Why the Ttool?
When I started working with IASTM tools, they were sold as kits, consisting of several unique tools. The kits weigh several kilograms, which is not good if you have to move around a lot in a busy clinic or sports field. So, I innovated IASTM devices by creating a single tool that can take care of the job. The tool went through several versions to get to where it is today. I combines more and less aggressive edges and several rounded services, to allow the clinician to cover the whole body- head to toe.
Inventor of the Ttool,
Cornelius Mybergh
M: Appl.Sci, PhD
IASTM history
IASTM started developing in the early 2000s. I believe the main driver for its use was that a group of practitioners who, due to hand injuries, could not perform cross friction massage according to the Cyriax guidelines, needed a tool to help them provide effective soft tissue treatment. They tool inspiration from Gua Sha, which is the traditional chinese medicine tool-based massage, and starting experimenting with modern materials.
What was interesting for the early developers was that when a steel tool moved over ‘rough’ tissue areas it transferred a reverberation through the instrument, which both the clinician and patient could feel. We still use this today to try and focus on areas where the fascial structures may be ‘crumpled’. Running an edged instrument over skin can often result in crushing of small blood vessels that connect arteries and veinsthis manifests as red spots in the skin called petechiae. The sharper the instrument edge, the easier it is to create these petechiae. So the edges of any tool have to be sharp enough to create an effective pressure wave so that scar tissue or fascial adhesions can be effectively treated, but not so sharp that petechiae are immediately form. Petechiae result in bruises, which delayed the next treatment.