Developed over 30 years ago by Dr. Mitchell Yass, the Yass Method For Pain-Free Movement stands unique as a method to properly diagnose which tissue is emitting your pain.
Why was there a need for the Yass Method to be developed?
The explanation of the inception of the Yass Method For Pain-Free Movement begins when Dr. Yass was in physical therapy school. Here is how it came about in Dr. Yass’s own words.
“While there it was apparent that what was being taught had little logical basis and I was not going to be able use that information once graduated and treating people. I knew I would have to figure something out as I went along. During my last semester of school, I was treating people as a student and was compelled to ask people to point to where their pain was. It turned out it wasn’t where it should be if the structural abnormalities identified by MRI like a herniated disc, arthritis or meniscal tear was to cause pain. That meant that the structural abnormality couldn’t be the cause.
I realized that the symptom being experienced was real and was directly connected to the tissue in distress eliciting the symptom. So I began a process of interpreting symptoms and this led me to the realization that in the vast majority of cases that the tissue in distress eliciting pain was muscle. This became the basis of my method which has developed and become refined over the past 30 years. To give you further background about why the Yass Method makes so much sense, I want you to understand the history of chronic pain. This will be put into context why my findings of the cause of pain is muscular in most cases therefore makes so much sense.
Prior to the mid to late 1980s, chronic pain never existed in the history of mankind. To put this in perspective, there are roughly 130 million Americans and roughly 1 billion people suffering with chronic pain today across the world. So what has led to this epidemic? The answer can be summed up in one word: Technology. In the mid to late 1980s technology such as automation, computers and phones began to take over how life’s activities were performed. Prior to this period, most people performed weight bearing, multidirectional jobs and activities. As long as the force requirements of the activities were about the same as the strength outputs of the muscles performing them, everything worked great and there was no breakdown of muscle and no pain developed. Then came the use of computers and automation and a massive percentage of the population starting doing jobs and performing activities in a seated position. The use of muscles on a daily basis fell dramatically even with people as young as in their twenties. This led to muscles weakening simply because of the lack of use. When activities were then performed, the muscles no longer had the force output to match the force requirement of the activities and they became strained and elicited pain.
One of the medical diagnostic technologies developed in the 1980s was the MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). Most people don’t know that the MRI was actually invented to identify tumors in the brain. But with limited usage, it appears a secondary usage was found. It was now said that the MRI could identify the cause of pain in this mushrooming population of people now suffering from head to toe. So the advent of the rise of people of all ages suffering with acute pain was due to technology reducing the amount of manual input necessary to perform all forms of activity. The reason that the pain went from acute to chronic was the use of the MRI to identify the tissue in distress eliciting that pain, since the MRI is only designed to identify structural abnormalities like herniated discs, arthritis and meniscal tears, muscular causes cannot ever be identified. So with most causes of pain being muscular, the wrong tissues were being identified and treated leading the true tissue in distress, that being muscle, to remain in distress and continue eliciting the emergency distress signal of pain.
To attach a bit of evidence to what I am describing, here are a few key findings. In 1994, the first study on people with no back pain was performed and found that roughly 70% of those studied had herniated or bulging discs. The conclusion was that in most cases the findings of structural abnormalities should be seen as an independent finding and that a thorough physical evaluation be the key to identifying the cause of pain. In 2007, the American College of Physicians, recommended MRIs no longer be used to identify the cause of lower back pain because in 85% of cases the cause could not be attributed to a spinal abnormality such as a herniated disc, stenosis or arthritis and any attempt to attach a structural abnormality as the cause to the pain did nothing to improve outcomes. In 2009, Aaron Filler invented the MRN (Magnetic Resonance Neurography) which proved that the cause of sciatica in more than 93% of cases is the piriformis muscle impinging on the sciatic nerve; having nothing to do with structural abnormalities at the lumbar spine.”
Understanding the Yass Method
Introducing the Yass Method and why it is revolutionary.
1. Symptoms represent causes
Each tissue, bone, nerve or muscle presents with a certain symptom which when examined allows the person to know which tissue is emitting the symptoms. No diagnostic tests are needed because the symptoms are presenting exactly what is happening in the body. Presentation of where the pain is, what may have brought on the pain, what makes the pain worse or better are all key signals that can help determine which tissue is emitting the pain. Certain types of tests that can be performed by the individual such as range of motion of a joint, muscle testing, flexibility testing, functional testing and palpation (feeling tissues to see which one is emitting the pain) are all components that help provide an understanding of which tissue is emitting the pain. Once determined, the proper course of treatment can be implemented. If the cause is found to be muscular, then the appropriate strength training exercises can be implemented and the muscular cause resolved. If the cause is found to be structural, then surgery can be performed confidently knowing that upon completion of the surgery the pain will be ended.
