we are all connected they're not wrong. The analogy of a sweater is used quite often to describe this fascial network if you imagine a sweater and it has an area of pull this would be the equivalent of a restriction and would not only affect the sweater in that area but would affect the sweater as a whole.

Most people (and I was once one of those people) brush off their scars like its no big deal, "it's only small", "it was only keyhole surgery", "its from years ago" yet more and more I'm seeing that once the scar tissue is worked on chronic pain conditions are becoming a distant memory despite trying everything else. 

Scar tissue forms following some source of trauma and is caused by the body's natural inflammatory response, a scar can have huge implications throughout the body, causing movement compensations that you would never have suspected could come from such a seemingly small scar. Most scars look quite neat and uniform on the surface but underneath you have tissue that is laid down in irregular patterns which helps to add strength to the weak/vulnerable area but can also add fibrotic adhesions. As a result scar tissue is usually less flexible than the tissue surrounding it and is never as functional as the tissue it replaces. So what are the benefits of scar tissue release-

~ Improves flexibility,
~Can lessen the appearance of the scars,
~Improves circulation and oxygen and thereby delivers nutrients to the area,
~Helps to relieve stress on the body from fascial restrictions,
~Helps to prevent adhesions forming post surgery,
~Reduces the risk of muscle tears and strains.

Scar tissue release can be offered as part of your massage treatment or for best results you can schedule in shorter, more regular treatments.

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