Why have we all heard of bones, muscles and ligaments, but fascia still sounds so unfamiliar? This might be because for many years the importance of fascia was entirely overlooked. When the medical world would perform dissections, fascia was considered inconsequential and disposed of. In more recent years however, it has been recognised as an integral part of our anatomy which plays a vital role in our functional abilities.
Fascia is an intricate system of connective tissue that sits just below the skin and runs all through our body covering all internal structures such as our bones, muscles and organs. Fascia is three dimensional and multi directional and both separates and binds together all these elements as well as other tissues and allows them to move freely without causing any friction or damage. Picture fascia as a liquid spider webbing that is poured into your body once all other parts are in place to allow these other internal parts to move smoothly whilst staying connected.
We also know that rather than fascia being made up of connected parts, it is actually one huge sheath of connective tissue. Which explains why an issue in one place can have a huge knock on effect on your overall health and mobility. Although the fascia is one large sheath of tissue there are different layers:
Superficial layer sits between your skin and the rest of your body. If you pinch your skin anywhere on your body, you are actually lifting skin and superficial fascia. Picture your fascia as a skin tight all-in-one suit body suit, if there is an obstruction or a knot in one area this is very likely to impact on your posture and other areas of your body.
Deep Fascia is the connective tissue underneath the superficial layer, this layer covers your muscles, bones, nerves and blood vessels. This infiltrates so deeply through our body that not only is each muscle surrounded by fascia, so is each individual component of the muscle. Our fascia actually contains 10x more proprioceptors than our muscles so it plays a huge role in facilitating muscular movement and thus it will also respond to lack of movement, which can cause the fascia to stiffen and weaken.
Visceral fascia can be compared to cling film that surrounds your organs with layers of connective tissue membranes.
Knowing that this fascia runs through our entire body and connects our bones, organs and muscles is a great advocate for functional fitness and whole body movement and training, after all it is all connected.
Another interesting fact about fascia is that it contains many nerve ending and is thus sensitive to touch and can even feel pain. Some research has shown that fascia is also affected by our mental state, as it was found that fascia may become stiffer and less compliant when we are depressed, anxious or fearful. (Shultz & Feitis 1996; Lowe 1989)
To keep our fascia healthy and supple it is imperative that we continue to move our bodies. If, however you already have an underlying issue within your fascia it will take time and perseverance to gently coax the fascia back to health. Through use of careful pressure and gentle movements through a wide range we can work on achieving and maintaining health and flexibility of fascia.
If you want to know more about fascia and would like to see it at work, this video might be of interest, although perhaps give it a miss if you are squeemish. If you would like to know more about the restorative pilates classes offered by 83 Pilates please don't hesitate to get in touch.