by Dr. Chris Knudsen
Muscle IQ - Physical Therapy
For this week's blog I will be commenting on another YouTube video about fascia:
The Truth About Muscle Fascia - The Bioneer (YouTube Channel)
"By better understanding how to use fascia, and how to keep it healthy, we might be able to boost our mobility, our strength, and our general performance."
At Muscle IQ our evaluation and treatment techniques focus on the fascia. In this video above you can learn some of the basics that are known from research and from experience about what fascia does and how important it can be in the functioning of the human muscular system.
What is Fascia?
Our entire muscular system is wrapped in a film like substance called fascia. Fascia is a band or sheet of connective tissue located beneath the skin and made from collagen. Its role is to separate, stabilize, and enclose muscles and organs. It helps to divide muscle groups into fascial compartments and contains a large amount of elastin fiber to determine its elasticity. It can store and return potential energy while also influencing and perhaps limiting a persons range of motion.
Fascia is more than a supportive springy wrap, though. It also contains blood vessels and sensory receptors. The fascia has between 6 to 10 times more nerve endings than muscle.
Loosening fascia can help increase range of motion before exercise and can limit soreness after exercise. Loosening the fascia in your foot can affect the range of motion in your entire anatomy because it is a whole system. Misuse and overuse can result in a change in the health of the fascia and lead to pain and decreased range of motion. Foam rolling over fascial areas may help to temporarily relax tension in the fascia, allowing better motion and muscle function.
How does fascia protect us? It has been theorized that when we move beyond a certain safe point the nervous system will kick in causing tension to build up in the fascia and muscles to prevent further motion and prevent us from injuring ourselves.
"It has been suggested that the fascia may act as a communication system, carrying electrical signals between muscle groups and nerve endings."
Fascia is definitely playing a role in our bodies to communicate. Why else would there be so many nerve endings in the fascial layers around all of our muscles. We see the importance of fascial communication everyday during the treatment of our patients at Muscle IQ. A patient comes in with pain in the right shoulder. The shoulder hurts and is weak. Muscle testing reveals the weakness originates near a knot in the fascia on the right side of the neck. After treating the knot in the neck the shoulder pain subsides and the strength of the shoulder muscle is restored. We believe that the fascial system is a primary communication system in the body.
To learn more about fascia check out our Fascia Page on our website: