Fascia 101

WHAT IS FASCIA?

Fascia is a thin, cellophane-like tissue that covers your muscles.  You've undoubtedly seen it when preparing raw chicken-it's that clear film that covers the meat.  This fascia is made of fibers: some of it is tough, and not stretchy; some of it is highly elastic and stretchable. 

It runs in 5 different planes from head to toe, and packages your muscles, nerves and blood vessels in a tight little bundle.  This allows for movement of your skeleton while protecting the muscular bundles against friction from your bones.     TIGHTER THAN SPIDEY’S WEB...

Sometimes fascia can form adhesions (kinda like knots, or scar tissue), or even become dried out causing the fascia to lose its stretchy pliability in that area. Because fascia runs head to toe, that adhesion and/or dehydration causes tension against the muscular bundle it covers and acts like a tether for the continuous plane of fascia extending out from it. 

The result? 

Areas which yield a decreased range of motion.  Of course, Strong-Willed Athletes keep working despite this tight spot.  Over time, the muscles surrounding the adhesions compensate for the decreased range of motion, and you end up with a muscular deformity. 

How common is this, you ask? 

You've seen this more often than you realize:  when you can't reach around your back, have a hard time with wide-grip moves, or an obvious asymmetry between the right and left side of your body, are just a few examples. 

WHAT THINGS CONTRIBUTE TO YOUR FASCIA LOSING PLYABILITY?

• Poor posture
• Poor hydration
• Neglect of flexibility and mobility training-especially with High Performance Athletes, and/or following traumatic injury or surgery
• Training the same way all the time
• Wrong dietary fats
• Dietary sugars and alcohols
• Working/living in high-stress environments

We put up a Podcast talking more about Fascia, and threw down some knowledge bombs about fascia's role in hitting plateaus (aesthetic and performance) and ways to abate it. 

CHECK IT OUT HERE!  https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nichole6/episodes/Muscular-DeVelopment-Fascia-e2jucq