Choose which Body area on how to Use the Tool

Lower, Mid and Upper Spine

Use the Short option in all 3 levels of the spine with towels either side of the tool to reduce the amount of pressure the tool exerts on your spine, see photo to the right. Change thickness of the towels to increase or decrease the pressure the tool exerts. Roll from side to side to increase the rotation of the vertebrae, 

It is best to not put the tool directly under the segment where the pain is greatest to start with as this will potentially increase your pain. Start by putting the tool several segments away from the sore spot and only do it for a minute or so until you are sure the tool will not increase your pain.

The Spine responds well to pressure from the tool as long as it is not too sore. The tool produces a lot of pressure and so you need to put pillows or towels either side of the tool to reduce the amount of pressure, see the photo to the right.

Start with the top of the towels should be level with the top of the lower option surface, you would never use the tall option in this area or use it if you have referred pain down your leg. As you get used to the pressure you can slowly decrease the thickness of the towel to increase the pressure. Move the tool above and below where you feel the pain as the vertebrae in these spots usually needs to move better than they do to take the pressure off the sore area. Slowly increase the amount of time on the tool as you get used to it. Breath deeply whilst on the tool as this will help relax the muscles and move the ribs so the tool can do its work better.

Rock your body slowly from side to side to get the spine rotating like it should be, hold your body in any places that feels sore or tight and breath deeply to get the ribs and vertebrae moving properly.

You can also turn the tool 90 degrees so it runs parallel with the spine, this works on the rib joints which are about two finger widths away from the centre moving which can be very stuck in some people. Raising and lowering your arms to above your head can help get the vertebrae moving. Caution: If you feel pins and needles, numbness, move the tool to another spot.

If you have spinal instability such as Spondylolisthesis it is best to not use the tool on these segments but on the ones next to it. If in doubt get professional advice.

Glutei and Piriformis Muscles

Short option in the buttock area

The MM tool works very well on loosening up the very tight fascia that normally causes tightness, pain and disability in the Glutei and Piriformis muscles. Use the short option depending on where your problem is to start with. Move your body weight to the left and right to see where the pain is greatest. Put the tool under the problem area for a minute or so, if there are no issues slowly increase the amount of time on the tool to make sure your Glutei and Piriformis muscles tolerates this pressure. You can decrease the amount of pressure the tool produces if required by putting pillows or towels over or either side of the tool. Caution: If you feel pins and needles, numbness, move the tool to another spot.

The fascia in the Glutei and Piriformis muscles is so strong it is not a 5-minute job to get the results you want. Experience has shown that excellent results can be achieved if you spend at least 15-30 minutes on the tool, multiple times during the week. You can stretch the Glutei and Piriformis muscles in a sideways direction by moving your body left to right. Rock backwards and forwards until you feel the tool on the side of the muscle this will push the muscle in a unique way that cannot be done by other approaches.

Doing it whilst watching TV or doing other things like reading or working on the laptop makes the time pass quickly. A warm muscle stretches much quicker than a cold one so using a hot pack or having hot bath helps a lot.

Shin Splints

Put towel over short option tool and then place shins on the tool

The MM tool works very well on loosening up the very tight fascia that normally causes tightness, pain and disability in the Shin muscles. Use the short option depending on where your problem is. Place a towel over the tool as it does produce a lot of pressure in this area. Reduce the number of layers of towel as you get used to the pressure. Bend and flex your foot to floss the muscle if that feels good. Put the tool under the problem area for a minute or so, if there are no issues slowly increase the amount of time on the tool to make sure your Shin muscles tolerates this pressure.

The fascia in the Shin muscles is so strong it is not a 5-minute job to get the results you want. Experience has shown that excellent results can be achieved if you spend at least 15-30 minutes on the tool, multiple times during the week. You can stretch the Shin muscles in a sideways direction by rotating your foot to one side and moving your body in the same direction. Rock backwards and forwards until you feel the tool on the side of the muscle this will push the muscle in a unique way that cannot be done by other approaches.

Doing it whilst watching TV or doing other things like reading or working on the laptop makes the time pass quickly. A warm muscle stretches much quicker than a cold one so using a hot pack or having hot bath helps a lot.

Foot Ligaments

Sit on chair and place your foot on the tool

The ligaments in the foot can produce a variety of problems that interfere with your walking and running and produce pain in the heel and in the front of the foot. They are also responsible for the height of your arch and so a very tight ligament will produce a high arch. If you lay the sole of your foot on the short option of the tool you will be able to find sore or tight areas that need attention. Start gently as the tool can produce a lot of force and a bruised foot will not help you much.

These ligaments can produce what is called a calcaneal spur while spurs under the sole.

Calf & Achilles Pain

Using the tool on your calf pain

Calf muscle pain is difficult to get long term improvement in because it is a muscle that is used every day, all day and so the fascia in the calf is very strong and usually tight.

