Fascial Stretch Therapy (FST) is an assisted stretching technique that is performed by a Certified Fascial Stretch Therapist, and considered the Gold Standard in assisted stretching techniques. FST focuses on not just muscles, but the fascia, the connective tissue that surrounds everything throughout our body, bones, muscle, joints, nerves, organs, ligaments, etc. When FST is performed on a treatment table, comfortable straps are used to stabilize the limb, or part of the body that is not being worked on, thus facilitating complete relaxation of the person being stretched and enhancing the effectiveness of the actions of the therapist. The technique uses a modified proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) technique.

Traction is used to assess the range of motion in the tissue before the stretching begins, and is also applied gently throughout the stretching. Traction is the instrumental component of FST that gets the joint capsule open by decompressing the joint, and eliminates the “jamming” of the joint while stretching. This creates optimal mobility of the joint capsule and dramatically helps the effectiveness of range of motion increases and flexibility gains. This specific type of manual traction releases adhesions in the joint capsules and other connective tissues.