How To Take Care of Your Fascia

So now what? If your mind is at all like mine and you are new-ish to the wonderful world of fascia, reading a micro-book like this will lead to inevitable questions like, “Well what can I do to keep my fascia healthy?” and, “Am I being paranoid, or are my footsteps abnormally loud?” and, “Will I perish in a catastrophic tensegrity related mishap while out for my daily run!?” Fear not. This PDF is not at all intended to induce fear and suspicion

of one’s fascia.

But I get it that since it has been an overlooked tissue system that we don’t exactly talk a ton about how to keep it healthy in our culture. Which, ahem, might explain the wildly out of control upwards trajectory of chronic pain, narcotics prescriptions, and joint replacements in our culture as well. (cough) Maybe just a little bit (cough).

The good news is that attending to your fascia isn’t complex, so here’s a short list (only 3 things!) of how to give your fascia some love:

1) Move frequently: Please don’t take this as yet another public service announcement to hit the gym after a day of sitting in your office chair. I have no problem with any affection you might have for your workout (I love mine!), but that’s not what I’m talking about. Working out intensely for an hour at the end of a sedentary day is meaningless when we’re talking about frequency. (Bowman 2013) I want to be clear that intensity and frequency are totally different things.

Working out really hard for a blip in your day does not magically erase sitting still all day. Yes, most of us have work lives that are tied to screens, so you are going to need to get creative and take walks on your lunch break, spend portions of your day at a standing desk, and/or hold walking meetings. Find ways to get movement in, but get it in. You

don’t need to break a sweat all the time, that would be exhausting. Instead, move like humans move. Which brings me to point #2:

2) Move in ways that humans are supposed to move: I like riding my bike. It’s super fun. But humans have not been riding bikes since the early days of our species. We can argue about what makes us human all day long, but we know we’re bipedal and we ambulate by walking (and occasionally running). Walk, skitter through the woods, jump from rock to rock, stand upright, lift stuff, carry stuff, and even occasionally hang from things and

climb things. If you want to give your cells nourishing input, get back to being human. These are the loads (as talked about it in chapter 8) that we are designed to thrive with. You don’t need to become a hunter-gatherer to get this movement in. Put your favorite cooking pot on a high shelf, then move it to a low shelf... Get creative!

3) Work with a manual or movement therapist (or why not both!): I do occasionally get blank stares when I say “manual and movement therapist” , so I will begin with a brief definition of what I’m talking about: A manual therapist is someone who manually- usually with their hands or elbows but occasionally with a tool- manipulates your body’s tissues to “unkink the hoses”, “unsnarl the sweater” , and restore integrity, spring, and

balance to the “cables of your tensegrity bridge”.

Examples of manual therapists are: Rolfers, Structural Integrators (same/same by different names...), Myofascial Release, massage therapists, Physical Therapists/Physiotherapists, Active Release Techniques, Osteopaths, Cranial Sacral Therapists, Bowen Practitioners, Rosen Method Bodyworkers, Visceral Manipulation...

the list goes on.

A movement therapist uses a system of awareness instruction and/or a fitness therapy system to reeducate your ability to accurately propriocept and understand how you operate in space so that you can function better via getting in tune with how you initiate and carry out your movements, know what proper biomechanics are, and come to see with more clarity (and resolve) your own body blind spots.

Examples of movement therapists are: Rolf Movement Educators, Feldenkrais teachers, strength trainers, Alexander Technique teachers, yoga teachers, Rosen Method Movement Educators, Nutritious Movement teachers, Physical Therapists/Physiotherapists... the list goes on.

Both manual and movement therapies work towards the common goal of people more happily inhabiting their bodies. Both will restore health to your fascia and body-wide integrity to unravel your compensatory patterns, resolve pain, heal from injuries and surgeries, and- importantly- avoid aging into a downward spiral. Add to this

the fact that there is often significant overlap between the two kinds of therapy groups I’ve listed here, and sometimes it seems strange to tease them apart.

Need extra help in how to find someone to work with? As a general rule of thumb, if you are seeking out a practitioner it is best to look for someone who is going to work with you as a whole. It’s all connected remember? Attending to the whole is the only way to stop the boomerang effect of one’s compensatory pattern. So while it’s normal and understandable that if you have a shoulder issue your practitioner would spend plenty of time there through your course of work, they should also be attending to the larger pattern of how to get that shoulder into a happier place long term. Which may also involve your neck, your pelvis, your spine, your feet, etc.

At the time of writing this, I have just relocated my Rolfing practice from New Haven, CT to Seattle, and so am accepting new clients. You can read more about working with me here.

*This is an excerpt from the PDF Why Fascia Matters. You can download it for free in its entirety at Emerald City Rolfing.