Ashley Black Guru & Her Fascia Blasting Tool
I really liked the article you wrote about the Fascia Blaster and I agree with you 100% on all points. It is my life’s purpose to help bring all of the “fascia people’s” work into mass adaptation. Ashley Black responding to this post on her fascia blaster tool for, well, fascia blasting.
I am writing today’s post because of two questions I am repeatedly asked via email or blog comments. The first one, “does tissue remodeling get rid of cellulite“? I answered HERE (BTW, the answer is — at least in my clinic — unfortunately, no). The second one — one that I am now getting several times a day — concerns Ashley Black Guru and her Fascia Blaster Tool for getting rid of cellulite. Below is a combination of two emails I received just the other day.
Dr. Schierling,
Thank you for all that you do. Your site is a wealth of information. I came to your site by researching Ashley Black Guru and her product called the Fascia blaster. Do you know about this product? She (and her thousands of followers) claim that her stick with claw-like finger attachments, when scrubbed over the skin, break through fascial adhesions to restore Fascia health.The benefits she claims sound similar to what you’ve found in your work (reduction or elimination of various types of chronic pain, improved blood flow/range of motion and muscle access, weight loss/elimination of the appearance of cellulite, etc etc.) It would seem hokey except that she has so many testimonials and before/after pictures from users that rave about this product and claim that it has changed their life. I guess I want to know from you if you believe that a stick of finger claws can really ‘rake’ through Fascia and restore it to its healthy state. Is that all (or most) of what it takes?
Are there other self help kinds of tool that you would recommend? We hope to be able to make the trip out to see you soon. In the meanwhile hoping to find an affordable at home remedy but not be duped out of a hundred dollars or so. Thank you very much for your time……….
First off, in my clinic I only deal with FASCIA or other connective tissues (LIGAMENTS, TENDONS, MUSCLES — yeah, I realize muscles are not a connective tissue) in terms of pain or restriction, and the crazy health issues they can cause (HERE is one — middle video). I don’t do, nor do I claim to do, any sort of spot reduction or tissue work specifically for changing the appearance of cellulite (yes, I do realize that cellulite can be a huge issue for some women — even women who seemingly do all the right things).
My Opinion of the Fascia Blaster and Fascia Blasting
If the Fascia Blaster works to reduce cellulite in many women (from the number of Ashley’s supporters it seems that it does), fabulous. However, that is not, never was, nor ever will be, the thrust of my practice. Speaking of my practice; if there’s one thing I’ve learned from over the past 25 years, it’s that not everyone is going to respond to treatment the same way.
Last October, Essence did an article by Nykia Spradley called Could This Be The Cellulite Fix We’ve Been Waiting For? stating, “The other thing to keep in mind is that continuous use is best. Yes, you do see immediate results, but like falling off on a workout plan, your body may revert after stopping.” Not to somehow sound uncaring, but whether or not cellulite reverts back to its original cellulite appearance does not concern me.
The thing that catches my eye, however, is the phrase “continuous use is best“. What does this mean? According to Black, it means approximately every other day, avoiding use if there is any bruising or residual soreness until it is gone. And then I would assume it needs to be continued. Hopefully people are getting off the SUGAR & JUNK CARBS as well as the CRAPPY FATS as well (particularly with the accumulative damage due to AGES).
As you can see from my site, I am a big “SELF HELP” kind of guy. Whatever you can do on your own to help your cause, by all means do it. Relying on doctors to keep our population healthy has, at least with chronic inflammatory diseases, proven to be a completely UNSUSTAINABLE disaster. That’s why I really like the idea of someone creating a tool and providing structured directions for its use. Whether using Ashley’s fascia blasting tool or something similar, a couple of cautions are in order.
First, I think people who use the Fascia Blaster or similar devices in the neck region (I saw a video of a woman working her SCM’S on YouTube) need to be aware of the potential for VASOVAGAL RESPONSES. I might go a few months and not see a VVR in my clinic, and then the other day I saw two in an afternoon (and then saw another one yesterday in my first patient of the morning).
Secondly, people (especially women) need to realize that fatty tissue — particularly excess fatty tissue, and particularly excess fatty tissue in the BELLY REGION — has the potential to affect them in ways that they probably never contemplated before.
This is because adipose tissue (body fat) not only acts as a caloric storehouse, but acts as a storehouse for hormones (both natural and XENO) as well as AN ARRAY OF TOXIC CHEMICALS (often these two links pertain to the same things). But to truly grasp the significance of what I am saying, you need to go a step farther in your understanding. Adipose tissue actually acts as an endocrine organ (HERE).
Thus, when starting out with any sort of “fascia blasting” protocol (whether using the official fascia blaster tool or something else) with a stated purpose of mechanically disrupting adipose cellulite (lysis), it’s critical that you go very (VERY) slow and easy in order to learn what you can tolerate due to the potential for deeply disrupted or microscopically damaged tissue to release or dump toxicity / hormones into your system, potentially creating something that could — depending on your ability to “BIOTRANSFORM” — go way beyond a standard HERXHEIMER REACTION.
Bottom Line: There have been similar products on the market since long before the internet, and there are a bunch of similar to be found now, some for a fraction of the cost (no, I have not tested any of them and cannot vouch for any of them pro or con). Just remember that you get what you pay for.
I appreciate the simplicity and DIY aspect of Ashley’s products, and honestly, if her devices work as claimed, they are worth the price of admission and then some. Again, the key any sort of fascia blasting or similar is to start out extremely (EXTREMELY) slowly and easy —- kind of like I recommend to my patients starting with a DAKOTA TRACTION DEVICE — since everyone has different metabolic and mechanical tolerances.
