How Fascial Stretch Therapy Can Raise Athletic Performance

By Alfred Ball
Photography by Todd Duncan

Canadian junior skating champion Liam Firus uses fascial stretch therapy with Alfred Ball as part of his training regimen. Illustrated is the side-lying hip flexor which also lengthens abs and quadriceps.

Endurance athletes experience injuries that are often attributed to muscle imbalances and repetitive stress. Triathletes with tight hip flexors are at greater risk for leg injuries during running. In swimming, tight chest and shoulders shorten each stroke which limits power and alters shoulder mechanics. Multisport athletes can prevent injuries and improve performance with individualized stretching routines. Well designed flexibility programs ensure proper muscle elasticity, movement efficiency and joint range of motion.

Fascial stretch therapy is one technique elite athletes have been using since 1995 to effectively increase flexibility. Fascial stretch therapy is a type of assisted stretching that manipulates soft connective tissue called fascia. Fascia is a communicative and dynamic tissue surrounding our joints, muscles, nerves and organs. This continuous sheath helps co-ordinate muscular activity and acts as a body-wide sensor to give us environmental feedback.
Healthy fascia is loose, fast and reactive. Fascia supports the ability to move quickly, such as when stepping awkwardly on a root while trail running, or to avoid crashing when cycling. Injuries, surgeries and stiffness affect the mobility of surrounding tissue and joints. Lack of mobility leads to compensations, earlier fatigue and greater risk of repetitive strains. Fascial stretch therapy focuses on that connective tissue to fight back against all those conditions.

Sessions often start on the hips as shown in the supine glutes stretch.

Ann and Chris Frederick, developers of the technique have built on research that examines the dynamic links between muscles, fascia and ligaments. The way FST incorporates these interactions is what makes it effective.

Certified fascial stretch therapists use a variety of assessments to understand the way clients move before developing a treatment plan. With a therapist’s assistance, an athlete can experience deeper levels of pain-free stretching than on their own. Therapists use traction during FST to reduce muscle and fascia tension and provide a stretch from the joint capsule out. During fascial stretching, the client’s body is moved in undulating spiral diagonal patterns known as stretch waves. Breathing rates synchronize with stretch waves that vary from very slow to very fast. Fast to very fast waves used during warm-ups enable freer athletic movement by opening compressed tissues and improving muscle elasticity. Slower waves unwind the fascia to restore tissues to more efficient resting lengths by stretching tighter myofascial directions. When combined with deeper diaphragmatic breathing, slower waves achieve lasting changes in the connective tissues that increase flexibility.

Athletes in fascial stretch programs have been found to recover more quickly between training sessions and improve active range of motion from 36 per cent to 52 per cent greater in athletes than other stretching methods.

Liam Firus, 2010 Canadian Junior Figure Skating Champion, started using FST in 2008 to help him recover from a back injury. Weekly sessions help keep him feeling strong, stable and balanced for jumping. Firus says he uses FST “to recover from intense training and stay healthy.”
World Cup skicross racer Sven Winter began fascial stretch therapy in 2009. “Fascial stretch therapy sessions helped me recover from chronic neck and back pain which held me back during training for the last five years,” Winter says.

Since starting FST, Winter has been free of major injuries “which in skicross is remarkable,” and his world ranking jumped from 108 to 54.
There are similarities and differences between FST, static stretching, yoga, massage therapy and active release therapy. Static stretching and FST both increase flexibility. Static stretches isolate muscles, lengthen in one direction and are completed with equal duration on both sides of the body. FST stretches the muscle-fascia lines in multiple directions with varied durations.

Side-lying pectoralis minor stretch brings shoulders back into alignment.

Yoga and FST reduce chronic stresses that make fascia hard, painful and restrictive. They both also increase flexibility. With FST, both sides of the body are treated differently based on individual assessments, while yoga usually flows through poses to work both sides equally.
Massage therapy and FST can reduce muscle-fascia adhesions, relieve delayed onset muscle soreness and flush the lymphatic system to reduce muscle cell toxicity. Massage therapist Graham Stamper has been on the receiving end of fascial stretch therapy. He says, “Both modalities increase blood flow which promotes healthier tissues.” FST is flexibility focused so it also increases both joint and muscle range movement.

Active release therapy and fascial stretch therapy both improve tissue elasticity. Active release breaks apart adhesions at specific locations, while FST is more global, treating the entire body before treating more specific locations.

Vancouver chiropractor Carla Cupido says, “Clients seek active release to manage acute injuries and relieve chronic muscle tightness.” Tissues surrounding acute traumas aren’t treated with FST, but compensations remain after healing which often become chronic problems; FST identifies and removes compensations.

Combined with home stretches, foam rolling and strength training, FST can be a key part of taking your athletic performance to the next level.

July/August Issue 2011

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