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Are you familiar with that feeling when you first wake up and your body seems to go in to autopilot as you take a big stretch? Or when you finally stand up after a long road trip and instinctively bend backward and reach your arms to the sky? It feels like a stiff spider web inside you is being stretched apart? Well, that is in fact what is happening, and that spider web in your body is called fascia.
Fascia is the connective tissue that covers every bone, muscle, and organ in your body. Double the amount of fascia is produced at night while you are in a deep sleep...yet another reason why it is essential to get a good nights rest! While your body is immobile it gives fascia time to cover your insides like a sheet of saran wrap or a spider web. In fact, fascia literally looks like a spider web that morphs as you move. Fascia not only connects, protects and brings structural support to your insides, but it is also a vessel for transporting water and nutrients. One time a client of mine complained that when they woke up in the morning their muscles were still feeling sore and reluctant to get moving. I connected the dots and realized their severe lack of sleep was not allowing fascia to grow and nourish their muscles overnight.
For so long medical practitioners and healers have been diagnosing injuries only by addressing muscles and bones, but failing to account for the impact of fascia! You may go to the massages therapist to work knots out of your shoulders or a chiropractor to realign your spine, but if your fascia is dysfunctional then the issue will only persist. Imagine that you are wearing a spiderman suite that is five sizes too small. It will inevitably pull down on your spine and hunch your shoulders forward. You can take yourself to the chiropractor or massage therapist as many times as you want, but the problem will not be solved until the fabric of the spiderman suite is adjusted.
Let's dive deeper into the anatomy of fascia. Fascia has three distinct characteristics:
Piezoelectricity - the Greek root "piezein" means to squeeze. If held under pressure for a prolonged period of time fascia will produce an electrical current. The electrical current energizes fibroblasts, which produce fiber (which give fascia elasticity) and ground substance (which lubricate fascia).
Thixotropy - the ability for connective tissue to stretch and maintain a new form, rather than recoil or become damaged
Viscosity - fascia has the ability to transform from a gel like (viscos) state to a liquid state, because of the ground substance in fascia that retains water to keep the tissue lubricated
Considering these unique qualities, here are tips for how to maintain healthy fascia:
Movement! Stretching, yoga, myofascial techniques, and massage all stimulate electrical currents that trigger fibroblasts to produce fiber and ground substance in fascia. This makes for healthy, elastic, and soft fascia. Sedentary fascia can result in "sticky muscles". When inactive for prolonged periods of time, the fibers of your muscles stick together and can eventually form tension or knots, also called adhesions or trigger points. "Sticky muscles" form when hydrogen ions bond collagen fibers together. However, movement such as massage can break apart the hydrogen bonds and softens the muscle fibers.
Slow and steady wins the race! It is important to apply massage techniques or stretches slowly, because it takes time for fascia to lengthen. First tropocollagen fibers unwind from their triple helix formation to a single lengthened collagen fiber, then all the bound collagen fibers must also lengthen. If fiber is pulled with excessive speed or strength the fibers will restrict movement altogether and lock up causing injury. Another important consideration when it comes to fascia is to incorporate movement and hydration on a regular basis. If you drink excessive water once a week, or schedule two hours of massage or yoga once a month, your fascia will not develop elasticity and strength. Frequency and consistency of habits are key.
Hydrate! Drinking enough water to maintain homeostasis lubricates your connective tissue so that the fluids can easily transport and exchange nutrients and other compounds throughout the body. Consider the significance of this function considering the fact that your body is 70% water!
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