Screaming, moaning, weeping, sobbing. Blimey, I’ve just witnessed the American singer LeAnn Rimes experience a “jaw release”. The viral video has made the rounds on social media, racking up 1.3 million views on TikTok. It’s a hypnotic experience that climaxes with Rimes breaking down in tears of relief after having a tension-busting “fascial” massage (targeting tough connective tissue in the body) as her mouth is squeezed by mystery hands.
Once you’ve seen it, you’re sure to be cursed with a rewired algorithm that exclusively sends you to spaces of myofascial relief. Yet it’s not just internet weirdos lurking in strange and darkened corners of social media doing this but Gen Z wellness influencers in studios, bros in their bedrooms and masseurs in fancy clinics in the UK. People all over the world are brandishing curved plastic contraptions, gloved fingers and tennis balls to purge their bodies of tenseness and rigidity.
