Fascinating Fascia
Ten fascinating new discoveries about fascia
90% of the nerve receptors which transmit pain from an injury or strain are found in Fascia not muscle. other types that transmit sensation; pressure, vibration, heat and cold etc, 6x more in fascia than in muscle.
- The body-wide fascial net is richly innovated by over a 100 million sensory receptors.
- So what has traditionally been classified as muscle pain is actually fascial pain.
- This explains why the release of fascial strain during a Rolfing series very often alleviates long standing pain too
he fascial system forms a dense matrix of intelligent fibres which wrap, permeate and connect every cell in the body.
- Like a secondary nervous system, fascia communicates mechanical information around the body at (700 mph),
- 10x faster than the nervous system
Connective tissue is always growing, branching and changing according to the forces it is subject to. Where there is stillness or prolonged emotional holding in the body, layers that should slide, become stuck together. These thick and fibrous sheets restrict movement and bind us into painful and restrictive alignment.
The fascial matrix has direct links to the limbic (emotional) brain centres.
- And to the Nucleus I each cell – talks to DNA
- Which might explain why our shape often reflects how we “think” and “feel”.
When a muscle contracts the forces are transmitted longitudinally and laterally.
- Restrictions in the myofascial network can therefore effect movement in all three dimensions.
- “where you think it is, it aint
- The architecture of fascial varies widely according to its function. Collagen fibres in tendons and ligaments same tensile strength and spring capacity as stainless steel.
- The elastic spring effect of tendons can be seen clearly in walking and running.
- Power for the toe-off coming from elastic recoil of achilles tendons and plantar fascia. All the calf muscle has to do is keep tension in the fascia.
- This provides both shock absorption and radically changes the way we understand movement.
Fascia holds the body together like a tensegrity structure
- Buckminster Fuller 1960’s.
- : Continuous tension members (fascia) linking discontinuous Compression members (bones)
- As you can see this forms a stable structure which is able to absorb external forces and then spring back into shape
Fascial sheets traverse the body, surface to deep and from head to toes.
- 80% of the energy meridians used in Traditional Chinese Medicine follow the same pathways.
- major energy points are places where a nerve fibre, blood vessel and lymph vessel penetrated a layer of fascia.
- fascia under strain or fibrotic squeezes the nerve fibres passing through it.
- traditional acupuncture needles have a roughened end
Releasing strain patterns in connective tissue creates space in the body
- releasing pressure on organs, joints
- Gap between the 12th rib and the pelvis should be about 4 inches.
- In most new clients that I see the gaps only 2 inches or less
- Clients who have received the classic Rolfing ten series are often up to 2 inches taller at the end.
Healthy Fascia is very wet and is bathed in a gel like fluid called ground substance
- Ground substance contains nutrients that feed cells and also take away metabolic waste.
- These fluid pockets also cushion mechanical stresses.
- fascial restrictions in say the feet, can cause percussive injuries in the knees, back or neck.
- This fluid named Hyluronic acid was found to have a Ph of over 7.5 so not technically an acid. It has thus been renamed Hyluronon.
- New research suggests that Cancer travels along these dry hylaronic channels