Start off with calf on tool if there are no issues then put the other leg on top to increase the pressure. At some point the tool will stretch the muscle fascia and the pain will increase sharply, just lift the leg off the tool until the pain subsides then put the leg back on the tool.

The calf is the only muscle that increases in pain at about 20 mins into your first long session on the tool. When the pain increases take the calf off the tool until the pain recedes and then put it back down where it was before and the tool will continue melting into the tight muscle.

The beauty of this tool that it can stretch the muscles sideways instead of the regular length ways method which is not possible with other approaches. Sideways stretching of muscles is very effective in stretching adhesions which stick muscles to each other and other surrounding structures.

This sideways stretching of the calf muscle is achieved by placing the muscle to be stretched on one half of the tool and rotating the leg away from the tool. Then rocking back and forth on the tool until you can feel the tool pushing the muscle sideways, hold this position as long as you can as this will release the tight tissues and improve your range of motion.

Achilles Tendon issues can also be done in this position as well

Thoracolumbar Fascia Pain-Fascia Stretching

Only use the Short option on the chest and lumbar spine with towels to reduce the amount of pressure to start with.

The MM tool works very well fascia stretching of the very tight fascia that normally causes tightness, pain and disability in the Thoracolumbar Fascia area but also the areas over the Latissimus Dorsi and Gluteus Maximus which are linked by referred fascial pain.

Use the short option depending on where your problem is to start with make sure you put a towel on the tool or either side of it as the pressure in this area is very intense. Bend and flex your knee to floss the muscle if that feels good. Make sure you put the tool close to the knee and near the hip as these areas often are an issue. Roll the leg and your body to the left and right to see where the pain is greatest. Put the tool under the problem area for a minute or so, if there are no issues slowly increase the amount of time on the tool to make sure your TFL tolerates this pressure.

The fascia in the Thoracolumbar area is so strong it is not a 5-minute job to get the results you want. Experience has shown that excellent results can be achieved if you spend at least 20-30 minutes on the tool, multiple times during the week. You can stretch the Thoracolumbar muscles in a sideways direction by rolling your body from side to side. Rock backwards and forwards until you feel the tool on the side of the Thoracolumbar muscles this will push the Thoracolumbar muscles in a unique way that cannot be done by other approaches.

Doing it whilst watching TV or doing other things like reading or working on the laptop makes the time pass quickly. A warm muscle stretches much quicker than a cold one so using a hot pack or having hot bath helps a lot.

TFL& ITB Tensor Fascia Lata & Iliotibial Band

Only use the Short option on the side of your leg on the TFL & ITB with towels to reduce the amount of pressure.

The MM tool works very well on loosening up the very tight fascia that normally causes tightness, pain and disability in the TFL,ITB and knee. Use the short option depending on where your problem is to start with make sure you put a towel on the tool or either side of it as the pressure in this area is very intense. Bend and flex your knee to floss the muscle if that feels good. Make sure you put the tool close to the knee and near the hip as these areas often are an issue. Roll the leg and your body to the left and right to see where the pain is greatest. Put the tool under the problem area for a minute or so, if there are no issues slowly increase the amount of time on the tool to make sure your TFL tolerates this pressure.

The fascia in the TFL & ITB is so strong it is not a 5-minute job to get the results you want. Experience has shown that excellent results can be achieved if you spend at least 20-30 minutes on the tool, multiple times during the week. You can stretch the TFL muscles in a sideways direction by rotating your foot to one side and moving your body in the same direction. Rock backwards and forwards until you feel the tool on the side of the TFL this will push the TFL in a unique way that cannot be done by other approaches.

Doing it whilst watching TV or doing other things like reading or working on the laptop makes the time pass quickly. A warm muscle stretches much quicker than a cold one so using a hot pack or having hot bath helps a lot.

Biceps

The biceps can cause pain in the muscle its self but also referred pain into the shoulder and forearm/elbow.

The best way to use the tool in either the short or tall option on the biceps is to lay face down on a bed or table with your arm dangling over the edge. Start at the top of the muscle into the shoulder where the tendon often is painful, move the tool down the muscle, pausing on spots that are painful until the pain goes away. Keep the muscle stationary to start with and then floss by bending and flexing the elbow. Roll the arm to the left and right to find the most painful spots.

Shoulders

Lay on your back, on your side, on your front, flossing & stationary

The shoulder is a complex joint with lots of muscles surrounding it, shoulder pain and stiffness is caused by both the muscles and the joint.

The MM tool works very well on loosening up the very tight fascia that normally causes tightness, pain and disability in the shoulder. Use the short option depending on where your problem is to start with, bend and flex your shoulder to floss the muscle if that feels good. Move your arm in all directions to see where the tightness and pain is. Put the tool under the problem area for a minute or so, if there are no issues slowly increase the amount of time on the tool to make sure your shoulder tolerates this pressure.

