What is the Big Deal About Scars

What’s the big deal about scars?

You’ve had scars since you were little. Perhaps you fell off your bike when you were three. Maybe you got an injury playing football in high school. Perhaps you’ve constantly banged your hip into the desk and now you have a bruise that won’t go away. But these scars don’t impact you. They are no big deal – right? 

WRONG.

In fact, scar tissue is a majorly big deal. It’s something that most people including doctors, trainers, and coaches ignore. And yet it is a problem with the essential thing that keeps us together and makes us what we are – your connective tissue.

Your connective tissue is your skin and all the tissues three-dimensionally – front to back, top to bottom, inside and outside – all the way around your body is one giant piece of the issue. If anything is caught or kinked in that tissue then you have an issue because that tissue is supposed to move, slide, twist and bend in every possible direction. And even pull apart and come back together if you want to get really technical about it.

A Scars Impact Goes Beyond the Visible Scars

The problem is that if you have a scar then it is impacting your body. And this doesn’t just mean the visible surface scars you don’t like aesthetically on your body – it means any scar tissue that runs all the way through your body. The scar that you can see is just the tip of the iceberg. And we’re not even talking about just scars we’re talking about adhesions or anything that causes the tissue to stick together and not move the way it was meant to move. And we think – what’s the big deal. It’s a huge deal. And no one really addresses it.

The impact of scar tissue on the body is starting to garner some attention now but it’s still not enough. How often when you or someone you know has had surgery do you get information prior to the surgery regarding prepping for scar tissue or boosting the immune system. When you or the person you know are still at the medical facility or hospital following the surgery what type of information do you then get regarding scar tissue – none. And when they send you home what information do you get, aside from how to keep the wound clean and covered, – none. Do the doctors, nurses, or any of the medical practitioners speak with you about the build-up of scar tissue and all the steps you can take – no.

Sports Injuries and Adhesions

Let’s talk about if you have any injury. Say you play a sport or are a runner and you have tight hamstrings. Odds are you are going to still play the sport or go for a run. As long as you continue you’re building up adhesions and stuck tissue. And these adhesions impact the way you move. If you’re a runner, it impacts how fast you can run. If you’re a football player, it affects the way you are able to move down the field. If you’re a weightlifter or bodybuilder it impacts the way you work out and how your body builds muscle.

Scars, Adhesions & Everyday Life

For kids, they build up adhesions falling off their tricycle, playing sports, or even carrying their backpack to school. As adults or teenagers, we build up adhesions through everyday repetitive or static positions that lock up our tissues such as looking down at cellphones, laptops and tablets for extended periods of time.

All of these things come together to cause problems throughout every single system in our body. And that’s why it’s extremely important to work with scar tissue.

There are all types of things you can do for scar tissue such as hands-on techniques with a massage therapist. At my private practice, I created the Scar Tissue Release and Integrated Therapies method or S.T.R.A.I.T™ Method which focuses on healing scar tissue and adhesions in the body.

Unless we take the time to learn about it and actively do something, we’re just going to be stuck. Not only are we not changing but we’re going to go downhill from where we are currently.

》A B O U T   M A R J O R I E   B R O O K

Marjorie Brook, LMT is a massage therapist, author and international educator. She works from the fundamental belief that your body is intuitively aligned with the thoughts you think, the emotions that you feel and the things that you do. She founded Brooks Seminars in 2007 after working as a decade as a nationally recognized massage therapist with a private practice on Long Island. She is the creator of the Scar Tissue Release and Integrated Therapies (S.T.R.A.I.T Method™) and offers continuing education courses on this method all over the world. Her articles have appeared in magazines such as Massage Today, American Fitness and Massage World. She’s approved by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork, the Massage Therapy Association of Alberta and the College of Massage Therapists of British Columbia.