Change Your Pace Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork
1511 Ritchie Highway
Suite 104
Arnold, MD 21012
Connected Head To Toe
Chances are you have heard the term fascia in the news or from a health practitioner. It’s become a bit of a buzzword in the health and wellness industry the past several years. But, what is fascia? Why is it important?
To be overly simplistic, imagine peeling an orange. The first layer you peel off is the orange skin. Just below the skin is a white, spongy layer called the pith. Once you’ve picked off all that white stuff (because, let’s be honest, it doesn’t taste very good), you pull the orange apart to reveal individual slices. Each slice has a layer of clear “skin” around it and if you break open a slice, you’ll notice a whole bunch of individually wrapped little sacs filled with delicious juice. The skin holds the shape of the sacs and keeps the juice inside juicy.
Fascia is kind of like that. It is connective tissue that weaves throughout our entire body, covering everything: muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones and organs, all the way down to the cellular level. Fascia is our “birthday suit” connecting continuously throughout the body. There is no point at which this connective tissue ends, though it changes form depending upon where it is in the body.
Fascia is made up of mostly collagen fibers, elastin and other cell types. It gives the body shape, and not unlike the thin film surrounding layers of an orange, it keeps the body juicy, allowing tissues to slide and glide, enabling the body to function as an integrated whole. Fascia is densely innervated; it has about 6-10 times more sensory nerves than muscle, so it’s in constant contact with the nervous system sending signals to our brain about our environment.
Like a wet cobweb throughout the body, healthy fascia has unrestricted sliding mobility allowing muscle, skeletal and visceral systems to work together seamlessly.
Unhealthy fascia is a little bit like a dried up orange. The less juicy, the less movement is available. It causes tissue to get locked down leading to tightness, restricted range of motion and, over time, change in the shape of the body.
Consistent habits over time like poor posture create strain patterns in the body. Since it’s all connected, a restriction in one part of the body often leads to dysfunction in another part. A great example is “tech neck” where the muscles of the neck are stressed due to too much time looking down at computers and phones. Over time, this posture leads to headaches, neck spasms, and shoulder restrictions.
The good news it’s never too late to improve the health of your fascia. Staying well hydrated, getting enough sleep, proper nutrition, bodywork like massage, and most important, consistent varied movement all support healthy fascia. Fascia is strong, but adaptive, the key is consistency in healthy habits over a period of time.
