18d • General discussion
🙆 Myofascial Release - Can You Actually Release Fascia?
Fascia is basically tensile, connective tissue containing all of our musculature in a giant web. Instead of having 600 muscles, we have 1 muscle in 600 myofascial pockets. It’s certainly an interesting way of looking at the body as one interconnected structure where nothing can move in isolation.
Point is, fascia is a thing - it’s not a money-making pseudo-concept created by homeopaths. And it can certainly get too stiff, distorted, dehydrated, or ridden with painful trigger points or ‘knots’ as people tend to call them. However, when we talk about ‘myo-fascial’ release it becomes a bit of a misnomer seeing as fascia is extremely strong and stiff — you'd need >900 kg of force to make significant permanent change in its length or structure. Unlike muscle, which one can passively lengthen (stretch), fascia is non-contractile, collagen-rich, and designed for tensile strength and stability. So… do we actually need to ‘release’ it or (god forbid) stretch it?
With things like trigger point release, foam rolling and any kind of manual pressure is more to achieve an inhibitory response within the painful region, be it fascia or muscle. However, what we can do with fascia is:
- Redistribute interstitial fluid (fluid in and around the fascia) and rehydrate it.
- Improve gliding properties - the human body is comprised of layers and layers of ‘stuff’, creating anatomical fascia-muscle-fascia sandwiches. The layers can get a bit stuck together, which can restrict and inhibit movement.
So generally… it’s not about mashing your IT band as hard as possible and expecting your knee to stop hurting because it somehow ‘releases’. We cannot structurally change fascia much. But what we can do is change certain properties of it to facilitate relief and therefore simply alter your perception of pain... have fun stretching!
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🙆 Myofascial Release - Can You Actually Release Fascia?
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