Shear-Modulated Activation

Learn how shear-modulated activation can be used in a massage to help retrain your somatosensory map to promote a sense of peace and ease.

What is Shear-Modulated Activation?

Shear-modulation activation is based on the theory of mechanotransduction. Its approach involves using fluid or mechanical shear forces in manual therapy to alter the activation thresholds of cells, receptors, or molecular pathways.

It’s a bottom-up approach to pain management that targets peripheral mechanoreceptors and nociceptors to modulate pain signals at the spinal level.

When used as a manual therapy to directly treat pain, shear-modulated activation has two critical flaws:

It presumes the spinal reflex arc is pain, instead of an autonomic response without pain.
It defines pain as a bottom-up response to stimuli, rather than a top-down reaction to interoceptive data.

Pain Management Massage

In pain management massage, shear-modulated activation techniques are used to generate atypical or novel exteroceptive and interoceptive raw data. The goal is to provide the neuromatrix with new information to diversify its sensory output.

An example of this approach is myofascial release.

Shear-modulated activation techniques will not directly affect your pain level because pain is not an input, such as a nociceptive or mechanoreceptive signal. Pain is an output, a response to the raw data the brain receives, after it has been processed by the brain.

The value of shear-modulated activation lies in the variety and new stimulation it adds to a massage session. These techniques foster a robust sensory experience for the brain to interpret.

Sometimes, shear-modulated activation is used to create the perception of firm pressure.

Perceived Firm Pressure

Perceived firm pressure refers to how pressure feels, rather than the degree of kinetic force applied. This is often experienced during a massage when little or no lubricant is used. Reduced glide increases soft tissue traction, which increases drag. Increased drag heightens the client’s mind-body awareness, thereby elevating exteroceptive and interoceptive sensitivity

What Does It Help With?

Shear-modulated activation adds three-dimensionality to the client’s perception of sensation. It moves the soft tissues in new and interesting ways, encouraging the brain to rewrite a more accurate somatosensory map of the body. This fosters the development of new positive neurotags (SIMs).

A massage should be a robust sensory experience, one that helps someone feel alive and in tune with their physical form. Shear-modulated activation provides a somatic experience that feels full and dials in on details the brain does not normally observe.

When used in combination with body scanning and movement, the use of shear-modulated activation can magnify the benefits of hybrid neurotag retraining, especially when combined with pain neuroscience education.

Deep Tissue Massage

Shear-modulated activation is used in deep-tissue pain management massage to promote pain relief in deeper muscle structures. The intention is to redraw the somatosensory map rather than to cause physiological changes in the body.

This type of deep tissue massage is, as the name suggests, not about firm pressure but rather about a deep reprogramming of your brain’s software regarding its perception of touch.

Rather than using firm pressure, alternate approaches may be used, including methods that enhance the sensitivity of your somatosensory awareness. This reduces your sensory threshold for detecting sensation, rather than attempting to apply pressure above this threshold.

As a result it reduces delayed onset muscle soreness and the discomfort often associated with firm massages.