The fascia in the shoulder is so strong it is not a 5-minute job to get the results you want. Experience has shown that excellent results can be achieved if you spend at least 10-20 minutes on the tool, multiple times during the week.

Doing it whilst watching TV or doing other things like reading or working on the laptop makes the time pass quickly. A warm muscle stretches much quicker than a cold one so using a hot pack or having hot bath helps a lot.

A common problem is tight pectoralis major and minor muscles.

You loosen and stretch the pecs by putting the tool under that area with your arm dangling over a table or bench. You work on the Pec minor by having your arm beside you and the Pec major by having you arm at 45 degrees or more forward of the minor position. Caution: If you feel pins and needles, numbness, move the tool to another spot.

Triceps

Lie face up either on the floor, on a bed or a table.

Put the short option tool under the triceps starting at the top and working your way down the muscle, pausing on sore spots.

Have the arm stationary and floss the muscle by bending and straightening the elbow

Elbow

Lay on your side stretching of Tennis (Lying) and Golf elbow (Sitting on chair).

Elbow pain not associated with the joint itself is usually caused by three groups of muscles.

The biceps which is the subject of another video.

Pain in the muscles on the outside of the elbow which is called Tennis elbow when sore and the inside of the elbow called Golfers elbow when painful.

With Tennis elbow lay on the floor on your side, lay the outside muscles on the tool and use your other hand to side stretch those muscles from the elbow down their length. Put the tool on the outside of the muscle and rotate the forearm to push the muscles sideways.

There are nerves in this area and so you need to do this in short periods to make sure you are not putting pressure on those nerves.

Caution: If you feel pins and needles, numbness, move the tool to another spot. Move the wrist so you floss the muscle.

Pain in the muscle on the inside of your elbow is called golfers elbow.

Sit at a table with your muscle on the tool and use your other hand to side stretch those muscles from the elbow down their length. Put the tool on the outside of the muscle and rotate the forearm to push the muscles sideways.

Trigger Point Therapy

Trigger Point Therapy fix’s problems with muscles that account for a very large proportion of the chronic myofascial pain people suffer all over the world. Muscles develop what people call knots, Myofascial Trigger Points or Myofascial Pain Syndrome and Dysfunction which are a small local concentrations of electrical activity that can be detected by scientific instruments.

Myofascial Trigger Points TP display a typical pattern of localised tenderness and a tense band of shortened and weak fibres. Myofascial Trigger Points TP start with a muscle strain and becomes a site of sensitized nerves, increased metabolism and reduced blood flow. If left untreated it will become an area of scar tissue that does not stretch anymore and if there are enough of these trigger points, then the muscle will not function properly and cause ongoing problems. This often leads to myofascial pain in nearby joints and referred pain to other areas of the body. You feel the pain in one area, but the problem is in another area and so if you apply pain cream, heat, cold or massage to the area of myofascial pain it does not fix the pain because the problem is elsewhere. see the images to the right that show the referred pain areas.

Trigger Point Therapy reduces myofascial pain at the location of the trigger point but also the referred pain away from the trigger point, increases movement, and allows the muscles to lengthen and become stronger. To treat Myofascial Trigger Points, enough pressure needs to be applied to the muscle to reach the TP which are often deep in the muscle and deactivate the  electrical activity and unblock the blood flow again. Unfortunately foam rollers cannot produce the concentrated force required to treat and break up Trigger Points because of their large radii. That’s why this Trigger Point Massage Tool works so well with Myofascial Trigger Points.

Pressure and Time make Diamonds and Happy Muscles

The reason this Trigger Point Massage Tool works so well is that it works on a material science concept called creep. Creep describes where a material has a concentrated force applied to it over time and that material yields to that force, an example of creep is when the gas spring of an office chair pushed through the   5 star base and drags on the floor. The gas spring crept through the base, just like the MMT tool creeps through your problem muscle like nothing else can and allows it to heal itself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creep_(deformation)#Examples

In 1983, Janet Travell & David Simons, published a book on Myofascial Trigger Point treatment that revolutionised the treatment of myofascial pain and forms the basis of this eBook, they found that Trigger Points occur at the point where a nerve enters a muscle. Trigger Points result in muscles which have been stressed by accidents, sports, occupational stress, and overuse. Once a Trigger Point develops, it can remain for life unless properly treated. The Myofascial Trigger Point restricts range of motion of the muscles and decreases blood flow, reducing nutrients and oxygen to the muscle. This in turn causes a build-up of  waste products including lactic acid, these chemicals stimulate pain nerve endings making them more sensitive, creating a vicious cycle that damages the nerve and muscle tissue and increases your pain and makes the muscle shorter and tighter.

