Fascia #1: Connecting the Body from Toe to Head

Connecting the Body from Toe to Head

The web-like spongy tissue that connects everything in the body together like glue

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What is Fascia?

Fascia is the tough connective tissue that creates a 3-dimensional web extending without interruption from head to toe. Fascia surrounds and infuses every muscle, bone, nerve, blood vessel, and organ, all the way down to the cellular level.

The fascial system affects every system and function in your body- musculoskeletal, neurological, metabolic, etc. The white, glistening fibers you see when you pull a piece of meat apart or when you pull chicken skin away is fascia.

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What is fascia made of?

Fascia consists of a complex which has three parts:

Elastin fibers - This is the elastic and stretchable part of the complex.
Collagen fibers - These fibers are extremely tough and give support to the structure.
Ground substance/matrix: A gelatinous like substance that transports metabolic material throughout the body

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What does fascia do?

The fascial system generally supports, stabilizes, and cushions. Fascia creates separation between vessels, organs, bones, and muscles.

It creates space through which delicate nerves, blood vessels, and fluids can pass. Fascia acts as a network of ropes and pulleys constantly leveraging tension to absorb and contract simultaneously.

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It is not only the sheath that surrounds muscles and bones, but it is also the cotton-candy-like net that surrounds each individual cell. Simply put, fascia is what holds our cells together. It helps to organize our structure, provides support for other tissues, adapts to our postures and movements, and affects our everyday function. (Source)

How does fascia do it?

Tensegrity, also known as tensional integrity, is the structural principle that explains how fascia does what it does. People commonly think of the body being built like a brick wall or like a house, but in reality, is more like a sailboat or catapult in a sense. It is how bones and organs are actually floating inside the space fascia provides as opposed to this idea that the skeleton holds everything up. It explains this notion of how affecting one part of the body can affect a totally another part of the body.

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Cut the strings and it would collapse totally

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What are fascial restrictions (adhesions)?

In a healthy state, the collagen fibers wrap around the elastic fibers in a relaxed, wavy configuration.

Trauma, repetitive motion, inflammation, or poor posture can cause the fascia to become solidified and shortened. These thickened areas are referred to as a fascial restriction.

Fascial restrictions have the capacity of creating up to 2,000 pounds of pressure per square inch in a restricted area. That crushing pressure can compromise any physiological system in the body resulting in pain and dysfunction.

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The fascia throughout the body is all interconnected like the yarn in a sweater or a complex spider web. A restriction in one area of the body creates tension throughout this web pulling on other distant structures.

This explains why some people may have pain that appears unrelated to their original injury. Furthermore, myofascial restrictions do not show up on common standardized tests such as x-rays, MRI, CAT scans, etc.

Fascial restrictions can pull the body out of its normal alignment, compressing joint surfaces and bulging disks, resulting in pain, loss of motion, and weakness. Think of adhesions as tangles in the web of fascia that limits its ability to slide smoothly during movement. This is why it is so important to roll out fascial adhesions with the small spiky ball I have linked on the Resources page!

🧬 World Class athletes will very rarely have any adhesions of any kind unless they've been put through any weightlifting programs or had major surgery.

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Aside from its obvious purpose of structural support for the soft tissues of our body, the fascia also serves as a biomechanical regulator by distributing forces throughout our body. Now what the heck does this mean? Well, much like a spider web, when one area of our body is exposed to a change in pressure, that load is not isolated to that one area, but rather experienced to a certain degree throughout the whole system.

Could you imagine if our feet where the sole (pardon the pun!!) area where we felt our entire body against the ground? Think about how small the bones are in your feet compared to what’s above! It’s actually hard to imagine what it would feel like because, well, we have never truly felt this (unless injured of course)! But in fact, when our feet are in contact with the ground, the arch of our foot and the subsequent fascia that covers this space immediately takes on the role of distributing the load throughout the whole foot, and into the rest of the body.

(Source)

Summary

Fascia and all connective tissue is a new and fascinating subject (even though arguably ancient warriors and cultures have known about it for thousands of years) that modern science is just discovering. Why is that?

Primarily when the human body was first being researched through cadaver science (dead bodies), fascia was tossed aside as scientists were focused on the muscle, bone, and organs. Unknowingly, they were tossing out the most important material of all.

The more I learn about fascia, the more it becomes clear that all athleticism functions upon it. It opens a door into a world of almost limitless possibilities when you compare it to the 1 layer thinking of muscles. Mainstream science has yet to understand what fascia is capable of.

At the moment when anyone hears of fascia, they just think of massage, foam rolling, or stretching. These are only temporary solutions that don't functionally alter the makeup of your fascia network from the feet up. That is the key.

Many of the components mentioned here will be fleshed out in further posts. Please let me know if there are any subjects that are bit too complicated, and I need to take step back in my explanations!

Interesting excerpts from the video at the top

When the tissue needs to be more rigid, it can take on a more gel-like form. Then when it needs to be slick and slippery, it can essentially liquify.

How does it do that? 3 theories

Thixotropic?
Liquid crystals?
Mechanosensors?

Fascia produces cellular, extracellular, neural, and biomechanical responses.

How does fascia factor into force transmission?

Many other interesting properties of fascia includes proprioception, interoception, autonomic nervous system regulation, meridian channels, viscosity, piezoelectricity, topology and more. These all provide much material for me to dive into further and decode the brilliance of fascia and Nature!