Who’s heard of fascia? Its either a totally foreign word to you, or one you hear mentioned by trainers all the time or you massage therapist.

So what is it?

Do you really need to care?

Lets first get to know fascia a little bit more…….

Simply put, the fascia is similar to a body stocking that wraps around the body, like a single piece of material, that holds the bones, tissue, muscles….everything together and in the shape we all know and love. Not only does it wrap around the body but it also extends into the body. So imagine a honeycomb weblike structure extending from the skin through the muscles and tissues, and some even conjecture, the bones, not unlike the way the juices of an orange are held together with that web like structure of the fibrous pulp.

See how stringy it looks in the picture. This stringy web protects, cushions and surrounds organs and vertebrae and permeates tissue, allowing the muscle fibres and tissues to gently slide against each other and contract and flex as we move through the day. Now if we don’t move a spot this web will deposit more of these collagen fibres through it and a build up occurs. If you move (stretch, massage, exercise) and drink plenty of water, this will break down the collagen and move it through the body for use, absorption or expulsion. If you don’t, more of this will accumulate.

Think back to an injury that you or someone else had and it pained you or them to move it properly afterwards. I’ve seen many people (and myself) not want to move properly or at all and as a result the area stays still. So a build up of this collagen occurs again and again and isn’t flushed out of the system in the usual manner. This build up gets sticky and gums whatever its attached to together. You know when someone might touch an area to rub and it hurts….thats the build up. Healthy fascia, healthy tissue won’t hurt. The more you avoid that hurt, the more the build up and more pain and so on. A nasty cycle.

So healthy fascia is juicy and hydrated, like a wet sponge, but as collagen accumulates, if our dietary intake and exercise is poor it becomes brittle. You can imagine how pliable a wet sponge is as opposed to a dried out sponge. Bending a wet sponge and it just straightens back. Bending a dried out sponge and it breaks. Water is so important to the efficiency of this system

Going back to the body stocking visual. Fascia is one piece. When you have one piece and you tighten an area, another area further along is inevitably changed. Part gets tight and it pulls and tugs other areas, that will correspondingly impact further areas. Not inconceivable to imagine tight shoulders for example, impacting further down to promote back pain, hamstring tension and so on….and of course head in the other direction to perhaps an achy head.

If you are stiff, tight, in pain, you can be proactive and do something about this right now. If you are not any of those things, then lucky you, but you will definitely benefit from a daily protocol to keep yourself healthy and keep pain away.

So what do you do?

Stretch, kneed , or roll yourself out everyday and include good hydration, 8 glasses of water a day really is the minimum. Gradually the pain will abate and over weeks of regular attention will go away.

Everyday fascia health protocol.

Consume a couple of large glasses of water, preferably with minerals in it, like a good quality rock or sea salt, lemon is also a great additive.
Do some form of fascial movement, like:

Foam roll your body
Jump on a mini trampoline
Shaking movements
Kettlebell swings
Tai chi

Fascia - Your invaluable body stocking