graston actually tooled the tools for astym.... the only part i ever got bruised on was my tricep...afterwards it felt very comparable to a regular deep tissue massage. the legs were a different story...i stood up and felt like i weighed 2 pounds...it was a cool feeling. some of the professional level athletes they have used it on have run faster 40's and squatted more after getting the treatment.

i have not looked up if there is an ART center around here...i'd like to see how expensive it is...

all in all it was a very cool experience...there are 3 tools...and then you just use cocoa butter or some type of massage lotion, make about 2 passes in each spot you need to hit with each tool. so since i had shoulder problems, we did all 3 traps, rhoms, delts, bicep tendon, triceps, RC, both sides of the forearms, the hands, and on the lower body, calves, dig around the shinbone, hams, quads, adductors, the attachment points of the it band, tfl, and a little glute med. he said he had seen some pictures of people who had gotten graston...and they only focused on the symptomatic area, and just hammered on it....but didn't do the whole kinetic chain of the symptomatic area. those would be people to stay away from.....but it's not really evasive at all. not painful. adductors are tickleish tho

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