Tell me about Graston - am I going to cry?

DonnaRigs · Postby **DonnaRigs** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:18 am

So, I got back from Jamaica on Saturday and got food poisoning Saturday night (I guess it could have been worse, I could have had it on my vacation).

Anyway, fast-forward the four or five hours of puking and dry-heaves and.... HORRIBLE PAIN in my neck, back and chest. Really. Can barely move. Apparently when your tummy hits full-reverse, it's hard work for the rest of you.

So, in an effort to keep up the running (because it wasn't going to happen with the barely moving), I went to an RMT, who immediatly started remarking how "tight" everything is. This is not unusual for me, every single massage person I have seen says the same thing. The difference is, this guy seems to think that if I could break up some of this tightness, it may help the migraines.

Ahh, the magic words "fewer headaches".

I am willing to try it, it can't hurt - or maybe it can since he wants to use this Graston technique. When he said it originally, it didn't ring a bell, until I started reading about it - I seem to recall someone here talking about it, and saying how EXCRUTIATING it is...

so, give it to me straight RMr's - how much does it hurt, but more importantly, does it WORK?

PinkLady · Postby **PinkLady** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:44 am

Well....ymmv.

Heh, sorry, I know that's not what you were looking for! But it really depends. For me, I can apparently take just about everything from the knee down - but even a little bit of ART/Graston above the knee sends me into a cold sweat. Whereas in the shin/calves/feet, my chiro can practically be trying to shave my skin off with the tool and it barely registers, go figure. So it's not only very individual, but your experience might also vary depending what part of your body is more sensitive than other parts.

I've always found ART far more effective than Graston, it seems to get much deeper into the tissues.....Graston always seemed to work best for myofascial release since it's more 'surface' work across a broader area, vs ART which is usually more pinpoint but gets deeper into the muscles/tendons. So I guess effectiveness really depends on what your problem happens to be.

Hope you feel better from the food poisoning! At least you didn't get it while travelling!

Tori · Postby **Tori** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:09 pm

I have had it done on my feet, forearms and shoulder blade. I didn't find it bad at all, it did cause some bruising. But I did find relief very quickly after the treatments were done.

DonnaRigs · Postby **DonnaRigs** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:19 pm

PinkLady wrote:
Hope you feel better from the food poisoning! At least you didn't get it while travelling!

Better, not 100% yet, but nearly! I had ART on my shins and that really helped my shinsplints. It hurt, but at least not for hours after or anything...

DonnaRigs · Postby **DonnaRigs** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:26 pm

Tori wrote:I have had it done on my feet, forearms and shoulder blade. I didn't find it bad at all, it did cause some bruising. But I did find relief very quickly after the treatments were done.

That's reassuring - not the bruising, but the relief part

Jwolf · Postby **Jwolf** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 1:09 pm

I had it but it didn't help the condition I had at the time.

DonnaRigs · Postby **DonnaRigs** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 3:26 pm

Jwolf wrote:I had it but it didn't help the condition I had at the time.

That's much less reassuring.

Jwolf · Postby **Jwolf** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 3:41 pm

DonnaRigs wrote:
Jwolf wrote:I had it but it didn't help the condition I had at the time.

That's much less reassuring.

Well I would still be cautiously hopeful. Just wanted to mention it because it won't help everything and at the time I think the chiro treated me too aggressively for the injury I had (and made it worse). And he wasn't willing to admit it wasn't working.

That says more about the practitioner than the technique, though. If you have a good practitioner that you trust, that is key.