You can only view 3 videos without an account. Become a Member to access all videos on the website.
Tensor Fascia Latae (TFL) Self-administered Release
Tensor Fascia Latae (TFL) Self-Administered Release is a form of self-myofascial release, or SMR, that is used to treat pain, tension, and mobility issues related to the fascia surrounding the TFL muscle. This type of self-therapy uses a foam roller, massage balls, or other type of ball to apply gentle pressure to the TFL muscle and the surrounding tissue. This pressure can help improve range of motion,
Transcript
00:00:0400:00:06
This Brent of the Brookbush Institute,
00:00:0400:00:06
...blank
00:00:0600:00:07
and in this video we're going to go over
00:00:0700:00:09
tensor fascia lata or TFL
00:00:0900:00:11
self-administered release technique. I'm
00:00:1100:00:13
going to have my friend Melissa come out,
00:00:1300:00:14
she's going to help me demonstrate this
00:00:1400:00:16
technique. Before we get into the
00:00:1600:00:18
technique itself that, it does help to
00:00:1800:00:20
know a little bit about the anatomy of
00:00:2000:00:21
the tensor fascia lata, where it's
00:00:2100:00:24
located. Alright so if you guys know
00:00:2400:00:27
where your ASIS is, it's just posterior
00:00:2700:00:29
to your ASIS, your anterior superior
00:00:2900:00:31
iliac spine. But let me take it a step
00:00:3100:00:33
back. If you don't know where your
00:00:3300:00:36
anterior superior iliac spine is, find the
00:00:3600:00:37
top of your pelvis, which a lot of people
00:00:3700:00:39
call their hips, which is weird because
00:00:3900:00:41
your hip joints down here. This is your
00:00:4100:00:43
pelvis so if you find the top of your
00:00:4300:00:45
pelvis, your iliac crest as it's called,
00:00:4500:00:49
and you follow it anteriorly all right
00:00:4900:00:51
towards the front, eventually you'll find
00:00:5100:00:53
this bony notch before it all becomes
00:00:5300:00:57
soft tissue. Well firm tissue in
00:00:5700:00:58
Melissa's case because you've got a
00:00:5800:01:00
six-pack going here, right it must be
00:01:0000:01:04
nice. But this bone right before this
00:01:0400:01:07
softer tissue being her rectus abdominis
00:01:0700:01:10
and her obliques, is her anterior superior
00:01:1000:01:13
iliac spine. So right behind that, this
00:01:1300:01:15
soft tissue in here, which I can actually
00:01:1500:01:18
feel some some pretty pretty dense
00:01:1800:01:19
fascicles that are probably going to
00:01:1900:01:21
give her a little tenderness already,
00:01:2100:01:23
that's the tensor fascia lata. Now the next
00:01:2300:01:25
question we have to answer is how broad
00:01:2500:01:29
and how long is this muscle. So if we
00:01:2900:01:33
follow the ASIS and go back up the iliac
00:01:3300:01:35
crest, and then we find the greater
00:01:3500:01:38
trochanter just a few inches below it. So
00:01:3800:01:39
the greater trochanter is another bone,
00:01:3900:01:42
another notch that you can feel right
00:01:4200:01:44
here, that's more related to where
00:01:4400:01:47
your hip joint actually is. So one of the
00:01:4700:01:49
tricks you can do is if you lift your
00:01:4900:01:53
leg and then put it down, lift your leg
00:01:5300:01:54
put it down, you guys might be able to
00:01:5400:01:56
feel the greater trochanter moving
00:01:5600:01:57
underneath the skin, that might help you
00:01:5700:02:00
palpate. So if we go from iliac crest to
00:02:0000:02:02
greater trochanter, that's approximately
00:02:0200:02:05
the length of my TFL. And then if I know
00:02:0500:02:07
where my greater trochanter is, I
00:02:0700:02:09
actually know the breadth as well because
00:02:0900:02:11
it goes from ASIS
00:02:1100:02:15
to just posterior a vertical line from
00:02:1500:02:17
the greater trochanter. Right so we got
00:02:1700:02:20
this about this width and the
00:02:2000:02:23
length from iliac crest to greater
00:02:2300:02:25
trochanter, in kind of a triangle shape.
