Training your fascia

Last Updated 11/29/2010 9:15:52 PM

By: Lisa Zeigel

Remember when you were a kid and you made a silly face, and then were sternly told something like, “If you keep that up, your face is going to freeze that way”. Of course, we never took that seriously, but in reality, it is true…in theory, anyway.

This month, I am going to explore the connections between our muscles, bones, and skin and how when we train one body part, we are really training the whole system. In addition, when something goes wrong with a body part, say, when you incur a knee injury (assuming it is not the result of a fall or a blow to the joint), it is usually not just the knee that is malfunctioning, but it is due to a breakdown in the entire system, with the knee injury just being a manifestation of a greater instability. And as for the “freezing” part, our muscles and surrounding tissues will adapt to whatever stress or movement they are subjected to if it is repeated often enough. Unfortunately, this can include undesirable posture (from constantly sitting at a computer, for example,) where the muscles can either get “stuck” in a contracted (too tight) mode, or become abnormally lengthened (weakened).

There is no question that when we humans first appeared on earth, we got plenty of activity. In fact, we had to move to survive. Running, jumping, leaping, reaching, bending, twisting - - these were all part of our physical vocabularies. Some of us became farmers, which added the element of endurance to make it through long workdays. As technology advanced and industrialization kicked in, people were finding they had more leisure time on their hands. A small group of individuals decided that the physical fitness of the human body was something that needed to be preserved, and thus the gymnasium was created as a place where structured activity could be implemented. Early gyms looked nothing like the facilities we know today. Gymnastic-like activities, such as tumbling and somersaults, climbing and swinging on ropes, and performing strength work on suspended rings were the exercises of choice. These were whole-body movements, with all of the muscles, tendons and ligaments engaged at once and requiring a strong mind-body connection to execute. Somehow this evolved into adding external resistance into the mix, such as weighted kettlebells and barbells, also incorporating whole-body movements. Training became compartmentalized when bodybuilding entered the picture. Suddenly the focus was on developing certain individual body parts, such as the chest or biceps. Machines were then created to “isolate” these muscles. Later on, the sedentary office job became more the norm, and with this came increased repetitive movement of isolated body parts (typing, “mousing”). The result: An increase in injuries and pain.

As a fitness professional, I have watched the personal training industry shift from addressing clients' desires to “sculpt” their bodies to achieve aesthetic goals, to focusing on helping people not only strengthen their bodies and cardiovascular systems, but also to correct muscle imbalances or provide the next step in helping them recover from an injury after being released from physical therapy. An exciting new trend has us moving toward helping people re-learn how to move in patterns to enhance strengthening of all of the body’s systems, not just the muscles.

A core tenet of this concept is that there is a “glue” that holds our bodies together, and this glue is called “fascia.” Fascia is a tissue that not only covers our muscles but also is an integral part of the muscle itself, connecting all of the muscles to each other1. This tissue is not only found in muscle, however. It is present in our skin, bones and brain. It is a vast, web-like network that is alive with nerves that communicate information about our movements to the brain and vice-versa. This means that it is virtually impossible to truly isolate a muscle and not involve everything else. This communication gets thrown off-kilter when movement (or lack of) distorts the fascia, which is a tougher, less-elastic tissue than muscle. Now this is what made me think about making a face as a kid: The fascia can get “stuck” if a muscle is repeatedly in a contracted mode (such as the front of your shoulders when you round them forward while seated in front of your computer). It can also get stuck when they remain in a stretched position for too long (as in your upper back muscles while you are hunched forward). If you walk around like this after you get up from your desk and your computer, your posture that is now fixed in this pose and will cause an imbalance in another part of your body, like your lower back, which may cause tightness in your hips, causing one or both of your knees to turn out, and then your ankles to rotate, and then you may start wondering why every move you make causes you pain!

How do we un-stick the fascia that is now inhibiting our freedom of movement and restore the body back into balance? Two methods that have been around for quite a while and are still proving their usefulness are deep-tissue massage and foam-rolling. In fitness, the trend is turning toward whole-body integrated movements in all of the directions that the body moves - - forward and backward, side-to-side, and transverse. “Movement prep” is also newer to everyday fitness, having been used with athletes to prepare for playing sports for quite some time. Much of this exercise is performed with just body weight, or very simple equipment as opposed to using a huge machine to train a small muscle like the calves (something I always crack up about when I see that in a gym).

Some exciting things are coming up in this new aspect of fitness, and I see it as a chance for trainers like me to learn more about how the body works and apply our creativity to it to make exercise not only more fun, but better for everyone!

1 http://www.ptonthenet.com/audio-interviews/exploring-of-the-fascial-system-part-1-182