How does fascial stretching eg. Guy V methods etc, as in the most in the advanced section, compare to ART? ART seems more extensive
WSTRAINER just finished Guy’s stretching seminar, so he’s the best qualified person on the forum to answer your question regarding Guy’s stretching methods, which are extremely complicated.
In general, stretching and manual work serve two different functions, although they complement each other very well. Stretching develops and maintains range of motion in the soft tissues and can also be used to normalize tension in those tissues. ART specifically breaks up adhesions in the myofascial structures that inhibit proper biomechanics and may have to be performed before proper stretching of the tissue can be executed.
ART in the US is billed per treatment and most of them last minutes. Chiros are the number one provider and if you enjoy forking 60 dollars per treatment watch out. Again things sound great on a forum but in the real world. I have nothing against ART since a few of my athletes have used Charlie and his therapy team to amazing results. But again charlie has a top notch group that treat injuries. Most therapist doing ART treat their wallets!
I have noticed that trend with ART as well. ART is often too expensive to be useful (unless you have some chiro friends).
Unfortunately, this brings up the distinction between the technical qualities of a treatment versus how it is administered in a real life clinical practice.
Try to find someone who practices myofascial release. Generally, massage therapists do this kind of work and they don’t have the same in-and-out in 15 min. mentality as the ART people.
Richard,
Try to find someone who practices myofascial release. Generally, massage therapists do this kind of work and they don’t have the same in-and-out in 15 min. mentality as the ART people.
ART is very similar to STR and many massage therapists use Stewart’s method. The amount of massage therapists using ART is very small and found only a few using it. Hell…Waldemar never used it and the results were good. Look for good therapists and keep ART as nice to have.
The point is not the therapy system, but find a skilled/expert therapist…
If you wantto see what you should be looking for, get the Jane Project or Fundamentals DVDs to see therapy in action. No 5 min sessions there!
Charlie, I use STR/ART hybrid technique in my therapy session, muscles test, and other works.
I know well the power of “active” soft tissue release, but i’ve seen big result with rolfing, simple sport massage, deep tissue massage.
IMO, the point is find muscles imbalance, the technique is important, but often the therapist is the key.
(I’ve JP video and soon i’ll take Fundamentals).
Someone else you should check out is Ann Frederick. She specializes in stretching, but her methods are also very effective at releasing adhesions.
About five and half years ago I went to a Charles Poliquin seminar and he told us about a soft tissue problem he had in his hip that nothing seemed capable of resolving, including ART. He went to see Ann and she stretched him and got the restriction to release.
This goes back to the original post regarding stretching and manual work. Needless to say, Ann’s methods are not your typical stretching. But it also shows there are several ways to skin a cat.
Incidentally, Ann Frederick is writing a book that will be published by Human Kinetics. Right now it’s scheduled for release at the beginning of the year. I’ll keep you posted.
tnx flash for the link…
True and the benefit there is that both the therapist and coach know what they are looking for and want to improve - and the therapist has the means (skills) to do it.
Many Therapists simply rub what is tight - what they think is tight or what they expect to be tight etc.
Have you, or any body else, managed to get the book yet Flash?
Just arrived on my doorstep 30 mins ago!!!
Looks good.
Having said that - nothing that hasn’t been said already - or that good therpists aren’t doing already.
I’ve had it for a little over a week, but I’ve only had time to skim through it. I’m still working through McGill’s back training book.
The one thing about Ann’s book that did jump out at me was the fact that a good part of it is devoted to methods for evaluating your personal flexibility requirements so that you’re not just stretching at random. As for the stretches shown in the book, they’re nothing revolutionary, but there are some neat dynamic warm-up exercises. I think it’s worth picking up, especially since it’s only about $15 US from Amazon.
Agreed - the specificity is a valuable change from the shotgun approach of other books.
15 USD!!!
Damn you guys are lucky - shipping to Eire is a pain.
What is McGills book like Flash?
Can you give me a quick review?
Its on my list.
Having recently taken Guy’s myofascial stretching course I would have to say that his stretching techniques complement manual work like ART but don’t replace it. I think the myofascial stretching, or any good stretching methods used consistently, will help maximize the results from soft tissue work and will to a certain extent reduce the need for future therapy.
The funny thing about taking Guy’s course is that you’re blown away by the precision of the stretches and the amount of information, but at the same time, once you understand the stretches and how they’re derived you realize they’re no big whoop.
If you read the article I wrote you can pretty much figure out from the pictures the major rules for anchoring the upper body and lower body fascia. For the upper body, simply dorsiflex the hands and externally rotate the arms. To anchor the lower body fascia when the knee is bent, dorsiflex and externally rotate the foot. When the leg is straight, dorsiflex and invert the foot (pseudo-inversion). You can do this with any stretch you know.
Once you know how to anchor the upper and lower body fascia, all you have to do is figure out the actions of the muscle you want to stretch and then perform the counter-actions. What sets Guy’s approach apart from other stretching approaches is the number of actions you learn for each muscle. I’ll leave that to you to figure out on your own, which is how Guy had us learn the stretches.
In my opinion, if you really want to learn how to stretch a muscle precisely, instead of books on stretching get a couple of good kinesiology and anatomy books and study the muscles and their actions.
Very good. Very practical. The first part is a discussion of injury mechanisms, which is important to understand. The second section deals with evaluating an athlete’s limitations and what he can handle (first do no harm). And the last section gets to the actual exercises themselves. Definitely worth checking out. I’ve also heard from a few people that the second edition is even better and is worth getting even if you already have the 1st edition.
Thanks.
Don’t have any of his books - but I have read some of his stuff online.
Too much to learn so little time!!!