PASSIVACTIVE TECHNIQUE IN MYOFASCIAL DETACHMENT TRUNK AND UPPER LIMBS: - 3RD PART - - SPORT-AND-HEALTH

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Passivactive technique in myofascial detachment of trunk and upper limbs

"Mature collagen is susceptible to non-enzymatic glycation and the resulting products are further transformed into compounds cross-linked which can subsequently inhibit the turnover collagen "(A. Scherillo). It should be noted that only CT is plastic and malleable, properties thixotropic collagen, and not muscle tissue; often we mean by fascia only the aponeurotic layer surrounding the limbs, instead it is also fascia the "epimysium-perimysium-endomysium. And this collagen skeleton muscle undergoing overstress or overuse syndrome and acute injury. I always like to remember the importance collagen has in our body by using this quote: Collagen is one of the most ubiquitous proteins in the body. It is "the" basic structural element and supports charges in the skin, vessels, tendons, ligaments, cornea, bones, etc. It has "as much importance in our organism as" steel in the technological world ". In a hardened and fibrous CT, manual skills induce a normalization of elasticity due to the viscoelastic property of the fundamental substance as well as breaking the adhesion bonds - cross-links - created with adjacent tissues, restoring the physiological muscle-joint movement. Below is another empirical and simplistic but exemplary example of the viscoelastic change induced with a myofascial manipulation technique:

Obviously it is not possible to make a release myofascial on all CT structures present in the human body.
Indeed, as Robert Schleip points out in "Three-dimensional mathematical model for deformation of human fasciae in manual therapy" , in order to have an appreciable viscoelastic change of the ileotibial tract (ITB) it would take tens and tens of kilograms of force-weight induced by a manipulation, which is for obvious reasons impossible to apply.
But it is not one game lost !
In fact according to my experience, and I think also that of many other operators, when dealing ITB tract as we saw in the first part of the passive, with the dexterity of stripping performed with the fist, after a few minutes for both the operator and the athlete it is not difficult hear about it the creeping or the popping of a release
myofascial. What happened then, what prompted our manipulation?
Speaking with Schleip on this subject, we agree that probably the aponeurotic external part of the ITB is structured differently from the core, with a possible diversity of density and arrangement of collagen fibers.
Probably, since precise histological studies are currently lacking. So the release that we perceive is due to the breaking of gods crosslinks myofascial, those bridges that are formed between the various tissue layers made up of weak Hydrogen bonds And Van der Waals forces which precisely determine the adhesions.
In accordance with the visco-elastic property of the Extracellular matrix (MEC) we can conclude that the effects induced by manipulation cause sensible changes such as the breaking of cross-links and the change in the hydration of the MEC which allow the operator to feel the myofascial release also for these dense connective tissues such as the ileotibial tract. You will not be able to change the dense fibrous structure, but certainly its adherent bonds and the gelatinous matrix in which it is dispersed and enveloped.
Studies reveal the difference in holding force in the crosslinks between a fascial tissue with a higher percentage of elastin or less. The bond strength of elastin is much lower than that of collagen fibers, making it easier to release myofascial for that type of connective.
Small parenthesis just to remember the force values involved between making a viscoelastic change or breaking / deformation ( strain) of a fibrous connective tissue. If this shows up with collagen fibers aligned and parallel, in practice the tendon and ligamentous structures, it bears high tensions with a breaking load between 75 and 100MPa.
In case the collagen fibers are randomly oriented, as in leather for example, the breaking load drops to 1-20MPA (Rizzuto, Del Prete).