Scar tissue is your body’s natural process for dealing with an injury or trauma. But without proper treatment can have harmful side-effects long after the initial injury.

First 1-3 days following an injury are the most important for any successful rehabilitation program. Most people wait too long before they decide to do  anything about their injury especially the small ones (i.e sprained or strained muscle tissue surrounding the knees and ankles). The R.I.C.E.R. program when used immediately after the injury have shown significantly improved recovery times and outcomes due to less scar tissue formation.

Picture courtesy of Dr. Barry Oakes, MB, BS, MD, F.A.S.M.F. Senior lecturer in the department of Anatomy, Monash University, Victoria, Australia

What is Scar Tissue

Scar tissue is the fibrous connective tissue which forms a scar; it can be found on any tissue on the body, including skin and internal organs, where an injury, cut, surgery or disease has taken place and then healed.  If you has any kind of surgery whether it was liposuction, a C-section or for an injury, you must treat it properly afterwards, you can’t train around it. This fibrous material binds itself to the damaged soft tissue fibers in an effort to draw the damaged fibers back together limiting your normal range of motion and proper joint mechanics.

Most people think that if they injure or tear a muscle that the muscle will re-grow new healthy tissue or that it would be repaired but unfortunately that doesn’t happen. The tear is replaced with scar tissue. People also do not realize that once the scar tissue heals, it is never going to be fully the same. But when the R.I.C.E.R. regime is used, this limits the formation of scar tissue.

Thicker than the surrounding tissue it takes the place of damaged or destroyed tissue. Scar tissue is paler and denser and has limited function, movement, circulation and sensation due to a lack of blood supply.

Other than with minor cuts and scrapes, scarring is a common result of any bodily damage. In some cases you can actually feel the scar tissue under the skin but a professional massage therapist will definitely feel it.

One of the biggest downfalls of having scar tissue form at an injury site is it will never be as strong as the tissue it replaced. It can also limit or decrease the flexibility of the muscle tissue (see picture of left) when this happens the shortened muscle will not be as useful as it was prior to the injury and may lead to another injury on the same muscle or affect a surrounding muscle.

Lastly, the formation of scar tissue will result in a loss of strength and power. For a muscle to attain full power, it must be fully stretched before contraction. Both the shortening effect and weakening of the tissues means that a full stretch and optimum contraction is not possible.

Time frame for breaking up Scar Tissue:

During the first 8-10 weeks after surgery as you begin to heal from surgery your body has a method of healing that will produce tissue around the muscle fibers called scar tissue. This tissue is not as soft and pliable as the original tissue or muscle fibers.

During these first few weeks after surgery this scar tissue is considered “immature”, meaning it can be easily reduced or diminished with massage therapy in addition to regular physical activity.

After this 8-10 wk period the scar tissue is then considered mature, meaning it becomes more permanent around the muscle fibers and often causes semi-permanent discomfort and pain with movement and in some extreme cases further injury.

Here is an overview of our 3 step process for breaking up scar tissue:

1. The first few sessions, will be to release the fluids and toxins and relax the surrounding tissues to reduce the pressure on your scar tissue and adhesion; which releases some of the over-sensitivity.
2. The second set of sessions, will be directed myofascial unwinding strokes that will involve slow, constant, steady pressure that only move as the tissue releases. Due to the multi-directional aspect of scar tissue and adhesion, these strokes are applied in all directions.
3. The third set of sessions, the detailed work is usually the least painful of the three steps because most of fibrous tissue have been loosened and de-activated. It is absolutely necessary to be patient at this stag because too much specific pressure on scar tissue or adhesion can cause tearing in the soft tissues which results in the reformation of new scar tissue.

Scar Tissue removal 10 pack special

Of course this is not an exact science every person will respond differently depending how long the scar tissue has been present and how much tolerance to pain you have. If you are riddled with scar tissue and it has been there for a while this process may take longer than 10 sessions. You can also have scar tissue in the abdominal area from a C-section surgery and from liposuction at the insertion points. Its best to come in as soon as possible because waiting too long will make it more difficult to remove.

If you think you have some scar tissue that you would like to break up and loosen considering buying a 10 pack of massage sessions from Robert Vignoli. These sessions will be aprox. between 45 – 60 minutes each some may be longer in duration but you pay only 1 price = $900.00 (save $150)

Reference: The Stretching Institute