These effects are not confined to the local muscle as tight contracted muscles can compress nerves and blood vessels causing sensations like throbbing, burning, numbness, pins & needles, coldness and swelling of upper and lower limbs.

Pressure applied to the Myofascial Trigger Point is called Ischemic Compression, Acupressure, Shiatzu and the Magic Elbow by some Chinese masseuses. Normal muscles do not contain Trigger Points, nor do they have taut bands of muscle fibers, are not tender to firm pressure, exhibit no local twitch responses and do not refer pain to other areas in response to firm pressure. Women are statistically more vulnerable to Trigger Points than men. There are two different types of stimuli that activate Trigger Points. Firstly there are direct stimuli like acute overload (unusual exercise), overwork fatigue (Shoulder/Neck and Lower Back muscles)  chilling or gross trauma. Secondly there is indirect stimuli like other Trigger Points, visceral disease, arthritic joints and emotional stress.

 The reason the Myofascial Trigger Point and the pain that is felt are often in different areas is not completely understood, it does have to do with the fact that nerves in muscles are part of a nerve distribution area like a tree which is serviced by a spinal segment in your spinal cord. The spinal cord segment is like a little computer and interprets the signal from Trigger Points before it sends it to the brain and in that process your brain interprets the pain being in a different location within the nerve distribution.

On the Trigger Point Massage Tool

When using the trigger point therapy tool on a new spot only use it for a minute or so to see if it increases your myofascial pain for longer than a few minutes and reduce the pressure exerted by the roller or trigger point therapy tool by placing pillows or towels on top of or either side of these tools. If there is no sustained increase in pain after a few hours slowly increase the amount of time by a few minutes each time you use the tool. If you feel this spot is the centre of where you feel tightness and pain, you can spend 30 minutes or more on that spot until the tool melts deeply into the muscle and releases the trigger point and muscle fascia. Hot packs or even better hot baths greatly improve the effectiveness of these techniques as warm/ hot muscle stretch and give way more easily.

The beauty of this trigger point therapy tool is within your tolerance you can eventually lay on this tool for 30 minutes or more which penetrates deeply into the muscles in a gentle way. You will feel it slowly sink into the muscle over time as the tissues yield to the pressure. No other approach I know of enables you to put the right amount of pressure on these trigger points and very tight muscles for extended periods of time which is what they need to reverse the problems of many years.

You will get accustomed to this pressure quickly and so the way to progress this procedure is to use the trigger point massage tool in its tall option, which increases the pressure the tool exerts. Again, start this new use with only a few minutes to start with to ensure there is no increase in myofascial pain.

Always stretch the muscle before and after using the tool, notice if there is any increase in range of movement after using the trigger point massage tool ?

Trigger Point Therapy Roller Exercises

Foam Rollers are used all over the world to treat Trigger Points TPs and tight fascia, unfortunately foam rollers cannot produce the concentrated force required to treat and break up TPs because of their large diameter. Foam Rollers have a 150 mm diameter which produces a diffuse pressure that can increase pain by stirring up the nerves in the area and increase muscle spasms. Therapists use their elbow or thumb to treat TP’s and apply enough force to increase the pain initially but as the pressure is continued to be applied the pain melts away and the dysfunctional biology returns to normal.

Pain and tightness in muscles and connective tissue at the front, back and side of joints can cause pain and reduced range of movement of the joint.

Conventional stretching of these muscles has some effect on the pain and restricted range of the joint, but this can only help to a limited extent because stretching tends to stretch the parts of the muscle that are not constrained and stuck down by adhesions that develop around a tight painful muscle.

Getting Started with Trigger Point Therapy

Step 1 It is recommended that you take a hot bath or apply a hot pack to the affected area before you begin using the tool. Warm muscles stretch and give way more easily and this will greatly improve the tool’s effectiveness.

Step 2 Lay the muscle or joint onto the tool. Rate the pain you feel while using the tool from 1 to 10 (with 1 being the least pain and 10 being the greatest). Your pain when resting on the tool should not be more than 4-5.

Step 3  If your pain is greater than 5, place a towel or a cushion over the tool, or on either side of it, to reduce the amount of pressure, which should reduce the pain to a level of 5 or below.

Step 4  When you feel the position of the tool is in the correct central point where you feel tightness and pain, you can start off laying on the tool for a few minutes to make sure the tool does not increase your pain. If after a few hours rest everything is ok you can start increasing the time on the tool. Once you are comfortable with the tool you can spend 30 minutes or more resting on that same spot (watching TV or reading) until the tool melts deeply into the muscle or joint and releases that trigger point and muscle fascia

Step 5  The pain should begin to decrease within the first couple of minutes and continue to reduce as time goes on. If you notice no improvement within about five minutes, the muscle or joint may be too inflamed and may require the application of an ice pack. Try again later.

Get your Trigger Point tool here