00:02:2500:02:29
That's what you're going to search with
00:02:2900:02:31
one of our release tools, you got that.
00:02:3100:02:35
Now we're going to add pressure by
00:02:3500:02:37
having her laid down on top of one of
00:02:3700:02:39
these release tools, and we have a few
00:02:3900:02:41
ways to go. We can go cheap and just grab
00:02:4100:02:45
any any ball will work. We use softballs
00:02:4500:02:48
a lot for home exercise programs. This is
00:02:4800:02:51
one of those sand-bell type weighted
00:02:5100:02:53
weighted balls they tend to work really
00:02:5300:02:54
good, if you happen to be in a gym that
00:02:5400:02:56
has them. If you want to take it a step
00:02:5600:02:58
up from there we do love our trigger
00:02:5800:03:01
point materials, and we got a little
00:03:0100:03:03
partnership going with them -only because
00:03:0300:03:05
I was already using their product, I
00:03:0500:03:07
do happen to like it. One thing I like
00:03:0700:03:09
about their products is its PVC pipe
00:03:0900:03:13
rolled with foam, so as the foam breaks
00:03:1300:03:15
down, as you get more advanced it
00:03:1500:03:19
actually gets harder as opposed to a lot
00:03:1900:03:21
of our foam roll products that tend to
00:03:2100:03:24
get softer as you use them, which is not
00:03:2400:03:25
going to be good for your progression.
00:03:2500:03:28
And then if you really really want to
00:03:2800:03:30
take it up a notch, it is at a little
00:03:3000:03:32
different price point, but for the
00:03:3200:03:35
technology it is it's pretty it's really
00:03:3500:03:38
affordable for the technology. It is this
00:03:3800:03:39
is a new product we have fallen in love with
00:03:3900:03:41
called the Hypersphere from Hyperice.
00:03:4100:03:45
And what this does is it vibrates, it
00:03:4500:03:48
vibrates that at a very high frequency.
00:03:4800:03:54
Yeah so by adding vibration what I would
00:03:5400:03:56
assume is happening is on top of
00:03:5600:03:58
stimulating Golgi tendon organs and
00:03:5800:04:00
Ruffini endings to help us get autogenic
00:04:0000:04:03
inhibition, we're going to go ahead and
00:04:0300:04:09
also stimulate our Merkels and Pacinian
00:04:0900:04:11
corpuscles which are vibratory
00:04:1100:04:15
receptors, which may also help us with
00:04:1500:04:17
inhibition at least based on the
00:04:1700:04:18
clinical outcomes;
00:04:1800:04:21
and what we've seen in practice you get
00:04:2100:04:24
really great and effective release from
00:04:2400:04:26
this, and maybe even release was a little
00:04:2600:04:28
bit faster than you do with something
00:04:2800:04:32
like a foam roll or a ball. So I'm going
00:04:3200:04:33
to turn this thing back on, and I'm just
00:04:3300:04:34
going to start it on the low setting
00:04:3400:04:39
here for Melissa. She's going to go
00:04:3900:04:41
right into that area that we were just
00:04:4100:04:44
talking about right, so just behind ASIS.
00:04:4400:04:46
We want to stay off of bones, so you're
00:04:4600:04:47
not going to foam roll a bone away.
