Un-Complicating the Complicated: Fascia
Today we’re going to be talking about fascia and instead of another 3600 word blog we’ll be dividing this one up over the next two weeks.
Fascia is a complex network of connective tissue and its a term that nearly everyone talks about when it comes to musculoskeletal health and if you talk to 5 different people that work with the musculoskeletal system they’re probably going to give you 5 different opinions on its importance. Over the last few decades, the last one in particular, fascia has gone from being often overlooked and ignored to becoming recognized as a key component of the the musculoskeletal system health, biomechanics, and pain management.
As a patient, you may have heard practitioners discussing fascia, sometimes leaving you more confused than before. This blog aims to provide a clear understanding of what fascia is, its significance in our bodies, and how it contributes to our overall health and well-being.
In this blog, we will explore:
What fascia is and its structure
The role of fascia in musculoskeletal health
The impact of fascia on biomechanics and body alignment
How fascia influences pain and dysfunction
The connection between fascia and proprioception
The role of myofascial trigger points in pain
Treatment and management of fascial pain, including resistance training and QSM3 Chiropractic
By the end of this blog my goal is that you will have a better understanding of the importance of fascia in your body and how maintaining fascial health is one contributing factor to a pain-free and optimally functioning musculoskeletal system.
Addressing the Confusion Around the Term “Fascia":
Despite the importance of fascia it often leads to confusion and debate among both patients and practitioners. In my opinion this is primarily due to the rapid increase in research about fascia over the last decade and the fact that fascia is a complex structure with multiple functions, making it difficult to pin down a single definition. Additionally, different healthcare professionals might use the term "fascia" to refer to various aspects of the connective tissue system, further adding to the confusion.
To clarify, fascia is a continuous network of connective tissue that envelops, supports, and connects all the structures within our body, including muscles, bones, organs, nerves, and blood vessels. It is composed of collagen, elastin, and ground substance, and its structure can vary from being thin and delicate to thick and robust, depending on its location and function.
By gaining clarity on the term "fascia" and its implications, we can better appreciate its impact on musculoskeletal health, biomechanics, and pain management, enabling us to make more informed decisions about our health and well-being.
What is Fascia? Definition and Explanation of Fascia and its Role in Movement
You know the filmy yellow whitish layer around a raw chicken breast? No not the fat, but it often connects the fat to the chicken breast, that’s fascia.
Fascia is a versatile, three-dimensional network of connective tissue that connects the entire human body. It can be found surrounding and interconnecting muscles, bones, organs, nerves, and blood vessels. Fascia is essential for providing support, stability, and protection to these structures while also playing a crucial role in facilitating movement and flexibility.
Composed of primarily of collagen but also including elastin, and ground substance, fascia can basically be broken down into three main types, with each type playing a specific role:
Superficial fascia: This layer of fascia is located directly beneath the skin, connecting it to the underlying muscles and other structures. It provides insulation, stores fat, and allows for the smooth gliding of skin over muscles during movement. Superficial fascia also houses nerve endings and blood vessels, which helps maintain skin sensitivity and provide nourishment to the skin and underlying tissues.
Deep fascia: This type of fascia is denser and more fibrous, surrounding and compartmentalizing individual muscles, muscle groups, bones, nerves, and blood vessels. Deep fascia plays a crucial role in transmitting forces during movement and maintaining structural integrity. By providing a strong, stable framework for muscles, deep fascia helps optimize muscle function and allows for efficient force transmission throughout the body.
Visceral fascia: Found surrounding internal organs within the body cavities, visceral fascia helps to hold organs in place and provides a protective barrier. It also allows for the smooth gliding of organs during respiration, digestion, and other physiological processes. Although not directly involved in locomotion, visceral fascia plays a vital role in maintaining the position and function of internal organs, which in turn contributes to overall body movement efficiency.
