Fascia and stretching
Methods for improving the health of your fascia and why it matters
Fascia covers and surrounds every structure within the body. It’s continuous and provides form to the body as well. It is three dimensional. It connects the skin to the bones and everything in between. It is layered between the muscles and tendons causing one muscle to blend into the next creating connections that were unheard of when I took my anatomy class in physical therapy school in 1989. So much of what is known now about fascia is new thanks to science and research.
There have been new discoveries about what fascia is made of and its role in human health. There are different kinds of fascia including soft, loose, dense connective tissue, deep and superficial. It is made of collagen and is connective tissue. Fascia includes blood and lymph tissue as those are considered connective tissue. It responds to mechanical stimulation when a change in the bodies’ position occurs. It allows the body to move by because of sliding and gliding of the muscles, blood vessels, nerves and organs around each other as our body changes positions. Our fascia responds to tension and changes in tension as we move through space. It also helps to transmit force through the body as we move and respond to our environment. If the force is short-lived, our body will return to its natural shape, but if the forces is prolonged, our fascia adapts to that new shape. For example, a head forward, rounded shoulder posture can become your shape if you sit for prolonged periods of time. If the elasticity of fascia changes, we can experience things like joint stiffness, stiffness in the morning, and chronic inflammation1
There is an emotional component to fascia as well. In the way that nerve receptors are in the fascia system, interoception (our ability to interpret our internal body signals)and exteroception (our ability to interpret signals from our external environment) are impacted. When our fascial system is not working well, it affects our tolerance to pain and it can affect our body image. Interoceptive awareness provides us information on understanding our emotions. That’s where the thought of our “emotions get stored in the body” comes from. Emotional responses and stress responses that don’t get processed tend to be stored within the fascia system. I want to be clear here, the chemical and biological response of unprocessed emotions, stress, or trauma gets stored in the fascia, not the emotion itself. This can then cause physical pain and organ dysfunction that is manifested out of unprocessed emotional responses to stress and trauma.
How do you know if your fascia is healthy? If you can move without feeling restriction, tightness, or pain, then your fascia is healthy. Healthy fascia is smooth and supple whereas unhealthy fascia can get sticky and taut. There aren’t any blood tests or diagnostic tests to determine the health of your fascia.
How can you help your fascia stay healthy?
Move often
Move regularly
Vary your movement through all planes-up, down, side to side, and rotation
Stay hydrated not only by ingesting fluid/water but also by moving and squeezing the layers of muscles/tendons/joints to keep them hydrated
Understand your emotions and process them. Talk with a therapist or psychiatrist to help you with this.
What if you notice stiffness, pain, or restricted mobility or if you have experienced emotional stress and/or trauma?
Talk with a therapist/psychiatrist to help you process your emotions
Practice yoga or t’ai chi
Practice Mindfulness including meditation
Engage in pranayama or breathing practices
Engage in movement practices that bring you joy so that you will practice regular movement
Work with a physical therapist to help you regain your mobility and decrease pain
Work with a massage therapist and learn ways that you can massage and/or alleviate stickiness your connective tissue
Thank you for joining me! Here are past newsletters that have some more tips related to fascia! Enjoy! And, if you discover something that you find helpful, please reach out!
Take good care,
Sharon
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Establishing a practice of physical movement
Working in a physical therapy clinic, I see a lot of people. I see people young and old, people who move their bodies vigorously on the weekend, people who don’t move very often, people who move one part of their body too much, and people who move with pain. I work with people who have had pain for decades. Their pain …
Interoception, exteroception and the ability to regulate your nervous system
Interoception is the ability to sense your internal signals to understand what is happening within your own body. Exteroception is the ability to sense and understand what is happening outside of your body.
Bordoni B, Mahabadi N, Varacallo MA. Anatomy, Fascia. [Updated 2023 Jul 17]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493232/