Graston® Technique, Sastm, and ASTYM treatment are very different, but they do share a bit of history.

The history and the research…

Being a former collegiate athlete, I had several nagging injuries.  During my medical training, I made an effort to seek out possible treatments and therapies for my troublesome knee, ankle and elbow pain.  I tried all treatment options I could find, but nothing worked.  Pursuing medical research was an avenue to help me figure out why current treatments would not work on my old injuries.

Twenty years ago, I began practicing medicine, started running a sports medicine medical fellowship and began performing medical research.  Part of my medical research focused on cross-friction massage and other manual therapies.   Dave Graston was a machinist who briefly worked for me.  At the time I hired him, Dave was a line worker for General Motors. 

Dave Graston worked for me machining some basic tools to be used in the research that I was planning on conducting.  At first, my main focus was to look into aspects of Cyriax’ cross friction and many other manual therapies, and how different tools may assist in those approaches.  I worked with Dave for a short period to get some basic tools together. Soon after I outlined the basics for using these tools to do friction massage, Dave left my employment, partnered with a businessman, and began selling tools under the name “Graston Techique.”  Dave Graston is no longer involved with the Graston Technique. He now sells another version of tools which he calls “Sastm”. The Graston Technique is currently run by the businessman that Dave originally partnered with, Mike Arnolt. 

I had no interest in selling tools to do friction massage.  I was focused on my theories and planned research.  After redesigning the instrumentation, my research team and I began investigating optimal ways to stimulate healing and accelerate rehabilitation.  The research team consisted of physicians, therapists, and scientists and we began investigating how to optimize healing responses in the body with different approaches and instruments. Our team performed and reviewed basic science studies, as well as clinical responses for different diagnoses and variations of protocol. Some of these studies were published, and some were not due to evolving ideas and the need to protect intellectual property.   The research team developed a custom outcome system and started collecting data from multiple sites so we could learn from process enhancements in the clinic.  To date, our research team has successfully conducted numerous basic science studies, case series and case studies, outcome studies, and controlled clinical trials.  ASTYM treatment is evidence-based and its development and protocols are firmly grounded in research.  Scientific study continues to be a high priority with ASTYM treatment, and further studies and trials are underway.

For a more detailed discussion on the differences between ASTYM treatment and tooled friction massage (Graston®, Sastm, etc.), click here: http://blog.astym.com/blog/astym/0/0/astym-vs-iastm-graston-sastm-etc-how-they-are-different