96 m a s s a g e & b o d y w o r k s e p t e m b e r / o c t o b e r 2 0 1 7
technique
MYOFASCIAL TECHNIQUES
We move by contracting.
Muscles fire, causing them to
tighten, shorten, and pull. With
repetition and habituation, muscles
fire quicker, shorten more, and pull
harder. When strength or stability
are needed, this rapidity, tightening,
and pulling are all very good things.
But muscles that get accustomed
to firing quickly or strongly can lose
refinement and finesse. Powerful
movements become jerky and less precise,
as muscles "forget" they don't have to
bring all their motor units online at once.
And when it's time for rest or relaxation,
muscles accustomed to fast contraction,
strong pulling, and sustained tightening
sometimes forget how to simply let go.
That's where hands-on work can help.
By leveraging the nervous system's built-
in regulatory and control systems, skilled
manual therapy can "remind" muscles to
lower their resting tone when they aren't
working; to let go and relax. And using the
same systems, hands-on work can also help
muscles learn refined, incremental, and
nuanced possibilities for action, instead of
lurching into unnecessarily large, all-or-
nothing contractions with every movement.
Working with the Golgi Tendon Organs
By Til Luchau
Found in dense connective tissues throughout
the body, Golgi tendon organs (GTOs) are
concentrated around the myotendinous junctions,
where the fascial wrappings of muscle cells
(red) blend with the collagen fibers of tendons
(tan), shown here at 40x magnification. Image
copyright Lutz Slomianka, used by permission.
1
LEVERAGING THE GOLGI
TENDON ORGAN EFFECTS
One of these built-in systems for moving
with refinement, relaxation, and efficiency
is the Golgi-based stretch reflexes. Golgi
mechanoreceptors are common in many
of the body's dense connective tissues,
such as joint capsules, ligaments (where
they are known as Golgi end organs), and
Golgi tendon organs (GTOs), which are
concentrated around the myotendinous
junctions, where muscle cells end and
tendons begin (Image 1).
1
Intimately
involved in tension perception, protective
reflexes, and movement coordination, with
the right kinds of mechanical stimuli,
GTOs can lower the firing rate (i.e.,
relax) of their associated muscles (Image
2). Interestingly, they can also facilitate
(increase the firing rate, or excite) a muscle's
synergists and antagonists, and thereby
play a key role in de-emphasizing prime-
mover dominance and increasing global
movement coordination and refinement.
2
Many types of manual and movement
therapies, including structural integration,
proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation,
Hatha yoga, and others, use GTO
responses (along with other kinds of
mechanoreceptors) to explain their effects.
Though such theories about the GTOs'
manual therapy applications were first
proposed over 30 years ago,
3
subsequent
research (detailed by authors and researchers
such as Robert Schleip
4
) has clarified several
conditional factors relevant to hands-on
work. A Golgi response is more likely with
sustained and relatively firm local pressure
on a muscle's fascial connections, in a
direction oblique or perpendicular to the
muscle's axis of pull, and in combination
with active client movement.
In our Advanced Myofascial Techniques
workshops and video courses, we use these
three principles to take advantage of the
Golgi effects in several situations. Examples
include when working with the large,
strong, and always-on hip abductors in the
Push Broom "A" Technique ("Working
with Hip Mobility," Massage & Bodywork,
March/April 2012, page 114); when working
with the sensitive structures of the jaw
in the Posterior Digastric Technique
("The Temporomandibular Joint, Part II,"
Massage & Bodywork, September/October
2009, page 120), and for reeducation
