Let me tell you about the web that dominates our lives. No, not the internet! It’s the body-wide network that connects everything inside us. Imagine your body is like a superhero suit made of very strong and stretchy spider web. This web is called Fascia, and it wraps around all of your muscles, joints, bones, and organs to hold everything in place. It helps you move with ease and confidence. But if you don’t take care of it, the suit gets tight and stiff. This video provides a great intro into fascia, worth the watch!
What’s more, fascia is deeply connected to our emotional state! Science and somatic therapy show that fascia stores tension, trauma and emotions. Think of it like a squishy ball inside your body. When you’re happy and relaxed, your fascia is soft and stretchy. When you’re sad or stressed, your fascia tightens up—kind of like how a stress ball gets squished when you squeeze it. This is why we often feel tightness in the neck, shoulders, or lower back during stressful times. Over time, if emotions aren’t processed, fascia stays tight, leading to stiffness and chronic pain.
See some brief history below:
25 years ago science considered fascia just a wrapping. It was not seen as important, mainly due to the fact that studies had never been performed in vivo. In 2005 Dr. Jean-Claude Guimberteau used small cameras to film living fascia and everything changed. His creation “Strolling under the skin” started a revolution. The First Fascia Research Congress was held at Harvard Medical School in 2007. Scientists from different fields came together to study fascia as an active, live system, rather than just passive tissue. In 2015 The Federative International Programme for Anatomical Terminology (FIPAT), a global scientific authority, officially classified fascia as a body-wide system, continuous, functional structure. Fascia research is still evolving, and there is a general belief we are just beginning to understand its full importance!
Ok, now we know about fascia, so what?
Knowledge is power so let me share with you how things evolved for me since I learned about fascia. When it comes to the human body and movement I thought of joints, bones and muscles. Fascia adds an entirely new and absolutely essential dimension here. I acquired lots of this knowledge during my Vinyasa and Yin yoga teacher training courses but even more from just practicing with awareness. Improved knowledge of the body leads to an improved approach to training and recovery. Here is the summary:
- Trigger points: these are tight/painful spots in fascia/muscles that can cause localized pain, but also to radiate pain to other areas of the body. My physios helped me understand these and how to treat them so I no longer see my body in an overly simplified way. Tightness in my inner thigh was the cause for the pain in my outer calf. Tightness in my chest muscle was the cause for pain in my shoulder. Now we know: treating things only locally can never deliver a holistic and long term solution!
– - Everything is interconnected! The fascial system is a continuous, three-dimensional web that permeates the entire body, meaning that restriction in one area (even due to a small scar) can have far-reaching effects on distant body parts. This concept is vital to understand, because oftentimes tight and dehydrated fascia contributes to injuries! I have a small scar on my left ankle that was found to cause significant restriction in function up my leg, all the way into the left hip and ribs area! Scars must be treated with priority, as the fascia underneath is usually restricted.
– - Plantar fascia: this is the thick tissue on the bottom of our feet. It plays a crucial role in supporting our weight and absorbing shock during movement. I had this tissue highly inflamed, due to not taking care of my feet and it caused major ramifications higher up in my body. Taking care of our plantar fascia is critical if we want to have a healthy body long term. The best ways to do this is to use a massage ball daily, as well as to strengthen and stretch our feet.
– - Importance of hydration! Living in the hot Malta climate for years taught me this. Fascia is made of gel-like matrix that surrounds the collagen and elastin fibers. For these to do their job properly so we can move freely, we need to always be properly hydrated. This does not mean just drinking enough water but also receiving an adequate amount of electrolytes (essential minerals like sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, phosphate, bicarbonates, chlorine).
– - Massage, foam rolling and Yin yoga importance. Before I knew about fascia thinking of movement was largely based around strengthening and stretching. Fascia knowledge supplied me with another essential dimension here: softening my body. This turned things upside down, because I realized that doing less actually gets me better results. Dedicating some days not to train but just to foam roll or get massage increased the efficiency in my movement practice exponentially. Regarding Yin yoga, this targets the fascia specifically. It’s literally the best thing I did to my body on those days where I was tired or didn’t feel like moving. It works wonders, you should try it! Positions are held for several minutes so your mind may hate you initially but it’s worth the patience!
Lastly but very important: our breathing is affected by the quality of our fascia. The diaphragm, the primary muscle for breathing, is heavily intertwined with it. As we inhale, the diaphragm contracts and moves down, and as we exhale, it relaxes and moves up. This movement directly impacts the fascia surrounding the lungs, heart and abdominal organs. Restrictions in fascia would limit the diaphragm movement and therefore affect our breathing. To see our breathing series click here!
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Pavel