MFRmail Newsletter

June 2015
MR Banner
    
 
Walt Fritz, PT
 
Walt has been a Myofascial Release practitioner since 1992 and has been teaching since 1995. His Foundations in Myofascial Release Seminars are presented in small group settings with highly individualized one-on-one attention. Join him for a "New Perspective" on Myofascial Release.
 
 
Quick Links

1 of 3: Walt Fritz Demonstrates A Myofascial Release Evaluation
1 of 3: Myofascial Release Evaluation
2 of 3: Walt Fritz Demonstrates A Myofascial Release Evaluation
2 of 3: 
Myofascial Release Evaluation
3 of 3: Walt Fritz Demonstrates Myofascial Release Evaluations and Treatments
3 of 3: 
Myofascial Release Evaluations and Treatments

Pelvic Landmark Palpation
Pelvic Landmark Palpation

Walt Fritz Demonstrates Myofascial Release: Cervical Thoracic Lift
Walt Fritz Demonstrates Myofascial Release: Cervical Thoracic Lift
Therapeutic Taping For Pain Made Easy (Kinesiology Taping)
Therapeutic Taping For Pain Made Easy (Kinesiology Taping)

Walt Fritz Demonstrates Seated Shoulder, Chest and Arm Myofascial Release
Seated Shoulder, Chest and Arm Myofascial Release
Walt Fritz Demonstrates A Sample Session of Myofascial Release, What to Expect.
Sample Session of Myofascial Release, What to Expect.


WaltFritz: Pelvic Floor/Anterior Lumbar Myofascial Release and Fascial Restriction
Pelvic Floor/Anterior Lumbar Stretch: Connecting with the Feel

 

Leveling the Landscape of the Thorax
Leveling the Landscape of the Thorax
Myomobilization with Myofascial Release for the Thigh
Myomobilization with Myofascial Release for the Thigh
Compressive Myofascial Release for the Foot
Compressive Myofascial Release for the Foot
Lumbar Lift
Lumbar Lift
Get Social!
 
 


 
Visit the Myofascial
Resource Store

The Foundations Approach to Myofascial Release Online Trainings on Medbridge Massage
Hi Everyone!

I have received a lot of feedback regarding the latest blog post, "Mechanosensitivity: The doctor poked, and prodded, and scratched his chin. He could find nothing wrong". It encapsulates much of my views of what it is that we are impacting and feeling during myofascial release evaluation and treatment. Call it Frozen Chicken II!   You can read the entire post below.


The Medbridge Massage Online Trainings have been released, with the first two trainings on the Foundations Approach to Myofascial Release now live and the rest to be released over the summer months.

MedBridge is a nationally accredited online education provider that empowers rehabilitation specialists to reach new heights in their education and client outcomes. Thousands of therapists turn to MedBridge as their all-in one education solution.

 

Now through MedBridge Massage access courses on a variety of topics including Business and Practice Management, Population or Condition Specific Treatments, and Specific Massage Techniques. See my courses, as well as courses by other top instructors including Carolyn Tague, Douglas Nelson, Eric Spivack, Felicia Brown, Kelli Wise, Mel Cash, Ruth Werner, Suzi Ko, and Taya Countryman.

 

With a MedBridge Massage subscription, you have unlimited access to all courses for one year. Courses include live patient demos shot from multiple camera angles to show movement and pressure, captivating graphics of anatomy, downloadable materials, and the ability to pause, rewind, and re-watch courses at any time. Medbridge Massage has made a special offer to my readers. By either clicking the following link or using the word FRITZmassage in the promo code box at checkout, you can save $50, with a discounted subscription rate of $99 (instead of the normal $149). Your subscription gets you access to all of the Foundations Approach trainings, both the current releases as well as the soon to be released trainings, as well all of the trainings by the other great instructors. Click this link to receive the offer and view all of the available trainings.   



______________________________________________
Why call it Foundations II if it is open to any/all therapists? Don't I need to take Foundations I first?

Most seminar lines have an entire catalog of seminar options with intro-level classes required before one can advance to higher level classes. Most assume a hierarchical type of learning, where one class supposedly build on the next. It has become the norm; one which therapists expect to see when they view a seminar line's course catalog.

But I see things differently. You are a trained and skilled manual therapist, schooled in hands-on work. While each modality/school of therapy certainly has differences in mindset and technique, none are drastically different from the next. I respect your schooling, training, and experience and see my MFR approach as one in which I teach you some basic evaluation and treatment skill sets and send you on your way to gain mastery. Some folks need only one introduction to this work before they move on and excel, while others come back for refreshment.

