Myofacial self applied techniques
I. Position to adopt:
On the floor, back supported to the wall, the targeted leg needs to be bent at the knee and hip level
II. Basic technique
1. Use a slight amount of karite butter as a medium for this technique.
o Other oils or body butter will do as long as they are not too slippery.
2. Press down 90 degrees to ‘enter’ and feel the tight tissue.
o Hand/fingers/knuckles at 45/30 degrees
o The pressure should be moderate (not strong enough to feel the bone underneath, but
not light neither as if you are surface-stroking,..)
3. Slide along the length of the muscle without losing the initial vertical pressure
4. Keep the same speed and same amount of pressure all along
o If there is a ‘stretching feeling’ to the tissues, the aim is to have it light to moderate, not
more than that.
5. At some point, your speed will naturally diminish, it means you are encountering resistance – this gets interesting to release the tightness in your muscle. What to do then?
o Stay there with your steady pressure without changing anything.
o Put your attention in the spot that you are massaging, and keep your attention there as
long as you can, breathe steadily: integrating mindfulness and breathing to this technique
does wonders.
o Eventually the speed will pickup as the tensions ease, continue as explained in step #2
and #3 till you encounter the next tight spot.
III. Best anatomical spots to apply the technique on
1. Sitting bones (hamstrings origine)
2. hamstrings' body length
3. Tendon in the outer side of the knee, posterior – Biceps femoris
4. Tendons in the inner side of the knee, posterior – semitendinosus, semimembranosus
and lat. origine for gastrocnemous
5. Around the head of the fibula
6. Along the length of the adductors
7. Around the ilio-tibial band insertion and gastrocnemius insertion
8. Around the Adductors' insertion and medial gastrocnemius insertion
IV. Considerations before and after applying the technique
1. Even though the karite butter is a plant-based product that is hypoallergenic, test it on
your skin before hand by applying a small amount. Wait a couple of minutes to check if the
skin reacts to it (if swelling, redness, itchiness, do not use it).
2. Do not apply this technique on an acute condition (swelling, redness, skin injury, rash,...)
3. Following this technique, continue with your usual stretching techniques to optimize on
the myofascial release.
V. To learn more and to have a supported guidance
To know the progressions and variations to this techniques and even have live demonstration of their applications, add your name and contact information in the contact section to be in the mailing list: I will be posting course invitations and other articles about this very interesting subject.