What is Fascia?
Fascia is a multi-dimensional matrix of connective tissue in the body (some may have formerly known as ‘sinews’). The fascial system surrounds muscles, bones, tendons, organs, joints, blood vessels, nerves, and the list goes on! It is the fabric of the body that envelopes its trillions of cells forming a unitary, tough & fibrous web that can be found everywhere! Fascia plays an important role in functional movement by reducing friction between different structures, and between its own layers - although it may look like a continuous sheet of tissue, it is actually many layers separated by a fluid called hyaluronan. New and ongoing research confirms that it is an extremely communicative whole-body system performing as important a regulatory job as the nervous and circulatory systems.
“Parallel to [this] modern application of systems theory to our body’s design is the related discovery of the role of the fascial webbing in body posture & movement. While everyone learns something about bones and muscles, the origin and disposition of the fascinating fascial net that unites them is less widely understood. The blunt statement is that, in 500 years of the Western tradition of anatomy, an entire bodily system has remained almost totally unseen, and certainly underappreciated.” (1)
Within the fascial system areas differ in density - bones, cartilage, tendons, and ligaments being think & leathery, while muscles are sheathed with fascia as well as penetrated & infused with a cotton-candy-like net surrounding each muscle cell and bundle of cells (fibres). Bones are covered in a sheath called periosteum, which is comparable to plastic wrap. No part of this fascial net is distinct or separate from the network as a whole - “each of these bags, strings, sheets, and leathery networks is meshed with each other into one net, birth to death and tip to toe.” - Tom Myers. (2)
Now it should be no wonder to you how a foot injury can (and likely will, without treatment) affect the entire body - often in a predictable path from foot to knee, knee to hip(s), hip to low back, mid-back, shoulders, neck and head. Fascia has nerves that make it almost as sensitive as skin, and when fascia is stressed or restricted, it tightens up and can cause pain quite similar to muscle pain. It can also cause muscles to become squeezed in an irregular fashion, resulting in actual muscle pain from ‘knots’ (also known as trigger points). (3)
Click HERE to learn about Plantar Fasciitis - one of the most common foot injuries in the adult population.
Take Care in Health - Molly, Registered Massage Therapist
References:
Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual Therapists & Movement Professionals, Fourth Edition - Thomas W. Myers; page 5
Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual Therapists & Movement Professionals, Fourth Edition - Thomas W. Myers; page 7