User:JSFarman/sandbox/Ashley Black

Ashley Black is an American health and wellness expert, entrepreneur, inventor, and author. Black invented The FasciaBlaster, a tool she designed and engineered to treat chronic pain and alter the appearance of cellulite through the manipulation of fascia.

Early life
Black was born in Valdosta, Georgia and grew up in Montgomery, Alabama. Her father was an architect, known for his church designs throughout the South, and her mother a children's clothing designer. She started doing gymnastics at age 4, training for up to four hours a day. As a young child, she began experiencing pain she described as feeling as if she was being "mercilessly attacked by a fire iron." Her condition was later diagnosed as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

Throughout her childhood, Black had acute flare-ups of her arthritis, which would come without warning. Her medical doctors focused on pain management rather than treatment, and Black, determined to continue with athletics, was encouraged by her parent to remain active. She discovered methods to both manage her pain and treat her disease through stretching and nutrition, and as a teenager adopted techniques used by professional athletes, including cold baths and heat massage. She continued traditional medical treatment, but focused on her own physical and nutritional regimen. Black was well enough to work for her father at 10 and start a business at 14; at 16, with the symptoms of JRA largely "undetectable," she competed in gymnastics and  became an aerobics instructor and personal trainer.

Black attended Auburn University, where she studied civil and mechanical engineering. She danced, competed in gymnastics and continued to work in the fitness industry while an Auburn student.

Osteomyelitis and recovery
Following college, Black moved to Houston with her husband, and after having a son, she gave birth to a daughter. Although in peak physical condition, the birthing process triggered an onset of extreme pain. In a 2004 interview she said: "It was the most intense pain. I can't even remember it, it was so bad. I had some very, very low moments. I vividly remember asking my step-mother to kill me, it was that kind of pain." After exploratory surgery Black was diagnosed with osteomyelitis, a staph infection in her bone marrow that eventually entered her spine. Bedridden, Black developed a series of exercises she could complete lying down, and was eventually able to walk. Throughout her recovery, she read anatomy text books, body work journals and medical journals. She also traveled to study different philosophies of manual tissue and internal stretching work, received flexibility therapy in Phoenix, and trained in Pilates in San Francisco. As she learned new therapies, Black created hybrid methods to treat herself. In two years, she had become functional.

Clinics, fasciology
In 2000 Black opened a studio/clinic in Houston. It offered a program of "intricate exercises" Black developed to help clients alter the mechanics of the spine and impact stability, posture and muscle firing patterns. Her clients ranged from professional athletes to elderly people with arthritis. Incorporating her studies with her own experience, she began to work with fascia and develop what she termed "fasciology." Treating knee pain, headaches, and sports-related pain, among other ailments, Black said that "amazingly, the method to solving these 'medical mysteries' was always the same: Fasciology."

Ashley Black Guru, the FasciaBlaster, and The Cellulite Myth: It's Not Fat, it's Fascia
In 2006, Black moved to Los Angeles. She continued to travel to personally treat athletes and others, and designed the FasciaBlaster to allow them to treat themselves through manipulating their own fascia. She was unaware that the tool impacted the appearance of cellulite until the girlfriend of an athlete she had treated pointed it out. Black subsequently founded her company, Ashley Black Guru. The company grew quickly, due largely to word-of-mouth among and social media; Essence wrote that "Ashley Black is changing lives all over social media with the FasciaBlaster, a tool that essentially massages tangled fascia back into its even, smooth place." In February 2017, a smaller tool, the FaceBlaster, had a 50,000 person waiting list.

In March 2017, with Joanna Hunt, she published The Cellulite Myth: It's Not Fat, It's Fascia. An instructional guide to "FasciaBlasting," as well as a biography, the book debuted at #1 on Amazon's Science & Math/Biological Science/Anatomy chart, and #1 on the Health, Fitness & Dieting chart. In its first week of release, it was on the USA Today national book chart.

Personal
Black lives in Los Angeles, California. She has three children.