Thread by @StewartalsopIII

A #stablethread on Fascia!

This stuff is what connects one part of your body to every other part of your body. It was mostly ignored by anatomists until recently. There are a lot of mythical components of fascia that are currently being hyped, but also some really cool insights!

Here is the main thread from which this thread has been birthed if you want to learn more about functional anatomy:

https://twitter.com/StewartalsopIII/status/1316410348971479046

There is not much consensus at the moment as to exactly where fascia begins and where it ends, or even what it does!

Robert Schleip argues there are four main functions of fascia:

Communication, Supply, Movement, and Shaping.

Communication:

Most people think of nerves when they think of communication within the body. But thats not the whole story. Hormones are also a way that communication is accomplished in the body. Another way is fascia in the form of mechanical signals.

Mechanical stress is a form of communication between tissues. When you move your finger there are mechanical signals being sent through the fascia in your finger to your hand (through cytoskeletons). Let's take it back to the cytoskeleton:

https://twitter.com/StewartalsopIII/status/1317081783322710017

Supply:

Schleip talks about how fascia acts as a sort of sponge for water inside the extracellular matrix. When a bodyworker touches the tissue (which includes skin, fascia, muscle, etc) the water is spread out to the other tissues. (this might be part of the hype for fascia)

Movement:

Fascia is a key part of our movement abilities for our body. It wraps every muscle fiber and connects it with every muscle unit, it then wraps and connects those with organs and bone. Its everywhere! (although in different consistencies and types)

Shaping:

As the picture above shows, fascia also helps to create the shape with which the human body presents itself. A topic for further discussion is the concept of biotensegrity which was developed thanks in part to fascia studies

This is what I mean when saying fascia is being hyped. In the fitness industry we see fads that are used to sell packages. Science like words are used and people sound very sophisticated. Its like when someone says a yoga pose that will activate your pineal gland, like ok i guess

Some of the above therapies might actually do what they say but they also might not. A lot of marketing comes down to how confidently one can make an assertion and very little with the uncertainty that comes along with most truth statements

If you are interested in biotensegrity and how it relates to the architecture of life you should follow @1Biotensegrity:

https://twitter.com/1Biotensegrity/status/1323035188583108610?s=19

Most people don't know but there is a vicious naming war going on in the fascia community. Lots of confusion and infighting on exactly what fascia is.

Here is the most recent attempt to get it all straight from Robert Schleip and others:

pdf.sciencedirectassets.com/272372/1-s2.0-…

According to this book there are four categories of fascia (remember there are various competing models to define fascia):

1. Linking
2. Fascicular
3. Compression
4. Separating

Linking Fascia:

There are two types of linking fascia

1. Passive (this fascia just holds together two tissues without playing a role)
2. Dynamic (this part plays an active role in movement)

Linking fascia serves to connect various tissues together into functional units.

Fascicular Fascia:

This is what provides the architecture to muscle fibers to create whole muscular units. Every muscle fiber is wrapped in fascia and then connected to the greater whole, then through linking fascia muscle is connected to bone.

Compression Fascia:

This fascia envelops limbs in compartments providing a key part of the shape of various structures. This type of fascia is important for proprioception and muscle coordination as well as veinous return (blood flow back to the heart).

Separating Fascia;

This fascia separates organs from other tissues in the body. When you move your body, your organs move (which stimulates them in a healthy way!). This fascia helps to allow the organs to slide and glide around so we can move in so many different directions.

Two big names in Fascia Studies, the Steccos from Italy are giving a live stream about their recent speech about the fascia conference. Come watch if you everything you read above makes sense:

l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%…

They are saying that deep fascia is affected intensely by neurological problems, for example when someone has a stroke.

They have found they could diminish these neurological problems using manual therapies. This definitely fits with some of the motor issues I have experienced.

They wrote this article to show how they picked up fascial densifications (adhesions, contractions) using MRI with before and after shots while using manual therapy (massage, bodywork).

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

If you stretch the gluteus maximus you will create a stretch around the anus!

If you train your glutes too much you can get destabilization in the anus.

I bet you didn't know you were going to get that piece of information today! 🤣

You can find fibrosis in the deep fascia through ultrasound technology.

How is fascia related to proprioception?

Deeper fascia is full of free nerve endings. The deeper it gets, the more innervated it gets with these nerve endings. For example the thoracolumbar fascia is more innervated than the gluteus fascia.

In order to get really clear on proprioception, we must zoom in on the different ways that fascia is innervated. Each fascia layer is pretty different from other ones and thus it will take a while. The extremities (my god the hands!) are more proprioceptive.

How does one work the deeper fascia (not just the superficial fascia) using manual therapy?

What I love about what they are saying is that the manual therapist absolutely can effect different structures depending on whether the therapist has a realistic mental model of the body

This is really trippy.

Different levels of estrogen lead to different levels of collagen and elastin coming out of fibroblasts. So connective tissue in women changes significantly during the month, as well as during pregnancy:

https://twitter.com/StewartalsopIII/status/1324493166079365121?s=20

During pregnancy, the fascia gets looser so that women can give birth!

This could also be why there is pain during periods and why massage is probably great for women on their moon.

What is the relationship of fascia to pain?

I missed their explanation on this but now they are talking about something fascinating in regards to inflammation and how inflammation can be helpful.

Inflammation is the way that the body regulates the growth of tissue in general, not just a bad thing. Inflammation is a healing process although too much inflammation can also be a bad thing. As always, its hormesis.

Should massage be painful?

Yes if its the right type of pain.

If it nociceptive then yes as long as there isn't any evidence of any tissue damage.

If the tissue isn't sensing what it should, then it might give off a pain signal that needs to be felt.

What is the main function of fascia?

Why do we have this web of collagen fibers that connects everything to everything else?

There are many subfunctions but it seems the main one is to connect muscle to bone so that gravity's stress can be spread among all the body's structures