Thera Jordan, RMT

Fascial Release Through Massage

and Yin Yoga

What is Fascia?

The word 'fascia' means the 'band' or 'connective soft tissue' that supports your entire body. If you could see connective tissue beneath your skin you would observe that it is a fibrous, densely woven, spider web of tissue that surrounds our ENTIRE body like a Spiderman suit under our skin.

It continuously connects and surrounds our internal organs, anchoring them inside our body. It surrounds each fiber of our Muscle tissue and connects our muscles to our bones. Essentially, our muscles are little tubes of Fascia filled with chemicals (Lymph Supplied) that react to each other to cause contraction or relaxation.

Fascia can also be classed in the same category as the Tendons that hold your bones together; essentially they are made of the same things, just arranged differently.

Fascia permeates the entire body from head to toe, and has characteristics that provide cushioning and support to our complete body.

An orange is a good example to understand fascia.

The external skin represents our skin.
Just under the thick skin of the orange, you find a white layer surrounding the whole fruit. Our body has a layer of fascia like that just under the skin, which surrounds your whole body. This fascia serves as a container for the liquid in our body, without it we would leak out all over the place.
In the orange, each slice is separated by white fibers. Similarly, in our body, the fascia wraps each group of muscles and each muscle individually. This allows our muscles to slide across each other without friction.
In the orange, each tiny sack of juice is surrounded by more fascia to keep the liquid from draining out. In our body every cell is separated by fascia.

When the orange is young and fresh white fibers are moist and strong but when an orange is old and it shrinks, the white fibers also become dry and weak. Similarly, in our body when we are young the fascia is most and strong but with aging it becomes dry and weak.

Fascia has several functions:

It helps to maintain structural integrity.
It provides support and protection to organs.
It acts as a shock absorber.
It provides the pathway for cell to communicate with each other.
It is the body's first line of defense against pathogenic agents and infections.
It creates an environment for tissue repair after an injury.

Importance of releasing fascia.

Fascial tension is very often the reason for the un-diagnosable chronic pain. Chronic fascial tension and restriction can lead to a gradual increase in physical problems. The web-like structure is interwoven with blood vessels and nerves. When the fascia is tight for a long period it begins to put an unnecessary pressure on those nerves and blood vessels. It creates symptoms of pain and poor circulation. It also leads to the tightness around pain sensitive nerves and hardening of the gel like ground substance, making consumption of vital nutrients more difficult.

Due to this imbalance, the body has to work much harder to deliver necessary nutrients throughout the body. Over time the fibers start to lose their elasticity. This decreases the effectiveness of the shock absorption capacity of the body. Releasing these fascial restrictions is the good way to bring the body back into its harmonious balance of strength, flexibility and protection.

When fascia is damaged or shocked it can become too tight and cause a number of problems such as:

Headaches
Muscle pain and spasms
Chronic back and neck pain
Recurring injuries
Sciatica
Breathing difficulties
Sensations such as numbness or pinpricking
Poor posture and reduced flexibility

What can cause the fascia to become tight:

Inflammation
Traumas, such as a fall or car accident
Physical injuries
Poor posture
Lack of stretching such as prolonged sitting or standing
Emotional or psychological stress
Mindless repetitive motions

To summarize, the fascia is like a superficial body suit which allows us to move freely, breath properly and provides protection to the body. It covers the whole body and it is connected as one piece of material. Our quality of the movement is directly related to the condition of the fascia.

Myofascial Release Through Massage

The word Myo means ‘muscle’ and the word fascia means ‘band’ (or connective tissue), so when we say the phrase myofascial yoga or myofascial release, we are talking about releasing the connective bands and spaces all around and within the muscle. Myofascial Release is an effective therapy which can directly change and improve health of the fascia. The purpose of Myofascial Release is to break down scar tissue, relax the muscle and Myofascia and restore good posture.

Myofascial Release techniques focus on relaxing the deep tissue of the body providing lasting and effective relief to the person.

Massage Therapy is a very effective hands-on technique that works to 'release' and rebalance our muscle and connective soft tissue system.

Imagine your fascia system is a damp linen sweater that is laid out for drying. You might 'stretch’ and reshape the sweater fabric to condition its shape and conformity to its proper appearance. In a like manner, Massage will help 'stretch' and 'release' to condition your myofascial system to help balance the body.

Book a massage to help soften and re-align Fascia here.

Fascial Release through Yin Yoga

Because it is impossible for you to come for a massage every day, Yin Yoga is especially beneficial for Myofascial Release at home. You live in your own body ALL DAY EVERY DAY. Yin Yoga Movements can keep your body balanced in between Massage Therapy sessions and may be recommended as home protocol depending on what your body needs.

The main benefits of practicing Yin Yoga for Myofascial Release are:

Reduction in muscle spasms
Improved joint movement
Decreased muscle and fascial tension
Improved breathing
Reduction in chronic recurring injuries

Here are mainly two ways Myofascial Release principles fit into a Yin Yoga practice.

1. Long holds

It is important to hold the pose for three to five minutes. It takes that long for the ground substance of Fascia to return to its healthy gel-like state and make the target area more receptive to change in posture or unhealthy holding patterns. Second, it releases a chemical known as interleukin 8, which is the body’s natural anti-inflammatory.

2. Mindful stretching

In Myofascial Release the main principle is to move into the body slowly, gently, and very mindfully until the first layer of resistance is felt. The key is to gently lean into the movement until this barrier relaxes naturally. This allows balancing of tissue deep into the joints. This is also the same approach as one of the most important principles of any yoga practice which is respect. If you force through your body’s barriers, it feels violent, and usually there are no lasting results because your body resists you.

Questions?

Contact me at therajordanrmt@gmail.com with any questions or concerns you may have.

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