Fascia Communication

I wanted to write some thoughts on fascia, as I feel its a topic I have neglected so far. This is a topic I like to explore more in dept as there is a lot of knowledge to mine from it. I hope this serves as a good introduction.

Fascia is a word you probably heard massage therapists or yoga teachers use at some point. So what does this word mean exactly? Fascia can be a bit tricky to explain but basically, it is a contentious web of collagen proteins and an inorganic gelatinous composite called ground substance found throughout our bodies. It provides the structure for all our cells to work together in, allowing our cells to create something more than the sum of themselves. This mesh goes through our entire body. There is nowhere on your body where there is no fascia.

All our fascia is connected to itself. We do not have arm fascia or leg fascia. We do not have upper body fascia or lower body fascia. We just have fascia. There is no beginning or end to our fascia, but for the purposes of description, scientific thought has separated our fascia system into 3 parts. There is the superficial fascia that resides under our skin, around our organs and neurovascular bundles. This is what provides our basic shape. Then there is deep fascial which sheaths our muscles and our muscle fibers. If anyone is peeling back the thin blueish silver tissue that covers a chicken breast they are working with deep fascia. Then there is the visceral or subserous fascia that fascine organs to their cavities. Again though it is only when we apply the scalpel that there is there any actual separation in these groups.

Fascia provides what I am going to call our dynamic shape. We all have a basic form as well as many many movable parts that we can configure into a variety of poses. Every muscle we move changes our shape. When we are injured either through abrupt impact or chronic misuse, our muscles tend to freeze. This creates a restriction in the surrounding fascia. Since the surrounding fascia has connections everywhere in the body injuries can have rippling effects anywhere in the body. A simple way to understand this process is to grab a part of our shirt and pull it tightly. Now with a fist full of shirt try to move your other arm around. Do you feel restrictions? Now let's imagine we are wearing a full body one piece suit. Let imagine where we would have restrictions throughout our body. Now let's imagine our one piece goes through our body wrapping around all our muscles, organs, and cells. When we have fascial restrictions this is what we are living with. We become less dynamic in how we can move. We become limited in the shapes we can make with our bodies.

As well as limiting us physically, sticky fascia creates restrictions in our mental and emotional realms as well. We like all mammals express our emotions through gestures and poses, We hike up our shoulders when we are stressed to make our bodies seem bigger as if we want to hide behind ourselves. We puff our chest out and clench our fist to project aggression. We mimic the postures of those we find agreeable. We can gently tense our entire bodies when we are with someone who is challenging us. We can increase this tension as we feel more threatened. When we lose the ability to release a physical pose we can easily become stuck with the emotion associated with that pose. So this may mean we are experiencing anxiety because we can not relax our shoulders.

The condition of our fascia can influence us mentally since we often express ourselves in a synesthesia of words and gestures. When we are telling an elaborate story we naturally flail our arms about to pantomime what we can't fully articulate with words. I’m often taken back by just how precise we can communicate with their bodies which brings me to a philosophical musing. Our fascia provides a structure for our trillions of cells to collectively work within. Healthy fascia provides our cells with support while compromised fascia creates limitations for our bodies. If we lose the abilities to take on certain expressive shapes we inhibit our physical communication. Do we lose the ability to express certain thoughts when we lose the ability to physically express these thoughts? Of course, we can verbally express these ideas but will we when we are in the middle of telling a tale or will our brain reroute to concepts that may not be as good but that the body can express, with its restrictions?

Humans are a social animal, but our histories are often inked in blood. We are fussy and prone to violence when we don’t get our way. All cultures require a great deal of communication to function. How does our fascial restrictions become a social distortion in this transfer information? On a personal level I know after a good massage, or yoga session, my thoughts are more open and it's easier to express my ideas to other people. Those I meet in this state always seem friendlier, which means I'm probably being friendlier to them. I assume this is because my body is being more expressive, letting people know my intent. So would working through our fascial restrictions make the world a bit more friendly? I think so.

Anthony Bruni