IMO these folks have made up hi-falutin descriptions for straw dog 'hypertonicity' problems that, as they've presented them, are not the source of most soft tissue pain, for the most part don't exist, as described on that site nor do the muscles function as these jerks describe they do....and for only $425 you, too, can be the proud owner of this newest pet rock. Don't forget to water your chia pet.
Went to the 3rd day of the 7th Interdisciplinary LBP Pain conference today, geeze the parking alone was $24, but many interesting presentations. The morning presenters talked largely on their research on fascia and how it is a major player in chronic pain. Much to think about, quite a bit of it good, but all in all a long day sitting listening to heady stuff, exhausting and very compelling, if you are interested in how soma functions, as I am.
Buy that biopulse contraption after you've purchased your much needed holographically enhanced energy field balancer......drum roll....."THE POWER BALANCE BAND!!!"
Worth noticing, the PB folks have a better marketing team with slick videos of Shakeil O'neil, all bought out, prancin for the camera and recruiting his friends and fellow athletes into hawkin this crap. As a result of seeing their superheroes wearin em, folks are sporting these things all over LA from the retired lawyer on my table weekly for his easy does it massage who only rides his bike once a week to the jiu jitsu competitors at the Pan Am games. Sporting them in all colors, fits your fashion needs too.
Herb, if anyone you know wants to buy one of those contraptions, send em over here I've got a bridge to nowhere in Alaska that's almost built for sale....cheap.
My broad sweep of an answer to Herb was a gross oversimplification of my understanding of 'the work'.
Certainly hypertonicity applies to trigger points, which can be found in muscle belly, tendon, periosteum...so in that regard I clearly misspoke and was too dismissive in the above comment, cause trps are a source of much soft tissue pain.
They are not, however, only deep in the muscles as the blurb on that website asserted (mistakenly, IMO) is where the hypertonicity lies. Trps and tender points can be ubiquitous. If that's what they think their contraption is an effective tool to eliminate, maybe one of the presenters yesterday, a clinician at NIH, Dr Shah, who is part of a study showing the positive effect of dry needling on trps, could include in his next study.
First, tho, as, I believe it was Leon who recommended it would be of interest to many of us to test manual methods like ischemic compression along with the dry needling for comparative effectiveness using those really cool ultrasound pics to show distinct changes in the hypertonic tp. IF funding could be found, that would be quite doable and useful to the bodywork community. We might even get validation that our methods work as well if not better than dry needling and are far more pleasant to experience. Who wouldn't rather be touched than needled? Just sayin.
A spasm is a kind of actual hypertonicity, several schools of bodywork might address the neurological aspect of that, strain/counter-strain, or as Leon is teaching it tomorrow "Positional Release" comes to mind, perhaps Mattes' AIS addresses that well in a stretching format.
What exactly is the density I feel in a heavily exercised muscle when the athlete is experiencing DOMS, could be in the deepest layers or more surface depending when I'm working on it in relation to the usually high volume, low load (long runs tri-athletes love doing) or eccentric emphasis (bodybuilding type st) work that invoked it. De-trained couch potatoes who are starting a strength regime will have more DOMS in the first few weeks than a well trained athlete or even weekend warrior. Why? What is DOMS, exactly?
It is commonly understood now in strength and conditioning communities, due to the research of some ex phys guys, that the lactic acid is outa the muscles fairly quickly after ex, so what is the mechanism/flotsom and jetsem of DOMS and what kind of densification is it that I'm feeling that seems to correspond with that state? I dunno, not a clue. I'm ok with that, as a good scientifically respectful clinician must be if he/she is gonna actually learn more about it from the researchers, rather than jump to some new agey conclusion due to analytic overlay appearing to be an inspired intuitive groking of the nature of it. I'd much rather be the clinician doing the work and wait for the researchers to explore their little 3 sq. " piece of muscle some day so they can tell me what I did that effected the muscle cells (or fascia) and why it was or was not as effective as I (and my clients) currently think it is.
IMO this is the kind of improved collaboration/dialogue between communities of clinicians and researchers the we need more of, we and the clients would all benefit. This too is why bodywork needs bulldogs, so folks who create contraptions can't just make up reasons later that are not physiologically sound, but instead qualify perfectly as pseudo-science and are actually after the fact explanations for why we should all buy their product. They're not looking for the truth of it, come what may, they're trying to justify a marketing tack. Bah HUMBUG!!!For shame.
I do know tho that If I use broad hand compressions working straight up and down like pistons with the intention of sucking a vacuum into those muscle bellies and supercharging the blood flow into that area, (it's not a form of kneading or fascial release or tp compression) possibly broadly compressing the detritis out, the muscle feels looser to me and the pain is less for the client. Would that be a repeatable thing to study in research, probably. Would we discover if it has a positive effect, probably. Why it has a positive effect and on what system it is acting, probably not. Ultra sound pics aren't clear enough, Those endoscopes can't penetrate muscle bellies yet and if they could it probably wouldn't feel good in there if the belly was being worked vigorously, sorta like when the acupuncturist leaves a needle in your calf and you go to stand up with it still in there, yeoow. A needle biopsy of tissue with DOMS before and after the compression work might give a researcher tissues to analyze for cell wastes, cytokines etc, who's gonna volunteer to be in that study? Hey, come on down and have holes punched in your thigh for the sake of scientific discovery. Yeah right.
Hypertonicity , according to Taber's:
1:Having a higher osmotic pressure than a compared solution...2: Being in a state of greater than normal tension (ischemic Trps?) or of incomplete relaxation (neurologically held spasm?) Said ...of muscle, opposite of hypotonic.
Hypotonic: 1: Pert. to defective muscular tone or tension.
See, that's different than hypotrophy or hypertrophy. To me hypotonic implies muscles that can't do their job, like post paralysis due to polio or nerves that are severed. Hypotrophy is another way of describing a de-trained muscle in need of a good conditioning program.
So if these contraption inventors can't even get their terms precisely chosen and don't even know that hypertonic can mean more than one thing and reside as trps in tissues other than in the sarcomeres (or is it in the sarcoplasm, a whole nother consideration) of striated muscle tissue then why in the world should we have confidence in the basis for their sales pitch singing the praises of the $425 device?!*
That thing kinda looks like an automated version of those little clickers that some chiros like to use, which, from my experience on the receiving of that kind of "adjustment", is utterly worthless and does nothing. Usually those same chiros practice AK. If a chiro uses either of those two methods they fall into the quack bin in my book and I have no interest in collaborating with them or receiving their work.
The creators of that contraption's discernment is clearly hypotonic.
They are NOT Herbs Hot shots, I was only bringing this to the table for discussion, I do not know these people other than one LMT who does this work.
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