Take Care of Your Fascia – It’s Holding You Together!

There’s a chance you’ve never even heard of fascia, and if so, you’re in the majority!  In fact, fascia may be the most under-appreciated, overlooked part of our bodies.  Fascia is a thin sheath of connective tissue that surrounds and supports every component in our bodies from our vital organs and muscles to our blood vessels and nerve fibers.  It can be thick or thin, superficial or deep, with different kinds of fascial layers found in different parts of the body.  Every internal part of us is either connected or enveloped by fascia.  And because of this, science is still discovering just how wide-ranging its role may be in the body, from mobility to digestion to cancer.  Check out this comprehensive article about the scientific community’s exploration of fascia and its potential role in myriad health issues and bodily functions.

Given fascia’s connective role in our bodies, it makes sense that if it’s out of whack, it’s going to throw other things out of whack as well.  Just like our muscles, fascia can tweak and tighten, causing restrictions in our bodies.  Certain lifestyle factors or events, like being too sedentary, engaging in the same repetitive physical stress affecting the same part of the body, or an injury, can all cause fascia to tighten and get sticky instead of being fluid and flexible.  And as Frank Lipman emphasizes in his (amazing) book, The New Rules of Aging Well, fascia tightens by default as we age, so, as we get older, caring for our fascia becomes more and more crucial as part of a holistic, preventive wellness strategy.  If we ignore our fascia, it will (among other things) restrict and compress our muscles and joints.  This will cause muscle and joint pain, which can have a domino effect in the body, causing compensatory corrections that can affect how we walk and move generally.  That nagging foot pain will work its way up your leg and into your back and neck, manifesting as whole-body stiffness.  Not awesome.

So, how do we care for our fascia?  Since fascia is a sort of stretchy sheath, it seems counterintuitive that it wouldn’t respond to stretching.  But unfortunately, all of that fantastic stretching you’re doing after your workout is not benefiting your fascia.  Instead, fascia responds to pressure.  Think massages, acupressure, and foam rolling.  Those people at the gym rolling around on those tubes are not just having a great time—they’re (maybe unknowingly) caring for their fascia.  As you roll and apply pressure to your fascia, you’ll loosen it and allow it to do its job properly, which includes loosening its grip on muscles and joints.  Lipman suggests watching a video on how to foam roll (he suggests youtube videos by trainer Lauren Roxburgh) to make sure you get the most bang for your roll.

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It’s time to stop ignoring the connective superhighway inside our bodies.  And it’s almost Valentine’s Day, so let’s give our fascia the love it deserves!  If you don’t already have a roller, grab one for yourself or give one as a V-Day gift!  (Here’s an awesome one by 42 Birds that’s beautiful and sustainably made from cork!).  Or use your fascia as one more excuse (like we need one) to get a couple’s massage.  Couples who love their fascia together stay together! (yes, that’s totally a thing).

Let’s roll!