Foundations I and Foundations II are both seminars which will teach you the basics of the Foundations Approach. Both have a small amount of repeated techniques, which are vital trainings and well suited to going over again. The rest of the content is unique to each class. Enter the Foundations Approach in either class and you will fit right in. The new Myofascial Release for Head and Neck Disorders contains material from both Foundations I and II, as well as some unique material/techniques. All three classes require no prerequisites, so start in at any point and move your career along the right path.

Please remember; Foundations II requires NO prerequisites and is a perfect entry point into the Foundations Approach. Both Foundations I and II bring the therapist into the simple but effective methods of practice and thought inherent in the Foundations Approach to Myofascial Release. If Foundations I is a Head-to-Toe approach, Foundations II is a Toe-to-Head approach!

 

For now,
Walt Fritz, PT


The Building Blocks of Myofascial Release: Mechanosensitivity
"The doctor poked, and prodded, and scratched his chin. He could find nothing wrong"

"The doctor poked, and prodded, and scratched his chin. He could find nothing wrong." from Imogene's Antlers, by David Small.

Imogene's Antlers was one of my favorite books to read to my daughters when they were young. In it, the doctor was called in to examine Imogene, as she had spontaneously sprouted antlers. However, no matter where he poked or prodded Imogene, he could not find anything wrong with her. He couldn't think of one name to call what she had. I wish more therapists and health/fitness professionals were like this doctor, but alas old habits continue. I will include myself into this group, as in the not-so-distant-past I was a name caller. The names I called the "stuff" I poked and prodded were fascial restriction, scar tissue, and adhesions. I am sure you have your own names you use to describe the stuff that you feel through the skin. Trigger points, subluxations, knots, spasms, metabolites, etc., are all names we give to that stuff, mostly based on what we were taught. When we use the techniques taught to rid the body of that stuff, the person improved, which gave us validation that the named stuff we palpated must have been exactly what we thought it was, as our interventions worked perfectly.

But how can we be sure of what we are feeling? Most forms of manual therapy, massage, and, yes, myofascial release have come up with names to call the stuff under the skin, the stuff that is said to be causing all of the pain/problems.  We poke an area and our patient responds positively that you just recreated their pain or symptom. If we stopped there and simply treated them, I think our outcomes would be much improved. But instead, we "educate" our patients on just what it is we felt. We school them in fascial restriction/trigger point/scar tissue concepts and terminology, essentially convincing them that this is what they have. We think we are doing them a service, but maybe our effects are the opposite; maybe we are doing them a disservice. We are instilling into our patient's brain the thought that there is something wrong with them; even though we have zero proof of that we just told them. Can telling our patients that they have fascial restrictions be harmful? Possibly, but it is certainly not factual. It would be factual if external sources would conclude the same thing, but that seldom occurs. How many times has a patient come from their doctor's office after being told that their body is riddled with fascial restrictions that need MFR to help them? Probably very few and I was taught that the reason for this is that doctors are not educated to recognize fascial restrictions. Apparently their many years of medical school were filled with more important things. (Some doctors may have told the patient that trigger points were the cause of their problems, but recent advances in understanding have put some of those myths to bed [here, here, here, and here].)


What is the harm of telling a patient they have fascial restrictions as the cause of their pain (other than have no proof)? The nocebo effect is one very good reason. The nocebo effect may include the thoughts or beliefs we transfer to our patients regarding what is "wrong" with them. By telling them that fascial restrictions (or trigger points, or visceral restrictions, or craniosacral imbalances, or, well you get the point), you are essentially trying to convince your patient there is something wrong with them, when there may be nothing wrong. Pain does not mean damage, or something wrong. We perpetuate, or even increase, the patient's catastrophizing by getting them to think there is something wrong with their tissues/muscles/fascia/joints/viscera. I recently read a lovely article on catastrophizing that is worth mentioning again.


So, if we shouldn't call the stuff under the skin fascial restriction, etc., what should we call it? I've become fond of a term that John Quintner, MD, made me aware of recently on a LinkedIn post about trigger points, Mechanosensitivity. Mechanosensitivity can simply refer that an area of the body is sensitive to mechanical input and is a generic enough word to describe what I am feeling when I palpate tightness in my patient, a tightness that seems to somehow recreate a familiar aspect of their pain or symptoms. When my patients ask me what I felt (they always want to know, don't they?), I tell them that the area is sensitive to mechanic pressure/stretch/input, probably affecting local nerves. Most patients (and therapists) will ask for more detail, which I will try to avoid responding to in exact terms, as soon as I do, I will be jumping into speculation. I will, at times, let them know what theories exist, but I will also introduce the concept of the nocebo effect and that I do not wish to in any way negatively influence their potential for probable improvement by introducing concepts that may create the opposite effect.


