GRASTON TECHNIQUE

You may have heard friends raving about the results they’ve gotten by visiting a therapist to receive the Graston Technique for nagging pain and stiffness. And you might even know that practitioners need to undergo special training to become licensed in the Graston Technique, as well as the right to use its patented set of handheld instruments. But until you actually find yourself battling one of the many painful disorders involving connective tissue and skeletal muscles, you probably haven’t been that curious about therapy options. Yet the Graston Technique may just help you when other methods can’t.

Graston Technique practitioners use a set of up to six patented hand tools in order to mobilize soft tissue in various parts of the body. By using these implements, specially licensed physical therapists break up the fascial restrictions and scar tissue that creates pain and stiffness.

The application of the Graston tools on problematic tissue is designed to be part of the overall therapy session, which starts with a warm up prior to the use of the tools. Flexibility, strength building, and the all-important ice pack, generally finishes up the Graston Technique session.

What tools are used in the Graston Technique?

A half-dozen handheld, stainless steel tools are part of the Graston Technique, all with different angles and edges that target different areas of the body. The Graston tools first help identify areas needing treatment, by allowing the physical therapist to both feel a “graininess” through the tool which indicates tissue adhesions. Next, the tools are used to actually treat the problematic areas. Using a variety of these small, hand-held steel tools, the physical therapist then facilitates scar re-organization of the tissues by systematically rubbing it back and forth along the affected area.