In my opinion, quality chiropractic care begins with combining soft-tissue techniques with joint manipulation and rehabilitation exercise. Muscles move bones. If you are not addressing the dysfunction in the muscles, your adjusting is much less likely to have long-term success.

This article, the first in a series on soft-tissue techniques, reviews some of soft-tissue methods I have been introduced to over the past 35 years.
One underlying theme when it comes to the various soft-tissue methods is that pain is a liar. The pain generator may be the local joint, or the nerves affected by disc pathology or impingement, but we need to look beyond that. “He who treats (only) the site of pain is lost” has been attributed to Lewit. Research proving that soft tissue is the source of a particular pain is difficult. Sometimes the pain generator can be identified, but the question remains, what is pulling on the pain generator?

One underlying theme when it comes to the various soft-tissue methods is that pain is a liar. The pain generator may be the local joint, or the nerves affected by disc pathology or impingement, but we need to look beyond that.

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