Could you do is? Could you avoid answering a patient's questions by not using the terminology inherent in your training, telling them instead that they are exhibiting mechanosensitivity? If you knew that you would be doing them a service, not introducing potential negative thoughts and outcomes, would it be easier to do it? A few years ago I responded to this dilemma by using the term "frozen chicken" as a response to what we are feeling when we palpate that tight stuff. When a patient (or therapist) asks me exactly what the frozen chicken is, I artfully (or so I think) avoid the question but make them feel safe enough that I do indeed know anatomy; in fact I passed gross anatomy! Simplicity of thought and language does not equate to ignorance. As most of what we have been taught about that "stuff" under the skin has really not been vetted by science outside of the specific modality; there is little real credibility in much of what we say.

To paraphrase Diane Jacobs, PT, "Of all of the things (stuff) we claim to feel and detect in the body, including fascial restrictions, trigger points, craniosacral disturbances, visceral abnormalities, etc., what is the one and only one thing we can be certain we are contacting/impacting? The skin; all else is a guess."

Mechanosensitivity. Try it. It rolls off of the tongue much better than "undiagnosed fascial restrictions"!

For now,

Walt Fritz, PT

Comments may be left at the blog.

2015 Foundations in Myofascial Release Seminars
 
Please note: Class size is limited, so consider registering early.

  

Myofascial Release for Voice, Speech and Swallowing Therapists™ (Open to all therapists)
San Diego, CA
June 7-8, 2015  

NOTE: SOLD OUT

  

Foundations in Myofascial Release II No Prerequisites
Batavia, NY
June 26-28, 2015

 

Foundations in Myofascial Release I
Private Seminar: Kingston, Jamaica for the Jamaican Physiotherapy Association 
July 17-19, 2015
 

Foundations in Myofascial Release II No Prerequisites
Charlotte (Cornelius), North Carolina
August 7-9, 2015

  

Foundations in Myofascial Release II No Prerequisites
Dallas (Flower Mound), TX
August 23-25, 2015

  

Myofascial Release for Voice, Speech and Swallowing Therapists™ (Open to PTs, SLPs, OTs)
Chicago, Illinois area
September 19-20, 2015

  

Foundations in Myofascial Release Seminars: two Half-Day presentations on the treatment of the neck and back, no prerequisites  

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, as part of the Natural Health Practitioners of Canada 2015 Conference
September 26, 2015  

 

Foundations in Myofascial Release II No Prerequisites
Newington, Connecticut
October 2-4, 2015

  

Foundations in Myofascial Release II No Prerequisites
No Prerequisites
York, Pennsylvania
November 6-8, 2015

  

Foundations in Myofascial Release II No Prerequisites
Nashville, Tennessee
November 15-17, 2015

  

All classes are listed at the website, www.FoundationsinMFR.com. 

As I have mentioned to many of you, as well as anyone who has taken a class, please use me as a sounding board for your questions and comments, whether via email, our Facebook Group, or our LinkedIn Group. I will personally respond to each and every question. Also, as many people have contacted me to ask about the tools/products that I mention during the class, I have linked all of them at the bottom of this Newsletter.

We now have approval from the Board of Certification (BOC) to provide CEU's to Athletic Trainers, CEUs that are already approved through NCBTMB, New York State PTs/PTAs, MTs, Florida PTs/PTAs (CE Brokers) and Pennsylvania PTs/PTAs. Foundations II is also approved for many PTs. The Myofascial Release for Voice, Speech and Swallowing Therapists™ Seminars will carry approval for Speech/Language Pathologists and California PTs. If you plan on attending an upcoming class, please email for details regarding CEUs for your profession.

 

Check out all of the upcoming seminars at the website.


Lastly, please be sure to check out our free instructional videos. All are linked on the left hand side of this newsletter. They are a good way to review things or to pick up some new ideas.

 

Cheers,

Walt Fritz, PT

Thumb/Hand Stretch




 

A few Sunday afternoon thoughts on how we may be treating ourselves each time we treat another...nothing too strenuous, it's Sunday. How many times have your patients/clients commented on the warmth of your hands? If you are like me, it happens daily. I've not spent time searching for clues as to why, and I am [...]...�


 

I do the same thing over and over, improving bit by bit. There is always a yearning to achieve more. I'll continue to climb, trying to reach the top, but no one knows where the top is. from Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Last evening, my wife and I sat down for a rather rare evening [...]...�


How can you change client expectations in order to be most effective?
 As a physical therapist, I face certain expectations when a client first comes to see me for treatment. When they walk in my treatment room, a few may look around, wondering where the exercise equipment is hidden, as my room is a 9' X 13" room with a massage table and little else. But most [...]...�

