The Wonderful World of Fascia
by Heidi Lauber

I am fascinated by fascia. It forms a wonderful webbed and fluid world within the body, and I am perpetually amazed by it. This is why I’ve spent a decade learning about, working with, and feeling into fascia.

Fascia is a curious “part” of the anatomy; it is the fabric that holds our bodies together, gives us shape and structure, and keeps us bipeds defying gravity. Without fascia, we would quite literally collapse to the floor as a pile of bones and tissue. Fascia also plays a reconstructive and defensive role in the body; it contributes to post-injury repairs and helps repel invading microorganisms.

A connective tissue, fascia weaves together the various parts and pieces of the anatomy and connects them into a continuous whole. My expertise is with myofascial (myo being the Latin word for muscle) connective tissue, the fascia of the locomotor framework in the body. This is the fascia that envelops and permeates every single muscle of the body. Thomas Myers, author of Anatomy Trains, states that there is only one muscle in the body - it simply hangs around 600 or more fascial pockets (p. 40). Consider then, that as yoga instructors and students, you are interacting with and affecting these 600-plus fascial pockets during your asana practice.

The Ingredients of Fascia

In order to understand fascia, it’s important to know what it’s made up of. So let’s look at the “ingredients” of fascia.

Fascia is made up of two main substances: cells and a soup of stuff that surrounds the cells called the extracellular matrix. There are several types of cells found in fascia, all of which are important, but the ones I choose to highlight here are calledfibroblasts. These are considered to be “true” connective tissue cells; they outnumber all other connective tissue cells and secrete the rest of the components found within the fascia.

Fibroblasts secrete three kinds of fibers (collagen, elastin, and reticulin) as well as a gel-like substance called ground substance made up primarily of water.

I want to acknowledge that ground substance is a major component of fascia that serves several important functions, all of which I am amazed by, but I choose to leave these as topics for another time. Instead, I am focusing on the collagen fibers and how they contribute to a very important characteristic of fascia – plasticity.

Collagen is important to note because it is the most commonly found fiber in fascia. It is tensile in nature, and this is reflected by the largely plastic nature of fascia.

What does plastic mean in this context?

It means that the myofascia tends to respond most readily to long, slow, and gentle tension. Placing fast or aggressive tension on the myofascia can actually lead to increased fascial restriction and imbalance.

For example, imagine a plastic bag and what it takes to “stretch” a part of it - long, slow gentle tension. Once "stretched", it typically doesn't recoil back.

Clearly, due to fascia’s makeup and nature, it is deeply affected by a yoga asana practice. In fact, one cannot practice yoga asanas without affecting one’s fascia. The way I see it, a yoga asana practice is a way to facilitate a myofascial release experience for oneself.

You have all experienced the “release” of myofascia in your bodies when you’ve practiced an asana slowly, gently, and mindfully and you have come away feeling more “space” in your body. As well, you’ve perhaps experienced a feeling of rigid resistance in the fascia when pushing or forcing a pose. Begin to play with this new understanding of the fascia and how it relates to your practice, and see what happens.

Copyright 2007 Functional Synergy, inc and Anatomy and Asana. All rights reserved.

Anatomy and Asana: I love Anatomy Ezine
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By Susi Hately Aldous,
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