Connective tissue, fascia, myofascia meridian theory: Practical, functional, holistic anatomy for yoga teachers & other providers. "Your body is wrapped and wrapped and wrapped some more..."
Have you considered the mindbody implications?
“Wrapped and Wrapped and Wrapped Some More”
Fascia is literally all-encompassing. From your head to your toes, your body is wrapped and wrapped, and wrapped some more, in layers and layers and layers of fascia. It supports, joins, links, and/or separates different types of tissue in the body. It creates a cohesive matrix of connectivity within us that is literally uninterrupted. It helps to give us form and allows for coordinated movement. Fascia is even believed to house a communication system beyond that of the nervous system.
In Communication with Immune System and Nervous System
A fibroblast [is] the weaver of our fascia…. Our fibroblasts are in communication with our immune system and our nervous system. Psychological stress and physiological infection can stimulate or suppress their activity.
“It’s Almost Like an Extension of Our Nervous System”
Because so many of our nerve endings are embedded in fascia, it’s almost like an extension of our nervous system. Dr. Schleip describes fascia as “one of our richest sensory organs… certainly our most important organ for proprioception.” So the more a practice includes a proprioceptive awareness of the body, the more involved the mind is in the movement, and the more effective fascial work will be.
The “Western science way of understanding the body [by] cutting it into smaller and smaller parts … tends to destroy important connections and otherwise ignore the whole system responses.”
Fascia is one network, embryologically and anatomically. All these different names we give elements within it – this tendon or that ligament – can tend to hide the fact that it is all one connected system… When we injure the Achilles tendon, we tend to treat just that part instead of seeing the part that failed within the context of the whole system. Our fascial fabric constitutes one single biomechanical regulatory system – we benefit from seeing it, training it, and treating it that way. It is our dissection method – analyzing the body by means of a blade – that separates and creates individual structures that we (not God) name. Therefore our western science way of understanding the body – cutting it into smaller and smaller parts – has led to great discoveries, but it tends to destroy important connections and otherwise ignore the whole system responses of the collagenous net. Fascia is, in fact, our system of Biomechanical Regulation – just as our circulatory system is a chemical regulator and the nervous system is a timing regulator – and needs to be studied and treated as a system, not only as a series of parts. Anatomy atlases and kinesiology texts tend to reduce us to Newtonian biomechanics of forces, vectors, and levers as if we are manufactured from parts like a car or a computer. This is a very limited viewpoint that explains some behaviors of our system but obscures others. It is rapidly falling [to the reality of]… fractal mathematics, synergetic systems theory, and tensegrity geometry as applied to biological systems.
Contents
Vocabulary
Introduction
Functions
Tendons, Ligaments, Joint Capsules, Fascia
MyoFascia & MyoFascial Meridian Theory
Have You Considered the Mindbody Implications?
See Also
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Vocabulary
BODILY TISSUE — A group of similar cells that together perform a common function
CONNECTIVE TISSUE — A fibrous type of body tissue that connects, supports, binds, or separates other tissues or organs
FASCIA — While previously known as a subset of connective tissue, this term is increasingly being used as a synonym for connective tissue; a pervasive tissue that holds the 70 trillion cells of the body together, providing not only form to the physical structures, but an organizing intelligence and communication through sensory nerve endings
JOINT CAPSULE — A type of connective tissue that surrounds synovial joints
LIGAMENT — A type of connective tissue that connects bones together at the joint
MYOFASCIA — Muscles and surrounding tissues
TENDON — A type of connective tissue that attaches muscle to bone
TENSEGRITY / BIOTENSEGRITY — Formed from the words tensile and integrity, the concept is based on Buckminster Fuller’s work; refers to the forces of tension (provided by muscles, tendons, ligaments, and fascia) pulling on structure (bones and joints) that help keep the body both stable and efficient (dictionary)
Introduction
Bodily Tissues
The physical body is comprised of tissues, “a group of similar cells that together perform a common function.” [source] There are four types of tissues in the body: muscle, nerve, epithelial and connective tissue.
Connective Tissue
Connective tissue is a fibrous type of body tissue that connects, supports, binds, or separates other tissues or organs. It includes protein fibers (such as collagen or elastin). Forms of connective tissue include:
Tendons
Ligaments
Joint capsules
Fascia
The term fascia has evolved to refer to connective tissue in general.
More about Connective Tissue
The base substance of connective tissue is called mucopolysaccharide and acts as “both a lubricant and as a glue.”
Connective tissues include protein fibers (such as collagen or elastin).
Collagenous connective tissue consists mostly of collagen and provides tensile strength. Collagen can be stretched “like a really, really, really stiff rubber band.” [Jules Mitchell]
Elastic connective tissue consists mostly of elastin and provides elasticity.
Superficial fascia covers the entire body.
Deep fascia surrounds muscles and fills in the spaces between muscles.