2. The cause of most pain is lack of strength to perform daily activities
We live in a gravitational environment. Every activity we try to perform is achieved by muscles creating force to push against gravity. If the force output of muscles performing an activity is less then the force requirement of the activity being performed, symptoms occur. If the strength is not in all the appropriate muscles then a breakdown will occur and a muscle will strain and emit pain. It could be the initial weakened muscle or the weakened muscle could cause another muscle to breakdown and emit pain. A weakened muscle or imbalanced muscle could create a misalignment of the joint surfaces of the joints they pass and support which could lead to pain at a joint. Weakened muscles could lead to breakdowns such as tendinitis, bursitis and swelling in extremities. Muscles can strain and impinge on nerves creating neurological symptoms. Muscles themselves can refer symptoms. The key is that regardless of the symptoms being performed the cause is still the same; a lack of strength of all the muscles required to perform daily tasks.
The great part of this explanation is that it also provides an understanding of why there are so many people with degenerative aspects to their joints or spine and yet have no pain. This lack of strength of muscles required to perform daily activities can lead to lack of maximal support capacity of joints to take the loads that pass through them during activity. If there is lack of strength or a muscle imbalance between the muscles that support a joint then the joint surfaces can become misaligned. This means that instead of having 100% of the joint surfaces available to take the load, there is less. Since 100% of the load is being taken by less than 100% of the joint surface of a joint, the force is more than the joint surface can take. This leads to a break down in the cartilage that sits at the end of the joint surfaces which is specifically designed to take the load that passes through the joint. Eventually there is a breakdown of the joint surface which can lead to arthritic changes and deterioration of the meniscus or cartilage that sits between the bones that make up the joint. In the case of the spine, this lack of full congruency of the joint surfaces can lead to repositioning of the intervertebral discs which can present as bulging or herniated discs, stenosis or pinched nerves. The key to understand is that these variations in structure take years to occur. The progression is so slow that the body doesn’t even recognize it and doesn’t emit pain to identify that the process is occurring. This is why you can find about 70 to 80% of people with absolutely no pain getting MRIs when performing studies and finding them presenting with all forms of these types of structural abnormalities. This is why you should never simply accept an MRI as the indication of the cause of your pain.
In a small number of cases, the symptoms that the body presents will show that the cause of the pain is due to a structural variation. It is in these cases that I completely endorse the use of surgery to resolve the cause of the pain. But recognize it is the symptoms that the body presents which provides the proper understanding of this cause, not an MRI finding.
3. Muscular causes can only be resolved through targeted strength training
Since I found that in roughly 98% of cases of pain being experienced is muscular based, the next obvious question is what to do about it. The only answer I could provide was to use targeted strength training to resolve the muscular deficit. Since pain is the result of muscle weakness or imbalance, once the weakened muscles have been determined, the only way to change the circumstance is to use targeted strength training to achieve full strength and balance of all muscles responsible for functional activities.
The reason for the phrase “targeted” is because I am pointing out that the goal of the evaluation is to determine which muscles are leading to the inability to perform the functional tasks and create the symptoms. It is only these muscles that would need to be strengthened to resolve the symptoms. The idea of general strengthening to resolve symptoms is completely flawed. Once the symptoms have been resolved and full function achieved then certainly a general conditioning routine can be employed to enhance functional capacity to a higher level. My problem with most medical professionals that promote an understanding of using strength training to address symptoms don’t seem to understand the idea of targeted strength training. I have been told by innumerable patients who saw me after going to other medical practitioners that they were given the same exercises as they saw everybody else doing. They would tell me that if they were doing shoulder exercises they would perform internal and external rotation, they would perform biceps and triceps exercises, they would do quadriceps and hamstring exercises for the legs. This can’t possibly be right. There was also the problem that little to no resistance was utilized. Muscles only get stronger when they are asked to work against progressively increasing resistances. My understanding of how to strengthen muscles is self-taught and I have used this understanding for thousands of clients to resolve their pain.
4. You can resolve your own pain
The best part of the Yass Method is that it is simply a blueprint for understanding how to interpret the body’s presentation of symptoms. The use of the method can be implemented by anybody. An individual who presents with symptoms simply needs to understand what the symptoms represent. The Yass Method gives you the ability to interpret the symptoms to connect the symptoms to a specific cause. I have provided an understanding of how to use standardized testing procedures to differentiate bone, muscle or nerve as the cause of your symptoms. Right now, the medical establishment does not look at symptoms to help determine the cause of pain and other symptoms. This is why they are failing so miserably. Symptoms are clearly the body’s attempt to help identify a tissue in distress. You can identify the true cause of your pain when you understand how to interpret the symptoms your body presents.
The ultimate goal of the Yass Method For Pain-Free Movement is transference of knowledge. The goal is to get you to understand what tissue is causing your pain. If determined to be muscle, to give you the tools to resolve the cause so you can live pain-free and fully functional. Giving you the chance to live the life you want and deserve.