00:04:4700:04:53
I want her to roll from ASIS back towards
00:04:5300:04:56
her glutes, but not on her glutes right,
00:04:5600:04:58
and she can roll in between her iliac
00:04:5800:05:01
spine and greater trochanter. And what
00:05:0100:05:03
she's going to look for is the most
00:05:0300:05:06
tender spot, that most tender spot we're
00:05:0600:05:11
going to assume is our our tender
00:05:1100:05:13
pointer or trigger point. Everything else
00:05:1300:05:16
could potentially be a satellite site,
00:05:1600:05:18
which is essentially a referral pain
00:05:1800:05:22
pattern that comes from the original
00:05:2200:05:24
trigger point itself. So you don't want
00:05:2400:05:26
to just chase down every spot guys, you
00:05:2600:05:28
do want to find the most tender spot, and
00:05:2800:05:31
once you find that you want to hold from
00:05:3100:05:33
there. We can kind of mess with with her
00:05:3300:05:35
posture here a little bit, we probably
00:05:3500:05:36
could make some improvements. I'm going to have
00:05:3600:05:39
you bring this leg up actually right, and
00:05:3900:05:41
then you can kind of use this leg to
00:05:4100:05:42
help take off some pressure, and then I
00:05:4200:05:44
want her to straighten this leg out so
00:05:4400:05:46
that the TFL is in a somewhat lengthened
00:05:4600:05:49
position right, but I do want this leg
00:05:4900:05:51
relaxed. So I'm going to ask her to go ahead and
00:05:5100:05:53
lay her knee soft, because what I don't
00:05:5300:05:56
want to do is use this leg, go ahead and
00:05:5600:05:58
lock your knee again. I can tell she's
00:05:5800:06:01
pushing down into the ground here right,
00:06:0100:06:03
and now if we think about what the TFL
00:06:0300:06:05
does it is an abductor. She's probably
00:06:0500:06:09
using a stiff leg and pushing down in
00:06:0900:06:11
the ground to contract her TFL, and do
00:06:1100:06:16
something called guarding. We want no
00:06:1600:06:18
guarding, we want that muscle totally
00:06:1800:06:21
relaxed so that we get the best release
00:06:2100:06:25
possible. Now who's going to need a
00:06:2500:06:26
tensor fasciae latae release, that's a
00:06:2600:06:30
that's a very important question. This
00:06:3000:06:32
isn't something that you just throw
00:06:3200:06:35
anybody for any reason, this should be
00:06:3500:06:38
something that is targeted and aids in
00:06:3800:06:40
improving the quality of human movement
00:06:4000:06:43
based on your assessment. So if we were
00:06:4300:06:44
going to talk about something like the
00:06:4400:06:46
overhead squat assessment, the tensor
00:06:4600:06:48
fascia lata is an internal rotator,
00:06:4800:06:52
flexor an abductor of the hip, which
00:06:5200:06:55
means knees bow in, knees bow out,
00:06:5500:06:58
anterior pelvic tilt, excessive forward
00:06:5800:07:01
lean are all signs that may potentially
00:07:0100:07:04
indicate over activity of the tensor
00:07:0400:07:06
fascia lata. If you're using goniometry,
00:07:0600:07:10
a lack of external rotation right
00:07:1000:07:12
since this muscle is an internal rotator,
00:07:1200:07:15
would indicate a potential need to
00:07:1500:07:18
release the TFL, and then in a somewhat
00:07:1800:07:20
paradoxical fashion if somebody lacks
00:07:2000:07:23
internal rotation that also might
00:07:2300:07:27
indicate TFL over activity, especially if
00:07:2700:07:29
you're measuring internal rotation at 90
00:07:2900:07:31
degrees of hip flexion. That has to do
00:07:3100:07:34
with our arthrokinematic dysfunction and
00:07:3400:07:37
the fact that the TFL will also
00:07:3700:07:40
anteriorly and superiorly glide the
00:07:4000:07:45
femoral head in the acetabulum. So knees
00:07:4500:07:47
bow in and knees bow out, anterior pelvic tilt
00:07:4700:07:49
excessive forward lean, internal or
00:07:4900:07:51
external rotation during goniometry,
00:07:5100:07:53
are all potentially good reasons to do
00:07:5300:07:56
your tensor fascia lata release. You want
00:07:5600:07:59
to try the other side, all right here's how
00:07:5900:08:02
you set up one more time. You will notice
00:08:0200:08:04
that we have a mat down, this can get
00:08:0400:08:07
quite uncomfortable to hold for a couple
00:08:0700:08:10
minutes as our release techniques take
00:08:1000:08:13
time. I do see a lot of people rush
00:08:1300:08:15
through their foam roll techniques, rush
00:08:1500:08:17
through their mobility techniques in
00:08:1700:08:19
general which includes stretching, and
00:08:1900:08:20
even our self-administered joint
00:08:2000:08:23
mobilizations we want to make sure that
00:08:2300:08:26
once we do a technique, we do it right so
00:08:2600:08:28
that we get the result we're looking for.
