What’s the Mystery around Fascia - Solved
Fascia adhesions are one of the most common sources of pain we experience in the body
Here Lyn takes you through an exploration of what fascia is, what it does, how and why it causes pain and why you should take it seriously.
Overview
Fascia is a crucial part of our structure; it’s a thin joined network of tissue that surrounds and holds everything in place. Fascia is really a crucial part of our structure and how we move. In short fascia is a vast network of connective tissue that runs throughout the body.
Healthy exercised fascia is flexible, smooth and slippery, lack of movement can cause it to become crinkly and gummy, known as adhesion. When fascia is in adhesion it can cause pain, stiffness and restrictive movement.
Fascia has long been misunderstood and the crucial part it plays in our movement, lack of ease of movement, strength and function has only become widely understood in recent years. Fascia that is damaged due to trauma, including clinical operations can be a cause of pain and misfunction.
Here at YWL HQ the importance of the fascia on the rest of the body structure has been a contributary factor to class structure since 2014, so somewhat ahead of the curve, meaning that I’ve had longer to learn about it, explore the function of fascia and crucially to feel it in my own body.
So what is fascia
Fascia looks like a thin single sheet of tissue paper, although it’s made of ultra-thin layers containing liquid called hyaluronan. I think if it as being even thinner layers that filo pastry. Designed to stretch as we move, its highly flexible and holds us all together.
Stiffness
When we are stiff, we put it down to joints or muscles, that stiffness could just as easily be attributed to your fascia. Fascia plays a supporting role in the movement of the body, but it does carry nerve cells and is part of the conversation of the message system around the body. Fascia literally supports our body movement.
Pain it may be fascia
Even medical experts struggle to determine when pain is due to muscles, joints or fascia. Fascia adhesions will get worse over time when the body is not moved in a way to counteract the issue, consequently muscles and tendons shorten and joints might even deteriorate as a result.
Because fascia includes nerves, that pain on getting up, moving in a certain way is just as likely to be due to fascia as to the usual culprits, actually fascia adhesion pain tends to be most noticeable when it is first challenged, so when you first move, fascia pain then improves as you move and gradually stretch. Meanwhile, to generalise muscle injuries and joint problems feel worse the more you move or the more you move in a certain way.
Fascia related pain
Healthy fascia is flexible, smooth and slippery. Lack of a wide range of movement can cause it to become fascia adhesion. Do you recognise any of these in your lifestyle:
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Movement limited to repetition of the same movements
- Time spent hunched over a laptop or sitting badly at a desk
- Trauma from injury or surgery
Working out if your pain is fascia, muscles or joints can be tricky. Fascia pain responds well to moving for longer, holding a stretch, heat therapy and
Another aspect to consider is that fascia adhesions frequently get worse over time, causing muscles to compress and even to contort so that full movement range is lost. Fascia adhesion can cause knotted muscles that are hard and tender called trigger points. Leading in turn to myofascial pain syndrome which is a condition when we feel pain:
- During movement
- In unrelated parts of the body, known a referred pain
- When pressure is applied
Fascia adhesion may prove to be the cause of a lot of the pain we experience. So although fascia adhesion pain is the first pain noticed when you move, fascial adhesion can be a cause of other pain.
You might be told by a general practitioner or physiotherapist that you have myofascial pain syndrome. Myofascial pain syndrome is a chronic pain condition that you should ease by undertaking the physiotherapy exercises you are given and can support with regular slow yoga.
How to fix fascia adhesion
Daily stretches
Foam roller
Spikey ball
Yoga
Yin Yoga
Daily stretches
Anyone can fit in daily stretching, if you have an area that you suspect is stiff or painful due to fascia adhesion, making sure you stretch and flex that area every day should gradually improve the situation.
Foam roller
The foam roller has long been used in Pilates for balancing, increasing challenge and crucially for massaging target areas. Using a foam roller might help with fixing fascia adhesion.
Spikey ball
The hard plastic spikey ball may be a small, humble piece of equipment, but they are a powerful tool for easing tight knots, especially in places like the neck and lower back. The knots are likely to be caused by fascia adhesion, but even when they are not spikey ball is a humble helper.
Yoga
Well of course I’m going to say that yoga helps! Here at Yoga with Lyn, the yoga we practice is designed in part to support fascia, every practice incorporates stretches and twists, is designed to support cardiac, bone, fascia health and so much more. I also build in mind-body-heart connection through the nature of how we practice and incorporate breathwork.
Yin yoga
Yin yoga might have been invented to support the fascia! This slow, considered practice incorporates slow, deliberate movement with longer holds of the poses, which really increases the stretch, enables the minutiae of the body’s movement system to kick in and benefit.
Yin with Lyn is usually taught as a mini retreat gathering, where the movement is further enhanced with added extra’s that change depending on the time of year and the theme of the day.
Yin with Lyn is an excellent practice towards keeping fascia healthy. Whilst any yoga will help prevent fascia adhesion, Yin is like a superpower at doing so.
Benefits of preventing fascia adhesion
- Reduced risk of injury in your daily life
- Reduced risk of injury when partaking in sports
- Improved symmetry and alignment
- Increased blood flow
- Increased lymphatic drainage
- Avoid the tightness and knock on impact that cause pain
- Improved sport performance
- Better sleep
- Reduced appearance of stretch marks
- Reduced cellulite
Benefits of improving fascia health
All of the above, plus
- Speeding up injury recovery time
- Decrease of daily pain
- Improve sports performance
- Less pain after sports or physical work
- Less stiffness after sports or physical work
- Shortening the length of time pain is felt after sports or physical work
- Shortening the length of time stiffness is experienced after sports or physical work
How to prevent or improve fascia health
Move!
At YWL we strongly believe that the best way to do so is through regular yoga practice, yin yoga and factoring in constructive rest periods.
Your weekly yoga class will help you a lot, but daily stretches will make a massive difference to your general physical health which in turn will support your mental wellbeing. That’s why YWL encourages homework and has devised a quick, easy, safe 5-10 minute home practice for everyone. YWL members are sent the printed version and there is a video coming soon.
As with most things prevention is better than cure, so even you are not feeling fascia adhesion in your body, partaking in regular yoga sessions with a good, well qualified teacher will work for you to prevent the problem starting.
If you already have fascia adhesion in your body then the slow, gentle but effective yoga supported by occasional Yin yoga will slowly but surely improve the situation.
Yoga works!
The most important take away from this is that even you have a physical job, are busy all day long, partake in sport, you need to undertake targeted fascia supporting exercise.
Benefits of keeping fascia healthy
- improved body symmetry and alignment
- increased blood flow, which means faster exercise recovery
- reduced appearance of stretch marks and cellulite
- scar tissue breakdown
- reduced risk of injury
- less day-to-day pain
- improved sports performance
How we move matters
So there you have it Fascia explained in a nutshell. In fact fascia has been likend to the membrane that surrounds the nut within the shell!
Being active, working in a physical industry is not enough. To maintain or improve our physical wellbeing we need to move; how we move matters, correctly practiced targeted exercise is key to prevention or fixing fascia health.
Just one of the benefits of regular yoga practice.
I hope to see you on the mat soon.
You can book into a class with Lyn, public classes run in East Sussex, occasional visits to Somerset, or via Zoom as one to one or as part of a group. Lyn is also available for one to one sessions for ladies. Lyn is available to teach at festivals and gatherings too.