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Myofascial Release
Muscle Reset TechniqueHands-on soft tissue work that finds the muscle that's actually causing your pain and resets the signal from the brain — so the change holds. No cracking. No twisting.
By Dr. Ladd Carlston · Updated May 18, 2026
What it is
You've probably tried a few things already. Massage helped for a couple of days. The foam roller works for an hour. Maybe another chiropractor cracked your back and you felt great walking out — and back to baseline by Friday. The tight spot keeps coming back.
How I use it
Here's what I've learned in 23 years of doing this: that knot isn't really a knot. It's a muscle that has stopped firing correctly and is locked in protective tension. You can press on it, stretch it, even crack the joint next to it — but unless you reset the signal from the brain to that muscle, you're treating the symptom, not the pattern.
That's what I do differently. I find the muscle that's checked out, and I get it talking to your nervous system again. No high-velocity adjustments. No twisting. Just muscle work that actually changes something.
Myofascial release, on paper, means working on the fascia — the connective tissue that wraps around every muscle. Most people get a version of this in a massage. Some PTs do it with their elbows and a foam tool. It's not nothing. It just usually doesn't last.
The reason it doesn't last is that the tissue you're pressing on isn't the problem. It's the muscle underneath, and the signal running into that muscle from the nervous system. When a muscle stops firing — because of an old injury, a habit, a movement pattern you don't even know you have — the body recruits the surrounding tissue to hold things together. That's the 'knot' you can feel. Releasing the fascia without resetting the muscle is why it comes back by next week.
When I do myofascial release, the soft-tissue work is one piece, but it's not the only piece. I muscle test first to figure out which muscle has actually stopped firing. Then I use a combination of soft-tissue work, neuromuscular re-education, and — when the nervous system needs it — craniosacral therapy to get the signal moving again. The muscle reset is the goal. The release is what makes the reset stick.
What to expect
A visit is 30 minutes. We'll talk briefly about what's going on and what you've already tried, then I'll get to work — I want to spend the appointment fixing the problem, not interviewing you about it.
The work itself is hands-on. I muscle test to find the muscle that's not firing, do the soft-tissue work to release the tissue around it, and use neuromuscular techniques to get the signal back online. If the nervous system is locked up, I'll add craniosacral work to settle it down. By the end of the appointment we recheck — most of the time, you'll feel the difference before you stand up.
No high-velocity adjustments. No cracking. No twisting. If you've been avoiding chiropractors because of the popping, that's not what happens here. If you've been to chiropractors who only crack and you're done with that approach, this will look completely different.
Cost is $100 cash for a 30-minute visit. FSA and HSA cards work. I'm out-of-network for insurance, but I provide a superbill on request so you can submit for reimbursement if your plan covers it.
Why this works when other things didn't
After 23 years, I can usually tell within a minute or two why someone is still in pain after seeing three other providers. It's almost always the same thing: nobody checked which muscle was actually causing the problem. They treated the place that hurts, not the muscle pulling on it.
Traditional chiropractic gives temporary relief because cracking a joint changes the position of the bones but doesn't change the muscle pattern that pulled them out of alignment in the first place. The bones go back where the muscles tell them to go. So you feel great for two days and then you're back.
Massage feels good because it raises your pain threshold and increases blood flow. It's a real effect. It also wears off in about 48 hours because the underlying signal hasn't changed. The muscle is still protecting itself, just more relaxed about it.
PT and rehab exercises can work, but they plateau when the muscle you're trying to strengthen is the one that's not firing. You can do clamshells for six months — if the glute medius isn't getting a clean signal, you're just training the compensation. The hip flexor or the QL takes over the job, and the original muscle stays asleep.
The reason this approach works is that I'm not trying to override your body's patterns. I'm finding the spot where the pattern broke down and putting it back online. Once the right muscle wakes up, the compensation pattern unwinds on its own.
