Is fascia as important as people say it is?

There seems to be 3 things you never want to talk about at the dinner table - religion, politics and FASCIA!

Why did fascia become part of some people’s personal belief systems? I’ve literally met people making life decisions on what they think their fascia is telling them!  (that’s not a joke).

Fascia is important but it doesn’t do all the things people have said. And it’s not this solitary structure that defines a persons' health. Oh, and if you have an emotional response from bodywork, it’s not the emotion being resurrected from your connective tissue! This gets people in trouble. The receptors that live in the tissue are closely related to an area of the brain where the limbic (emotion) association cortices live. So it’s not uncommon for people to have emotional responses when a dormant area is stimulated (simplifying).

Fascia can express tone. There is also a growing body of evidence that says it can contract. Fascia is incredibly sensory rich. Therefore it receives information and relays information back to the brain via sensory receptors.

It’s unlikely that fascia can be changed by external forces. No evidence can support it at this time. Meaning someone’s hands or that painful lacrosse ball are not likely changing tissue.

External inputs (hands, ball, roller)  are stimulating the receptor types that innervate that depth of tissue. So inputs like pressure, stretch, vibration, warm, cold, joint position, etc. can all create a response in the tissue. Either a good one or a bad one. It all depends!

Here’s the big one! Our visual and vestibular system plays an enormous roll in how we move and the tone set in our muscles and tissues. So when you get a massage or stretched while laying on the table and then you stand up and realize the result feels like it’s gone, that’s because a lot of the time it is! The tone changed drastically when inputs to the visual system cause a tone recalibration against gravity. So if a person has ongoing visual and vestibular issues, unfortunately it can really defeat the result of any tissue work.

You know what? I changed my mind! Fascia is pretty cool! Just not all the hype  Cheers!

About the Author:

Taylor Kruse, recently featured in Men's Health, is dedicated to empowering you with the truth and tools for improved health and performance.

His inspiration stems from more than 10 years of education and coaching through systems like Zhealth Performance, The Burdenko Method, and various movement practices.