 

"When we place our hands on a patient and act/move in certain ways our patients improve." Social media receives a good deal of criticism from folks who feel it is the ultimate waste of time...though those same folks are usually posting these opinions on social media. Research "findings" are frequently posted on mass media sites, [...]...�

Over the course of the past few month I've done some of the most time-intensive work I've done since my college days. I was approached early in 2014 by Medbridge Education, a leading online resource for Continuing Education Trainings for physical therapists. They were in the process of expanding their offerings to include massage therapists [...]...�

 

Recently, there was a fairly lengthy article in my local city newspaper, bemoaning the ills that technology is causing on both the young as well as older adults. Two local health professionals were interviewed for this story, both making comments based on their beliefs and observations and using their impressions to make predictions about the [...]...�


This post represents a followup to my last post, "Are you qualified to do emotional work", with additional background in this post: "Professional Boundaries, continuing a dialogue: Is it time for a change?". There have been many passionate responses to the first post across this blog, and on both Facebook and LinkedIn Groups. Why the [...]...�

  

I am going to keep this post short and simple, with a followup blog in the near future. How many therapists (PTs, MTs, OTs, SLPs, etc.) feel they have the training and legal ability, through their professional scope of practice/practice act, to deal with the emotional aspects of their patient's pain/dysfunction? To define my term "deal [...]...�

 


The Subjectivity of "Cause"
(And how it can make us think we are smarter than we really are!)
A recent online discussion made me look at the concept of what we, as body workers, view as cause, in terms of pain and dysfunction in the human body. In my education, I was taught a seemingly useful adage "find the pain, look elsewhere for the cause". However, cause was always based on an antiquated [...]...�

Our Patient's Stories
 As a physical therapist in private practice, I've had the opportunity to work with thousands of patients over the years. I've streamlined my intake process collect the data I need to efficiently move through the initial evaluation process and make an assessment of needs.  My intake form has changed over the years, based on my [...]...�

 


What is the Deal With the Frozen Chicken?Using analogy can be an effective means of teaching new concepts. Since I started my Foundations in Myofascial Release Seminars in 2006, I have moved in a direction that makes my teaching style unique. Moving away from mysticism and toward plausible explanatory models has been the hallmark of [...]...�

Therapeutic Taping for Pain Control
If your daily email and mail reads like mine, hardly a week passes when I do not receive a course listing for some sort of therapeutic taping class coming to town. I am impressed by the very artistic swirly patterns that are shown on the trim/fit bodies of the models, but is that (excessive) amount and complexity [...]...�

 

 

I came upon a statistic which showed that in the December of 2013, Google garnered a 67.3% share of search engine queries, while Bing (18.2%) and Yahoo (10.8%) trailed considerably. My favorite search engine, Google Scholar, did not make the list. Google has proven itself as a favorite means to access information of all sorts [...]...�

 



Professional Boundaries: Starting a Dialogue
 There is a court case that just concluded in Pennsylvania, one in which I know not of the therapist's true innocence or guilt. The therapist, who specializes in Myofascial Release,  was convicted of groping female clients. He claims that he was simply performing the normal duties of a therapist and treating the areas of the [...]...�

Above The E-Fold™
 Above the fold (From Wikipedia): Above the fold is the upper half of the front page of a newspaper where an important news story or photograph is often located. Papers are often displayed to customers folded so that only the top half of the front page is visible. Thus, an item that is "above the [...]...�

 My sessions start like most, where there is a short interview/update, a sharing of information to tell me the present state of being. This time gives me feedback on what we've done and direction on where we need to go. Listen, then move forward into treatment. Today, one of my morning sessions started just this [...]...�


  

If you enjoy the MFRmail Newsletter, please forward to a friend.




It makes no sense to keep this to yourself...
CranioCradle

The makers of the CranioCradle have made a special offer available to readers of this MFRmail Newsletter. You will receive 10% off all products ordered by using the Special Discount Code WaltFritz.

View their products and order from their website, www.CranioCradle.com. Remember to enter the discount code, WaltFritz as you check out.





Blickman Stool


Liquid Chalk
Edelweiss Liquid Chalk


Dycem

K Tape
We talk about a number of different products in the Foundations in Myofascial Release Seminars and we put them all in one place to make it easier for you to find them. Just click each photo for more information.


Like us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterView our profile on LinkedIn
Unless otherwise noted, all images and content copyright Walt Fritz, PT

MFRmail Newsletter/Foundations in Myofascial Release Seminars
Walt Fritz, PT
980 Westfall Rd., Suite 105
Rochester, New York 14618
585.244.6180