MELT is self-care by design. You’re the one helping yourself to health.
I strongly encourage you to read Sue Hitzmann’s inspiring and informative book, The MELT Method — available on Amazon and MeltMethod.com — and watch these videos.
With this foundation, you’ll appreciate what makes MELT so effective. You’ll understand why practicing MELT according to its principles is so important to receiving the benefits you’re seeking.
MELT principles
No pain, no pain Connective tissue is your body’s three-dimensional scaffolding, a continuous web of structure and support from bone to skin, from head to toe. In essence, connective tissue is a network of fibers embedded in a fluid matrix. It wraps your bones, muscles, organs, nerves, and blood vessels. It anchors most of your body’s sensory nerve endings. In fact, nerves and connective tissue are so intimately related we can speak of them as a single neurofascial system. Because your nerves and connective tissue exist in such immediate contact, when your nerves send you pain signals they’re telling you there’s an issue with your connective tissue. The issue is dehydration. When connective tissue — this mélange of fiber and fluid — dries out, it becomes sticky and stringy. Sticky and stringy connective tissue compresses the nerves it’s anchoring and you feel pain. If the cause of pain is nerve compression, there’s no reason to aggravate the nerves with more compression. MELT conditions dehydrated connective tissue to absorb fluid and promote fluid flow throughout your neurofascial system. When you MELT, you resolve pain by rehydrating your connective tissue and releasing your nerves from unnecessary stimulation. MELT’s techniques apply a specially designed soft roller and set of balls to specific areas of the body. If you feel pain while practicing a technique at a certain site, you apply less pressure there. Or none at all: you go to another area entirely — you go indirect before direct.
Indirect before direct For example, if you have foot pain, your first step is a Soft Ball Hand Treatment. If you have neck pain, you start with the Lower Body Compression and Lower Body Length Sequences. Assessing before and after each sequence and self-treatment, you’ll note how pain diminishes when you MELT at a distance from what initially was a painful place.
Less is more In contrast, MELT applies gentle, tolerable pressure to a limited, targeted area for the duration of one, two, or three focused breaths. MELT techniques apply just enough compression and lengthening to increase connective tissue’s fluid absorption and promote the flow of fluid body-wide.
Get in, get out
Take focused breaths
Find your core
Drink water, lots of water 8 oz before and after you MELT. For example, if you weigh 150 lbs —
At least 0.6 x your body weight daily, in ounces,
in small sips every 15 minutes through the day.
0.6 x 150 = 90 oz ≈ 0.75 gallon
Which means: drink at least three-quarters of a gallon per day.