00:08:2800:08:31
I used to hate when my mother told me
00:08:3100:08:34
to the fastest way to get something done,
00:08:3400:08:35
was to do it the right way the first
00:08:3500:08:38
time, and your like arggh right, you're like
00:08:3800:08:40
because it just takes long and I just want
00:08:4000:08:42
to get it done, but it's going to take a
00:08:4200:08:43
lot longer if you
00:08:4300:08:45
a half ass it over and over and over and
00:08:4500:08:48
over again to get the result that you're
00:08:4800:08:49
looking for. How does that hypersphere
00:08:4900:08:54
feel, fast yeah, a little it's a little
00:08:5400:08:56
intense the first couple times you did
00:08:5600:08:57
it. Now of course if she was in so much
00:08:5700:08:59
pain in this position with this hard
00:08:5900:09:04
small object right, because if something
00:09:0400:09:06
is small and something is very firm we
00:09:0600:09:08
end up having a lot of pressure because
00:09:0800:09:11
the surface area is very small, what I
00:09:1100:09:12
could do is go hey it looks like you
00:09:1200:09:14
can't relax into this position; and if
00:09:1400:09:15
you can't relax and you're going to
00:09:1500:09:17
guard, we're not going to get a release.
00:09:1700:09:19
So what I could go back to do is let me
00:09:1900:09:21
have this, let's go ahead and try this with
00:09:2100:09:29
a foam roll, see how that feels. Don't
00:09:2900:09:32
automatically assume that more pain is
00:09:3200:09:35
better, more pain is not better, a better
00:09:3500:09:38
release is better. So she feels more
00:09:3800:09:42
comfortable on a foam roll and she can
00:09:4200:09:44
actually relax and get a release. This is
00:09:4400:09:47
where we can start, over time we can
00:09:4700:09:50
decrease the surface area or increase
00:09:5000:09:55
pressure by maybe using a harder object.
00:09:5500:09:59
And of course with all of these
00:09:5900:10:01
techniques we want to make sure that we
00:10:0100:10:06
assess, address and reassess. I hope you
00:10:0600:10:08
guys have enjoyed this video, take some
00:10:0800:10:10
time to practice this before you give it
00:10:1000:10:12
to your patients and clients. I think
00:10:1200:10:14
you'll find that there's little little
00:10:1400:10:17
form cues and stuff that you'll pick up
00:10:1700:10:19
just by trying to figure the technique
00:10:1900:10:21
out yourself. If you have any questions
00:10:2100:10:24
please leave a comment below.
Related Videos
Tensor Fascia Latae (TFL) Self-administered Release
Quadratus Lumborum SA Static Release and Stretch
Supraspinatus SA Static Release
Crucifixion Stretch (Static Pec Stretch, Sub-occipital Release & Gentle Thoracic Mobilization)
Posterior Shoulder SA Static Release
Sacroiliac Joint Chicago Technique
Thoracic Pistol Manipulation
Upper Cervical Manipulation
Radial Head Manipulation
Shotgun (Pubic Symphysis) Manipulation
Adductor Magnus (Posterior) SA Static Release
Anterior Thigh SA Active Release
Biceps Femoris Vibration Release
Tensor Fasciae Latae (TFL) Static Manual Release
Vastus Lateralis Self-administered Dynamic Release a.k.a. Pin & Stretch