What is it?
Fascia is a continuous network of connective tissue existing at every layer of the body. Historically, it was cast aside in western anatomy dissections, but more recent studies have started to give fascia its due. We need fascia to:
Provide structure to the body, defining shape to organs and anchoring them in place
Protect organs (including bones and muscles) and provide shock absorption
Support immune defense and cellular exchange
Fascia is ALIVE and electric! It contains nerve endings and cells that adapt and respond to stimuli within and around fascia. Deep fascia envelops and penetrates muscles, giving rise to the term Myofascial, pertaining to both muscle (myo-) and fascia. Fascia wraps around each muscle and also around groups of muscles with similar functions creating muscle compartments. To further zoom out, fascia organizes itself into broader chains of fascia that create relationships between muscles extending from feet to head!
Why work with it?
Its unique substance
Fascia has a lot of ground substance, a gel-like component of connective tissue. This makes it capable of shifting from dense and solid to liquidy and pliable, and makes it easier to make lasting changes to it. While a muscle can be stretched and compressed by force exerted on it and quickly return to its original shape, spreading, gathering, or separating fascia can have lasting impact.
To increase movement
When fascial fibers are closely packed together, hydrogen bonds form between the fibers, sometimes creating fascial restrictions that prevent structures from gliding over each other easily. Breaking up those bonds allows muscles to move across each other smoothly, creating greater ease in movement.
To relieve pain
Sometimes pain that feels related to muscle dysfunction is actually a result of fascial restrictions or adhesions. Fascia contain nerve endings to signal pain in the event of injury, but these signals can also be triggered by stagnant, sticky fascia.
To bring in fresh fluid
Warming stiff or stagnant fascia with friction and movement also helps bring in fresh fluid, making fascia more pliable and improving the health of the tissue.
What works?
You can work with fascia yourself! Healthy fascia loves to move in all directions. Stretching and movement activities that take the body on a multidirectional adventure support fascia. If you’re feeling extra stuck and stiff, Myofascial Release massage techniques can also be a big help.
Myofascial Release
Myofascial Release (MFR) includes a variety of techniques for releasing fascial restrictions and adhesions. It starts by assessing fascia for areas that resist movement, either in one direction or are all together not moving.
Indirect techniques can be very slow and subtle, including gentle manipulation of limbs to lean into a fascial tendency and unwind fascial restrictions.
Direct techniques work to counter to fascial tendency and can feel more intense. While the work sometimes reaches to deeper pressures, the goal is not to compress the tissue but to access the specific layer of tissue and create a drag or torque effect by pulling the fascia in different directions. Some things to expect from direct MFR work include:
Using little to no lubrication in order to access desired layer of tissue and maintain contact with it.
Moving slowly, like slower than a snail!
Broad handed techniques that spread or gather large areas of fascia extending across multiple muscles.
Deeper more targeted techniques carve or bend along fascial boundaries to separate muscle compartments and address particularly adhered or restricted areas.
There are many different approaches to working with fascia. I love to start massages with broad myofascial work to warm and spread out fascia and start to separate restrictions. Many clients find this work grounding and relaxing. For clients dealing with persistent pain or stiffness in a particular area, I find that incorporating deeper, direct MFR with deep tissue and Swedish sessions makes the work more strategic, with a more lasting impact. While releasing muscle tension is a wonderful benefit of massage, changes in the fascia can have a more lasting impact.
The Future of Fascia
More and more research is showing fascia’s role in the overall health of the body, highlighting the interconnectedness and communication between systems. In some ways, fascia is providing a fabric for Western medicine to value a holistic approach to health that has been practiced globally over thousands of years. Exciting stuff!