Understanding Fascia.
‘Fascia’ is a term that you might be familiar with from your regular yoga practice!? As time goes on and the more I work with the body, I have become increasingly aware of its importance in maintaining healthy and pain-free bodies, and biomechanically sound movement patterns.
Fascia can be thought of as the biological fabric, or specialised connective tissue, that holds us all together. Our fascial system holds 70 trillion cells together by weaving the cells into strong pliable nets of collagen (similar substance to our ligaments and tendons).
It surrounds all our muscles, blood vessels and nerves in the body, and is the richest sensory organ containing ten times more pain receptors than our muscles. There isn’t a single cell in our body that isn’t connected to fascia!
”You can call the fascia our shapeshifter. It is responsible for all the amazing shapes we can create with our body. It’s also responsible for locking us into permanent posture patterns” - Tom Myers.
Unlike muscles, the fascia in our body doesn’t have as great a bloody supply (white fibrous tissue), so when it is unhealthy and dehydrated it becomes sticky, stiff, tight and adhesive, causing uncomfortable stiffness and pain. Dehydration causes the fascial planes to stick together, preventing fluidity of movement. So to optimise health, pain management and avoid injury, the fascia in our body needs to be well hydrated.
If we move in familiar patterns (which we all do every day), the fascia moulds and secures itself in those repeated patterns and becomes dehydrated and stiff, directly affecting our movement!
Because the fascial fibers run in a spiderweb of directions, they require a pressure gradient to move hydration. Thats why myofascial release requires specific techniques to stretch, work and move hydration within the pressure gradient to optimise smoothness within the body. This can best be achieved with hands on manual therapy, yoga and movement with breath.
It’s really important that we take care of our shapeshifters!
