Your ligaments and tendons may thank you for creating a little bit of friction. The human body responds really very efficiently to inflammation.
I saw a patient in clinic today whom I have known for many years. Happily we had never met in The Moballise Physiotherapy Clinic until today. He had experienced an unfortunate turn of events that had resulted in a severely aggravated ligament on the inside of his knee.
A major part of the treatment approach we put together has to be what is these days termed ‘appropriate loading’. This gradually, and in a measured way, aggravates the ligament further to stimulate the healing mechanisms that already exist within the body – your body is brilliant at self-healing. We sometimes just need to fully understand what is going on in order to accurately activate the preferred pre-installed healing mechanism.
The human body responds really very efficiently to inflammation.
It uses inflammation in the early days after injury to protect and flood the area with all the required healing materials. Triggering further aggravation, and therefore inflammation, can instigate an impressive improvement in the healing response and subsequent recovery.
A great method for prompting a healing response in ligaments & tendons is the deployment of a technique called ‘deep tissue frictioning’ (DTF). This essentially involves a vigorous, yet controlled, ‘rubbing’ of the afflicted area. The textbook definition is to perform DTF until the area being treated feels numb and to then continue for up to 5 minutes. You will probably grow bored before then, so I suggest you use these guidelines as you feel fit.
Whichever approach you take towards DTF, you MUST make sure that the area is really, really well lubricated whilst you perform the technique, either with cream or oil, to preserve the integrity of your skin – if the skin barrier is broken, or becomes sore, you will no longer be able to administer this technique.