What I work on with this approach
Hip tightness and glute dysfunction. This is one of the biggest patterns I see and one of the most missed. The glute medius checks out, the hip flexor and the QL take over, and people end up with chronic hip tightness, sciatica-like pain down the leg, or low back pain that nobody can explain. You stretch and it doesn't release. You strengthen and it doesn't change. The fix is waking the glute back up — once that happens, the hip stops gripping on its own.
Low back tightness that always comes back. Almost nobody's low back hurts because of the low back. It hurts because a muscle somewhere upstream — usually a glute, sometimes a deep abdominal — has stopped firing, and the lumbar muscles are doing two jobs to compensate. You can stretch a tight low back forever and it won't matter, because tightness is the symptom, not the cause. I find the muscle that quit and bring it back.
Tight neck and upper trap pain. The trap is the muscle everyone wants to dig into, and digging into it almost never works for more than a few hours. It's tight because deeper neck muscles — the deep cervical flexors, the rhomboids — have stopped pulling their weight, and the trap is holding your head up by itself. The release work feels good but the reset is what gets the trap to actually let go and stay let go.
Other patterns I see a lot:
- Tension headaches that start from the neck
- Plantar fasciitis (almost always a calf or glute issue)
- Tennis elbow and golfer's elbow
- Piriformis-driven sciatica (yes, tight muscles can pinch nerves — that's exactly what this is)
- Trigger points and stubborn muscle knots that won't release with massage
If you've been told you have a "muscle imbalance" or a "weak core" or that you just need to stretch more, and stretching more hasn't fixed it — this is probably what's actually going on.
Why patients drive to Overland Park for this
I see patients from all over the KC metro — Leawood, Lenexa, Olathe, Mission, KCMO, Shawnee. Most of them aren't coming because Overland Park is convenient. They're coming because they've already tried the chiropractor down the street and the massage place near work, and they're looking for someone who does soft-tissue work differently.
The two things people tell me when they first walk in: they've been somewhere for the same problem before and it didn't hold, and they're tired of being cracked. I've spent 23 years building this approach specifically for people in that spot.
If you're driving in from somewhere else in the metro, the office is right off the highway and parking is easy.
How this fits into Muscle Reset Technique
Myofascial Release is one of the tools I use as part of my Muscle Reset approach. No single technique works in isolation — I combine multiple methods based on what your muscle testing reveals.
Conditions this helps
Common questions
Is this the same as deep tissue massage?
No. Deep tissue massage works on the tissue itself — it can feel great and increase blood flow, but it doesn't address why the muscle stopped firing in the first place. What I do uses some of the same soft-tissue techniques, but the goal is resetting the brain-to-muscle signal so the change holds. The soft-tissue work is the tool, not the outcome.
Does it hurt?
Not really. Some of the muscle release work is uncomfortable for a few seconds — the muscle is holding tension for a reason and letting go is sometimes a strange sensation — but it shouldn't feel like a bruising massage or a forceful adjustment. If anything is too much I'll back off.
How many sessions until it sticks?
Most people feel a real change in the first visit. Whether it holds depends on how long the pattern has been there. Recent injuries often resolve in 2–4 visits. Chronic patterns that have been there for years sometimes take longer because the body has built compensations on top of compensations, and we have to unwind them in order.
Will you crack my back or neck?
No. No high-velocity adjustments, no twisting, no popping. If your spine needs to move differently, it'll move on its own once the surrounding muscles are doing their job again.
Do you take insurance?
I don't bill insurance directly, but I'm happy to provide a superbill so you can submit for out-of-network reimbursement. FSA and HSA cards work. Cost is $100 for a 30-minute visit.
Can tight muscles really pinch nerves or cause sciatica?
Yes, absolutely. The clearest example is piriformis-driven sciatica — the piriformis muscle sits right on top of the sciatic nerve, and when it's locked up it compresses the nerve and sends pain down the leg. People get told they have a 'disc issue' when the actual culprit is a muscle. Tight muscles can also cause headaches, numbness in the hands, and pain that mimics nerve problems. Finding the muscle is usually faster than getting an MRI and chasing a disc that may not even be the cause.
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