Fascia's interconnectedness and adaptability makes it essential for maintaining the proper function, alignment, and overall health of our body and the musculoskeletal system. Its ability to respond to various mechanical stresses enables it to contribute to biomechanics, proprioception, and the body's ability to manage and recover from pain and injury.
Fascia and Movement
Now let’s go a little deeper and dive into the specifics around fascia and its relationship with our musculoskeletal system. Specifically looking at how fascia helps us move and transmit force.
Fascia plays a vital role in preserving and promoting musculoskeletal health because it provides support to our muscles, bones, and joints through movement by allowing smooth gliding of these structures during movement. Due to the interconnectedness of the fascia with the bones, muscles, and joints fascia is intimately connected to muscle function and biomechanics. It surrounds and interconnects individual muscle fibers, muscle bundles, and entire muscle groups, allowing for the efficient transfer of forces and coordinated muscle contractions. This interconnected network ensures that muscles work in harmony, optimizing movement patterns and reducing the risk of injury. Additionally, fascia is rich in nerve endings and sensory receptors, which play a critical role in proprioception—the body's ability to sense its position, orientation, and movement in space. This awareness is crucial for maintaining balance, coordination, and efficient movement patterns.
One of the coolest and most significant attributes of fascia is its ability to allow us to increase the force production of a group of muscles and ability to stay stable even when balancing on one leg.
Fascia is a critical component in the transmission of forces throughout the body. Specifically the deep fascia,. The deep fascia helps to connect groups of muscles to efficiently transfer force. One such example is the latissimus dorsi and the the glute muscle on the opposite side.
These connections facilitate the transfer of forces generated by muscle contractions to the skeletal system, allowing for movement and stability.
During movement, fascia helps distribute forces across multiple muscles and joints, reducing the strain on individual structures and preventing overload injuries. This force distribution enhances the stability of the musculoskeletal system, allowing for more robust and efficient movement patterns.
Below are a few more examples of different fascia lines of fascia that interconnect specific groups of muscles.
The Superficial Back Line (SBL):
The Superficial Back Line is a continuous chain of fascia that runs from the plantar fascia at the base of the foot, up the back of the leg, over the buttocks, along the spine, and over the head to the forehead. This line of fascia connects various muscles, including the gastrocnemius, hamstrings, erector spinae, and occipitalis. When these muscles work together during activities such as walking, running, or bending over, the fascial connections within the SBL help distribute forces evenly and maintain proper posture.
The Lateral Line:
The Lateral Line is another continuous chain of fascia that runs along the sides of the body, connecting muscles such as the peroneals, iliotibial band (ITB), tensor fasciae latae (TFL), gluteus medius, and quadratus lumborum. This fascial line allows for efficient force transmission during activities that involve side-to-side or lateral movements, such as side-stepping, changing direction during running, or maintaining balance on uneven surfaces.
The Spiral Line:
The Spiral Line is a fascial chain that wraps around the body in a helical pattern, connecting muscles like the external obliques, internal obliques, and transverse abdominis with the gluteus maximus, adductors, and tibialis anterior. This line of fascia enables efficient force transmission and coordinated movements during activities that involve twisting or rotating motions, such as swinging a golf club or throwing a ball.
The Arm Lines:
The fascial connections within the arm lines link muscles in the upper body, including the chest, shoulders, and arms. The deep front arm line, for example, connects the pectoralis major to the biceps, while the deep back arm line links the latissimus dorsi to the triceps. These fascial lines allow for efficient force transmission during upper body movements, such as pushing, pulling, or lifting objects.
These are a few of the examples demonstrating how fascia plays a critical role in force transmission by connecting different muscle groups and allowing them to work together efficiently during various activities. This interconnected network of fascia ensures optimal movement patterns, stability, and injury prevention.
That’s all for the first part of the blog and we’ll return next week diving into the role fascia plays in alignment, fascia and myofascial pain syndrome, the interconnectedness of fascia and the sympathetic nervous system, the role fascia plays when in comes to proprioception and coordination of movements, and how to keep the fascial system healthy.