So what’s fascia?

It is one thing and everything.

I love the way Brooke Thomas (of Liberated Body) defines it:

…a seamless piece of tissue that Saran wraps you just underneath the skin … it is a richly multi-dimensional tissue that forms your internal soft tissue architecture. From the superficial (“body stocking”) fascia, it dives deep and forms the pods (called fascicles) that actually create your musculature like a honeycomb from the inside out. Imagine what it looks like when you bite into a wedge of orange and then look at those individually wrapped pods of juice. We’re like that too!

Besides making me think of honey and oranges together, she clearly lays out why healthy fascia makes us feel good. According to Thomas, these are the top 5 things that matter about fascia:

it’s got to stay hydrated

we’ve got to move it in a variety of ways

it’s all connected (hence, compensations)

it is springy & wants us to bounce it

it is the largest & richest sensory organ of the body

To really get the magnitude of this amazing substance that is not just in us but is us, read her article,The Top 5 Ways Fascia Matters To Athletes, and watch Thomas Myers in “Fascia 101”. He mentions oranges too.

Written by Tracy Dixon SI

Structural Integration Practitioner in Mount Pleasant BC