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Soft Tissue Mobilization

Soft tissue mobilization is a form of manual physical therapy where your licensed physical therapist uses hands-on techniques on your muscles, ligaments and fascia with the goal of breaking adhesions and optimizing your muscle function.

Adhesions are your body’s attempt to heal a soft tissue injury with a lengthy inflammation process, resulting in long strands of collagenous scar tissue. These new tissues pull against one another, forming trigger points of pain.

Soft Tissue Mobilization Techniques

Your licensed PT is specially trained to use his or her hands to push, pull and knead your muscles, ligaments, tendons and nerves in precise ways to help bring you pain relief and return you to functionality.

Specific techniques for soft tissue mobilization include:

  • Sustained pressure – pushing directly on the restricted tissue and holding
  • Unlocking spiral – pushing on the restricted tissue in alternating clockwise and counterclockwise rotating motions
  • Direct oscillations – rhythmic pushing on the restricted tissue
  • Perpendicular mobilization – pushing on the myofascial tissue at right angles
  • Parallel mobilization – pushing along the seams of muscles
  • Perpendicular strumming – rhythmic pushing along muscle border, followed by rubber of top of muscle
  • Friction massage – pushing across the grain of the muscles, tendons and ligaments

Soft tissue mobilization can help relieve pain and improve function. To help achieve optimal results with soft tissue mobilization, we encourage you to:

  • Do your home exercises faithfully
  • Maintain a normal body weight
  • Get regular aerobic exercise
  • Engage in weight training, as directed by your physician

Being able to implement soft tissue mobilization techniques requires a significant amount of training in human anatomy and physiology and understand how manipulating the tissues will impact physical function. Physical therapists specialize in evaluation, assessment and treatment of movement function disorders. Soft tissue mobilization is just one of the strategies that we use to help our patients meet their functional goals.

Goals of Soft Tissue Mobilization

  • Break down or reduce adhesions
  • Improve range of motion
  • Lengthen muscles and tendons
  • Reduce swelling and edema
  • Decrease pain
  • Restore functionality

The OSPTKY Difference

Specialty-Level Care

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Caring Physical Therapists

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Soft Tissue Mobilization Locations

Jeffersonville

590 Missouri Avenue, Ste 201
Jeffersonville, IN 47130
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Hamburg

1868 Plaudit Place
Suite B
Lexington, KY 40509
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Lexington

230 W. Main Street
Suite B
Lexington, KY 40507
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Lincoln County

132 Frontier Boulevard
​Suite 106
Stanford, KY 40484
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Louisville

11330 Maple Brook Drive
Louisville, KY 40241
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Richmond

171 North Keeneland Drive
Richmond, KY 40475
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Performance Physical Therapy

460 East Brannon Road
Nicholasville, KY 40356
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Danville

474 Whirlaway Drive
Danville, KY 40422
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Frequently Asked Questions

  • A physical therapy visit lasts about 40-60 minutes. The actual contents of the visit vary based on your diagnosis/need, but typically what happens is:

    1. You check in with the receptionist, make any appointments necessary, and we discuss your health insurance benefits with you.
    2. You go into the gym. You can change clothes if you need to, then begin therapy.
    3. You perform 6-8 various exercises and stretches. These can include therapeutic band exercises, light body weight exercises, or minimal weights. The stretches will promote strength, stability, improved range of motion, and pain relief.
    4. We can initiate other techniques to include manual work, taping, cupping, and dry needling as needed.
    5. The therapist makes recommendations based on your progress. These can include altering the frequency of visits, making additions/alterations to your home exercise plan, or things to do before your next visit.
  • We recommend budgeting 40-60 minutes for a typical therapy session. The only exception to this will be your first visit, which can take about 20 minutes longer due to the physical therapy evaluation your therapist will provide. We also recommend showing up about 10-15 minutes early to your first visit. This way, you can complete the paperwork before your visit time and streamline the process.

  • If we are asking you to do something that is hurting too much, let us know! Physical therapy should not be severely painful. It is not common to be so sore that patients are in pain or it affects their daily life. If this ever happens during or after an appointment, let us know and we will adapt your program.

  • During your initial evaluation, your therapist may ask you a number of questions to determine what the cause of your pain is. This can include questions about your sleep habits, activity level, and work environment. They will also ask for a medical history, and then typically ask direct questions about where and when you experience pain.

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People in Louisville, Lexington & Southern Indiana Trust OSPTKY

Hear from patients that reclaimed their lives.

My therapist listened to me and used my history as her previous patient to treat me and I achieved pain relief after the 2nd session. I'm so thankful for her expertise and kindness.

5 stars

Kathyrn H.

OSPTKY Patient

PT was my last resort and they came through with flying colors. It is amazing how much my pain has gone away in a week. My therapist is extremely knowledgeable and was quick to know my issue. The entire staff is very organized and extremely nice!!

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Lindsey W.

OSPTKY Patient

Besides the absolute friendliest people in the world... I trust what these professionals say for me to do to become stronger!

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Nathan K.

OSPTKY Patient

The staff are all 110% top-notch! The goal is to not need to come to PT anymore but the dynamics and atmosphere they have created make you miss them as people! As an athlete, it is common for other athletes to ask for recommendations on who to see upon an injury, majority of the time OSPTKY & crew come up as the go-to solution! Life & aging are tough, they help make it stronger & easier!!!!

5 stars

Tyler W.

OSPTKY Patient
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