What is Fascia exactly...and why should you care?
You might not believe this but although it seems like a newer buzzword as myofascial release becomes more popular, science behind fascia has been studied and published in the west since the 1950s! In 2015 fascia was finally declared an organ system of the body and only now are we really starting to hear about it mainstream and understand this amazing system and material and how it relates to pain, movement, posture, etc. If you live in Cache Valley, come get a massage near you and feel the benefits for yourself.
Fascia is a collagen-like material that is in all the spaces between all the materials and cells that make up your body. It's around our cells, nerves, organs, spine, muscles, bones, tendons...EVERYTHING! On a superficial large scale, it covers all of your muscles, what's pretty crazy is that for years, anatomists were tossing it aside while studying the body because it was in the way and covering the muscles and systems they were trying to study. Literally, it was being thrown in the trash. But here's the thing, EVERYTHING in the human body serves a purpose, and we are still learning so much more about this amazing material and organ system. come to a chiropractor near you in Cache Valley to learn more.
Fun fact: Your fascia has more nerve receptors than the retina of your eye!
So this is crucial to consider when thinking about chronic pain. We are now learning that so much chronic pain is due to dysfunction in the fascia rather than the muscle itself.
"Fascia is the biological fabric that holds us together. It is the connective tissue network, the 3-D spider web of fibrous, gluey, and wet proteins that binds (all of our trillions of cells) together in their proper placement. Understanding fascia is essential to the dance between stability and movement-crucial in high performance, central from recovery in injury and disability, and ever-present in our daily life from our embryological beginnings to the last breath we take." - Tom Myers (author of Anatomy Trains.)
Consider for a moment what just about every animal does the moment they wake up, if you have a baby, they do this too... They stretch. Our fascia is like a gooey material when we are warm and moving and it allows gliding of tissues and movement... but when we sit around and don't move or go to sleep for 8 hours... it thickens up and becomes more viscous... over time thicker and thicker and before we know if our movement is restricted, or our posture has taken on new shape. If every day we moved our body and stretched, we would keep this material from getting stuck or restricted like that.
Other things like injuries can cause fascial restrictions as well. But here is what is so amazing about fascia. The material it is made out of can be changed!! This is where getting some myofascial work done is super effective. Or even doing some yourself... if there's a lot of restriction or build up you need more manipulation than stretching and this is where a solid foam rolling, or ball rolling session can help... or even better working with a massage therapist who is trained in myofascial release! At RYZR Rehab in North Logan, we have our wonderful massage therapist, Sammie, who is trained in this and is phenomenal.
You can think of fascial restrictions like tight seams in clothing which completely affect how your clothes fit, how well you can move in them... myofascial work is like letting out these seams and allowing the whole outfit (your body,) to move better and feel better!
There's more to know and more about the types of myofascial work we offer here at RYZR Rehab that'll be for another blog, in the meantime book a session with Sammie for some fascia work and feel the difference!