The New Body Sculptors
Is an hour of (painful) bodywork the no-gym trick to getting slim? Emily Listfield investigates.
When it conies to losing inches. top models and fashion A-liners in Paris. New York, and Los Angeles have a new secret weapon—and it has nothing to do with exercise, liposuction, or starvation diets. They're all clamouring for appointments with the latest gurus of svelte, aka body sculptors, who use (very, very) deep massage to whittle waists, de-lump derrieres. and tone triceps. The secret? Ifs all about your fascia, the connective tissue that forms a netting throughout your body to support and protect muscles and organs. Healthy fascia is pliable, but with age, injury, or lifestyle choices (from wearing high heels to doing high-impact exercise), the tissue can get stiff and form adhesions that doctors have long suspected can contribute to muscle pain. Body sculptors claim that tight fascia also traps fat, adding inches and preventing definition. While specific techniques vary, they share a belief that hands-on manipulation will loosen fascia, increasing blood flow and releasing fat cells so that they can be eliminated naturally. Not everyone is convinced, though. "There is no evidence that breaking up adhesions can reshape your body: says Dr. (lades Kim. a New York rehabilitation medicine specialist. Nevertheless, women are hopping on massage tables and hopping off slimmer (if slightly bruised). Diana T. a beauty executive in New York, has been seeing Marina Baratashvili once or twice a week for three months. "In six weeks, my butt was up in the air," she says. °Host two inches from my thighs, I have no more muffin top, and I see definition in my stomach." Baratashvili, who worked with a Bolshoi prima ballerina for more than a decade, employs a signature blend of Korean meridian pressure point therapy and an ancient Georgian body-sculpting technique to dig into bare flesh with her elbow, hands, and forearms. "the strong manipulation loosens the fascia and wakes up muscles so i can move them back to where they should be," says Baratashvili. Me hour-long session is not for the faint of heart. "It was so painful at first, but I'd rather spend an hour with her than three hours at the gym," Diana says. Baratashvili recommends thrice-weekly sessions for the first month, tapering off to once a week for maintenance after three months; 10 to 15 sessions arc usually needed to see results. In Paris, chose in the know go to see Martine de Richeville, who combined her master's degree in psychology with training in acupuncture to create a signature Remodelage treatment designed to rid the body of bulges and the mind of stress. She begins each session with abdominal work, then pinches and prods every inch from head to toe. °Older fat deposits arc harder to soften," she says. it requires powerful movement to help eliminate cellulite." Results are usually visible after five sessions. De Richeville recommends weekly sessions to start and monthly visits for maintenance. "I was very sceptical, but Martine reshaped my whole body," says Mindy Prugnaud, a Parisian fashion executive. "I had thunder thighs, and now I have a waist and my thighs are straight. My arms are much slimmer. I never exercise; just do massage. Its so French." For those who can't score an appointment, bodywork expert Ashley Black invented the FasciaBlaster, a home tool with a rabid cult following. Black, who spent 12 years treating pro athletes including Brett Favre and Derek *Jae; was originally interested only in muscle recovery. "I could fix things that trainers couldn't by breaking up adhesions," she says. With devoted athletes on both coasts, Black was looking for a way to help them maintain the work in between her visits, so she invented the FasciaBlaster, a long stick with claw-like appendages that allow you to dig into your own fascia. "As you break up adhesions, the daws go deeper and deeper," she explains. The blaster's ability to treat cellulite was discovered accidentally when the girlfriend of one of Black's athlete clients cried it on her cellulite, which subsequently disappeared. "Once you open the fascia, the far can redistribute," claims Black. The FasciaBlaster's popularity grew by word of mouth, and blew up on social media. Model Toni Garm has been working with Black for three years. "There's lots of bruising, but I low the immediate results," Garrn says. "My legs got smoother and smaller right away. Its like magic." While "magic" has yet to enter the medical lexicon, there's a potential explanation: "When fascia is tight, it can trap fat cells in pockets, which can form bumps," says Dr. Stanley Beekman, a sports medicine specialist in Cleveland, Ohio. When you break up adhesions, he surmises, those pockets are flattened and fat cells are more evenly distributed, giving a smoother silhouette. "The research is still in its infancy," he says. Still, he admits, "My daughter used the FasciaBlaster and her cellulite improved." Magic? You decide. ■ Warne has been changed.
“I had thunder thighs, and now I have a waist and my thighs are straight,” says an acolyte.