There is water in the fascia. And it shape-shifts when you’re under stress.
There is Water in the Fascia
Fibroblasts spin strands that form the interconnecting web of our fascia, a web formed both of stiff fibers called collagen and elastic fibers called elastin… A fibroblast [is] the weaver of our fascia. Our fibroblasts also produce water-loving molecules that bind water into the matrix, creating bubble-wraps filled not with air, but water.
It Shape-Shifts When You’re Under Stress
[Fascia is] the only tissue that modifies its consistency when under stress… it’s your body’s shape-shifter, of sorts.
Functions
Fascia cushions, protects, gives structure to, and connects tissues and organs.
Connective tissue forms bones and the walls of blood vessels.
It attaches muscles to bones.
It replaces tissues following injury (e.g. scar tissue).
Fascia helps the body sense itself and communicate that information. It’s full of sensory nerve endings that are in constant communication with the brain about the body’s position in space (called proprioception).
Connective tissue is the system the body uses to organize itself in ways that are just being learned. See interview with Tom Myers here.
It “is involved in movement (transferring and storing power and maintaining tension) and is part of our internal supply system (metabolizing and transporting fluids and nutrients.” [Bernie Clark]
There is an additional function that doesn’t have the same degree of material science backup (because of the difficulty of measuring the unseen): fascia’s role in moving energy. Energy Medicine practitioners and those who work with energy meridian theory understand fascia to be the connection between the physical and energetic body. In this 12-min video, Paul Grilley discusses support for the assertion that meridians are transmitted through fascia. Whether or not this can be considered conclusively proven, the evidence and perspective of practitioners around fascia’s connection to energy movement is significant and compelling.
What More Might it Do?
There are some parts of human anatomy which have inexplicably powerful impacts on health and wellness, including our spiritual and emotional well-being. For example, researchers continue to try to understand the role that the muscle of the soul (psoas), and the seat of the soul (pineal gland) have, but did you know there is a mysterious tissue in your body which encases every organ, limb, and every other tissue? It is known as fascia, and scientists are unlocking its secrets to discover that healthy fascia has an extraordinary and disproportionate effect on wellness, and can actually prevent or help us to recover from virtually any disease. ‘Fascia is what holds us together. There are very few diseases that don’t have a fascia component.’ (Frederick Grinnell, Professor of Cell Biology at UT Southwestern Medical School)
Tendons, Ligaments, Joint Capsules, Fascia
See more detail on the anatomy here.
MyoFascia & MyoFascial Meridian Theory
The word “myofascia” refers to muscles (myo) and surrounding tissues (fascia).
The word is used to help orient our thinking to the “inseparable nature” of muscle tissue and its connective tissue.
Thomas Myers has been a key expert communicating about this critical topic. See Anatomy Trains.
The MyoFascial Meridian Theory highlights the inaccuracy of seeing muscles as isolated units, separate from one another vs. the interconnected whole that the body is.
See this article by Dr. Ray Long, MD for an example of how to access this way of thinking through learning about practical realities of the body. The article explores the myofascial connection between the diaphragm, psoas, and lower extremities, and teaches that we can deepen our knowledge and integration by simply spending time viewing and visualizing these structures.
“One may question whether a ‘muscle’ is even a useful division to the body’s own kinesiology”
Almost every text presents muscle function by isolating an individual muscle on the skeleton, divided from its connections above and below… This ubiquitous presentation defines a muscle’s function solely by what happens in approximating the proximal and distal attachment points… This form of seeing and defining muscles, however, is simply an artifact of our method of dissection — with a knife in hand, the individual muscles are easy to separate from surrounding fascial planes. This does not mean, however that this is how the body “thinks” or is biologically assembled. One may question whether a “muscle” is even a useful division to the body’s own kinesiology… Myofascial meridian theory does not eliminate the value of the many individual muscle-based techniques and analyses, but simply sets them in the context of the system as a whole… It has always been impossible to contact muscle tissue at any time or place without also contacting and affecting the accompanying connective or fascial tissues.
2-min, A vital demonstration and discussion of the interconnection within our bodies
Have You Considered the Mindbody Implications?
Because our fascial system is a major organ of proprioception, the health of our fascia is directly connected to how developed our “inner vision” is.” [Jenni Rawlings]
We could deduce that the better our interoception and “inner vision,” the better our inner knowing, intuition or third-eye vision.
In Energy Medicine, the “living matrix” or “extracellular matrix” refers to the system that physically and energetically connects all of our parts together. The matrix being spoken of is essentially our connective tissue.
Thus, fascia is likely to be a vital link in the mindbody connection as well as the body-energy connection.
See Also
Connective Tissue & Fascia — The post above is an excerpt from this lesson, which also has a section on Application: Techniques, Practices & Sequences.
Stretching & Flexibility Issues & Teaching Techniques — Includes Myofascial Release
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