Fascia – a mysterious super important fabric

In our body muscle is surrounded by a system of thin white shells, which provide the mobility of muscles and joints and allow the organs to work. They are called fascia. Don't forget to take care of them every day.

For many years medicine ignored the existence of this tissue. To this day anatomical atlases show a false picture of the internal parts of the human body – free from shells. However, today we know that fascia play an important role. In the end, they make up 20% of the weight of a man! They wrap around the muscles, giving them a form. They create a tendon and attach the muscles to the bones. They also surround the organs, which provides them correct position, the protection and proper functioning. The brain is also braided as a network. They are made of connective tissue, and structure internal connections gives them extraordinary strength, despite a delicate structure. During physical activity, the fascia can take up to 80% of the load applied on the muscles, thereby protecting them from damage!

Anatomical tape

Dr. Thomas Myers, an American physician, structural integration and anatomy, who has devoted his entire professional life to the study of the properties of fascia, is his model for many of the lectures (available online). This wooden pegs, braided dense mesh of elastic threads. When you move the layout in one place, all the threads are stretched, which makes moving even distant pegs. This illustrates the existence of so-called anatomical tapes in our body is a system of relationships between the muscles, the connecting element which are fascia. Myofascial tape connect distant areas of the body to each other. In trauma, the fascia shortens in its place, which leads to a change of length and tension the whole tape. Physical therapists know this. Our body is a coherent whole that explains, for example, that trauma of the knee can cause pain in the shoulder, and a scar after surgery on the abdomen – headaches.

Stretching, massage, water

So how do you keep your fascia? Let's look at the behavior of cats. By their nature they have to be extremely agile, so as soon as they some time remain motionless, they rise, stretch – they pull all the legs at a time, pulling the whole body. In fact, they train their fascia. Because there is no better way to improve their condition than stretching. So a good tool for working on the fascia is a yoga that combines the breath and stretching. And fascia is like the most, so their tension is reduced. And because they form a network, the whole body relaxed. It is also worth to learn to work with gymnastic video. It is a kind of cushion, which we massage certain parts of the body. The roller compresses the tissue under the skin (fascia) with sufficient intensity. This massage is designed to hydrate the fascia and improve their function. It is most important to them, because they're 70% water. The pressure on the fascia regulates the exchange of tissue fluids, clearing them of unnecessary waste products and rehydration. So when we work with fascia, let's SIP to SIP water to improve this process.

Drag and drop on demand

In addition to physical exercises is to simulate the frequent habit of stretch marks, imitating the cats. Our body instinctively seeks to balance muscle tension and prepare your body for movement, for example, when we Wake up from sleep, rise from the table or get out of the car after a long trip. We always have an urgent need to catch up. Let's look at such cases, for example, pull the hands above the head, when we remove something from a high shelf, let's bend to the floor while tying shoes, let's let's spread hands when we wash the car. Let's try to provide frequent doses of movements that mobilize the fascia of our body, especially in conditions of stress, when our body tenses up. When dragging, we will feel the lightness, which will continue when we start to work regularly with the fascia. A longer workout will give us a better sense of the body, greater joint mobility, improved blood circulation throughout the body and total physical fitness. The figure will acquire the symmetry, lose weight, and adopt this useful habit will not create serious problems.

The assistance of a physical therapist

However, if you suffer from severe chronic pain, in the past you did not treat any injuries – should undergo fascial therapy with a physical therapist. We certainly learn a lot about the individual features of our body because each of us is individual, traumatized or overload related to our lifestyle. This exercise that fits us, can help relieve knee pain, back, headaches or other persistent, often unusual symptoms – even stomach disorders or infertility.