What is Fascia and why does it matter?

Fascia (faSH – uh), in your body, is defined as a thin sheath of fibrous tissue enclosing a muscle or other organ. Let me try that again. Have you ever cleaned a piece of chicken? That clear stuff is fascia. It surrounds every nerve, tendon, ligament, muscle, bone, blood vessel and organ in your body.

It’s like an orange with all those pods of juice in them. Some areas are thicker and give more support like the plantar fascia and the iliotibial band (ITB). Fascia is also elastic and stretchy and it keeps your body organized.

How fascia works.

How does this impact me? Every structure in your body, let’s say a muscle, should glide past another structure. Sometimes, though, they get stuck together and it’s largely due to fascia getting bound together.

When two muscles get stuck together it limits range of motion and causes pain. When a nerve gets bound up it causes tingling and numbness and sometimes decreased strength. Tension in the low back fascia can cause relentless low back pain.

What treatment is available for fascia?

What can you do? There is no way around it. If you want to remove the bonds between fascia layers they have to be broken, pried apart, and straightened out. There are a few ways to do this.

A good old-fashioned massage goes a long way. Massage not only relieves muscle tension but also works on the fascia to loosen it up so it can maintain its elasticity.

You can also employ special massage or bodywork techniques that focus on fascia. Two that we perform in our office are Active Release Technique (ART), which is performed by Dr. Waggoner. You can check out Dr. Waggoner’s blog on Active Release Technique here.

The second technique is called Gua Sha, which is a form of soft tissue work that can be very effective. Rebecca has been trained in Gua Sha is having excellent results with it. You can read more about it in her blog here.

To help speed things along you can roll the affected area on a foam roller, a tennis ball, or a golf ball. For more information on rolling you can ask any of our doctors or staff.

More Information:

Brooke Thomas has some excellent information on fascia @ Liberatedbody.com