What is fascia and what does it have to do with our yoga practice?
Fascia is a fibrous tissue that ‘connects’ every cell in our body. This connective tissue forms a 3D wrapping of our entire physical body, head to toe. Fascia surrounds and infuses every muscle, muscle fiber, bone, blood vessel, nerve and organ in our body. It also directly affects our body systems like our muscular and neurological systems. I like to think about it like wrapper on a piece of chocolate, it keeps the chocolate together and protects it from falling apart!
Fascia is made up of three things:
1, elastic fibers – allowing for the possibility of movement
2. collagen fibers (which is very tough) which provide support and strength
3. a ground substance which has a gelatinous, fluid texture (when it’s healthy). This fluid quality allows for organs and muscles to glide over each other without friction.
Healthy fascia is fluid, springy, and strong. It responds to movement with ease and creates a light feeling which transfers to using less energy to do things and our muscles and body will work less and move with greater efficiency. Now that you know what fascia is, how to we help to create fluidity? A few great ways are: Massage, ball work, foam rolling and myofascial release. By using pinpointed release techniques in our practice, we can help jumpstart the fascial repair and remodeling process to free up the tissues and increase their range of motion both during and after our practice.Releasing fascial adhesions is like clearing out the cobwebs between the muscles, allowing them to slide and glide more efficiently, which increases hydration and elimination of toxins. Myofascial release also increases range of motion and reduces pain and recovery time.
Join me for an afternoon workshop to explore fascia and letting go. We’ll use yoga postures, breathing techniques, essential oils and self massage with lacrosse balls to release deeply. Saturday, March 25 1:30-3:30. Register Now