Cross-fiber friction is short strokes across the grain of the fibers to work a stuck spot.
The fingers or thumb move perpendicular to the muscle's line rather than along it. In 📝Deep Tissue Massage it is used on a small, stuck place after the surface is warm — not as a first stroke, and not as a scrape across a whole muscle. The method is a way of asking fibers to slide, not a diagnosis of an adhesion as a medical lesion and not a claim to break scar. Pressure stays breathable; the spot is small.
Clients feel a specific, sometimes intense grate that should stay local. Sharp, shooting, or numb sensation is a stop. Fresh injury, inflamed tissue, and bony edges are skipped.
Bruising or next-day sharp pain is too much dose.