hey everybody it's doctor jo and today i'm going to show you how
to use iastm to treat tennis elbow. so let's get started.
so first of all what is iastm? so it stands for instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization. you
might hear some people use the m for massage or manipulation, but technically it's mobilization.
and so really what that means is you're doing a mobilization technique of the tissue, but you're
using some sort of instrument. and you might have seen these instruments. they can be made out of
steel. they can be made out of stone. some are even made out of plastic.
you might have heard the graston technique that goes all the way back to ancient times, different
techniques to mobilize that tissue. and so it's a great way to increase circulation to the area,
break up adhesions or scar tissue in the area, and just generally get some more mobility in the area.
so what is tennis elbow? so tennis elbow or lateral epicondylitis, that bone on
the end that epicondyle, is when that area gets irritated. and so all those extensor muscles um
that come from the wrist go all the way up to the elbow and attach there. and so it's
called tennis elbow, but it i think they have a lot of different terms for it now even ipad elbow,
but it's really just from a repetitive movement. so what i'm going to use today for treatment is
the fiix elbow, which the folks that sta active sent me. now this is a really cool product because
you can see here it has those tools in there that instrument to help assist with that mobilization,
and a lot of times with the the angle that you want to use specifically is
anywhere from like a 30 to 60, and this is about 30 to 45. and so what's nice about that is if
you're doing it on your own, especially if you're doing on an area that's kind of hard to get to,
it's hard to keep that specific angle. so this really is nice to help continue with that angle,
and it also keeps the same amount of pressure. it's really not supposed to be grinding in there
pushing so hard that you can't stand it, it's uncomfortable, but it's never supposed to be super
painful. and so this does a nice job of keeping that consistent amount of pressure on there,
and then you can change the pressure with how much you put the strap on it, and i'll show you
what i'm going to do to add pressure to get a little bit of a deeper
thing in there. and i'm going to turn it on just so you can see how it moves a little bit. so i'm
going to press the play button there, and so you can see how it smoothly and continuously
moves and so as soon as one drops off another one comes on. so you're never really having the tool
the whole tool itself actually dropping off your skin, you're getting that continuous
touch on your skin which is really important in iastm. and so it's nice and smooth here,
but you can see those the little bit of an angle so again it should be uncomfortable, but it should
be tolerable. you shouldn't be wanting this thing off as quick as you can. so let me show you how
to use it. so they also send you a nice massage cream to go with it, and so you a little bit goes
a long way, so you don't want to do a whole lot. i think they suggest about a pea size. and just
kind of going over the area again of where that lateral epicondyle where that tennis elbow area
is right there, right over the tendon area. but again a little bit goes a long way. and you can
just kind of rub it out a little bit and then once you get that on there then again just kind
of getting that strap ready to go sliding it in, making sure that you feel where that one closest
to you is not on the bone because you don't want it on the bone, but you kind of want it on that
tender area. so then as easy as just pressing the play button, and then just relaxing your arm.
so you can either, i put to get a little bit more pressure on it just put it this way so i'm
pressing a little bit on there, um you can also if you want to not quite as much pressure on there,
you can go sideways. and then if you want to get a little bit of tissue movement while it's going,
you can just kind of bend your arm up and down. you can make a fist and so that's
going to get a little bit of a different and deeper tissue movement in there. but again,
you probably don't want to do this the first time just kind of get used to it.
maybe not start off with the full 10 minutes. they do have a really nice protocol in here that they
have and so it's 10 minutes a day, three times a week, and then they also say to do the stretching
and exercises every day. and so that's really nice, and it's an eight week program because a
lot of times with an "itis" the tennis elbow the lateral epicondylitis, that's something that maybe
you've had for a little while. those tissues are really irritated. it's kind of scarred up from the
inflammation, and so it's not usually going to be a quick fix. so this is nice to have because
if you have a job where you do repetitive exercise or repetitive movement for your job,
you can have this to use as a maintenance program. and they have a lot of great videos
that talk about it too on their website. so what you do is after you get your tissue mobilized and
loosened up and moving, then you want to stretch out the tissue. so a really super simple stretch
to do for those extensor muscles, those wrist extensor muscles that come all the way up is a
wrist flexion or a wrist extensor stretch. so the way to do that is just put your arm straight out,
and then take your other hand and just give some gentle pressure going downwards. and so i
can feel that right there. since i don't have a lot of inflammation in my elbow, i might need a
little bit more of a stretch in this so if you want a little bit more of a stretch, curl your
fingers under while you press, and you're going to get a little more stretch in there.
you can start out straight in front of you, i'm just kind of going across so you can see it,
but i also get a little bit more of a stretch that way. and so since this is a full stretch you want
to hold it for 30 seconds, and then relax, and do that a total of three times. and again i have
some videos for other tennis elbow exercises and stretches if you want to check those out.
so again, this is a great product for if you want to work on this at home, if this is something
that you maybe get every couple months because you just have a job that you're going to have this
you know chronic issue, this is great for a maintenance program. and it's great to
really get that instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization. you put it on, and you know it's
going to do it correctly, whereas if you try and do it on your own, and you're not trained how to
do it, sometimes you might make it a little more irritated. if you're interested in checking out
some other stretches and exercises for elbow pain in general, there's a playlist over here, and if
you're interested in purchasing the fiix elbow, click on the link up there. and don't forget to
subscribe by clicking down there. and remember be safe, have fun, and i hope you feel better soon.