Do you ever wonder how your body feels your mood, when you’re happy or sad your body seems to reflect the inner states, you can feel it in your tissue? Your fascia is. The connective tissue your body is made of. Your fascia holds your consciousness which is why when you have stress, tension, strong emotions, and after an injury or trauma your whole body can feel it. 

How are infections and disease spread, how are other areas of your body affected? Until fairly recently fascial tissues have been studied after death, on cadavers; because of this, fascia’s major functions were unrecognized. These newly discovered characteristics broaden the role that fascia plays in the transfer of information, influence of function, and impact on energy production of the cells, organs and systems of the body. Your fascia informs the nucleus -the cell’s mind and so your health is influenced by the state of your fascia.

At a microscopic level fascia has numerous forms that mirror crystalline patterns found in nature. The difference in shapes that take place- are created dependent upon the movements and demands that you make in your daily life. Vestibules and tubercles, geometrical patterns that drip with dew drops or harden and calcify like the desert floor. These fascial shapes take and change form to accommodate the shape we choose to make in any given moment.

The integrity within the structure of your fascia depends upon the hydration, oxygenation, load, tension, and movements that you make. Fascial health is impacted by frequencies, vibrations, tones, light, sound and touch. Your skin is fascia so it’s a sensual organ, and as you sense your external environment, your internal environment is affected.

Research about fascia has uncovered so much that we didn’t know previously. For quite some time fascia was thought of as a packing material. A wrapping of the cells and as the body adds each individual cell to one another it is organized into groups and each group as it adds is wrapped again in fascia. We are now discovering that fascia is also the water of the interstitial fluid. The fluid that baths each cell, which means it permeates the cell wall and, by fluid, it communicates with organelles and the nucleus of each cell. Information is passed through the interstitium. Information passed that affects how the DNA and RNA articulates and builds proteins.

Fascia is a connective tissue primarily composed of collagen with some elastin. It is a web that connects from skin to muscle, from muscles to tendons (which really aren’t isolated connectors of muscle to bone but rather areas where the fascia thickens into a bundle), from tissues into the extracellular matrix where the lymph bathes the cells. Fascinatingly, the tubules of fascia go from the extracellular matrix through cell membrane proteins called integrins, and into the intracellular matrix. Once inside the cell, this network connects to organelles like the nucleus where it affects which genes get transcribed into proteins as well as the mitochondria where it affects energy production and the formation of biowater (biologically active water that can hold a charge and power operations).

According to a new study detailing the findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports. These fluid-filled spaces were discovered in connective tissues all over the body, including below the skin’s surface; lining the digestive tract, lungs and urinary systems; and surrounding muscles. Previously, researchers had thought these tissue layers were a dense “wall” of collagen—a strong structural protein found in connective tissue. But the new finding reveals that, rather than a "wall,” this tissue is more like an “open, fluid-filled highway,” said co-senior study author Dr. Neil Theise, a professor of pathology at New York University Langone School of Medicine. The tissue contains interconnected, fluid-filled spaces that are supported by a lattice of thick collagen “bundles,” Theise said. (Rettner and LiveScience, 2018)

With Myofascial Release we can influence this tissue and create cellular change in the body by engaging the collagenous barrier deep in the fascial layers. During treatment the practitioner finds the individual’s restrictions and takes the slack out without sliding on the surface. This enables the myofascial therapist to then use the fascia system as an amazing lever that reaches deeply into the body where significant problems are located. Moving into the resistance in an intentional slow way allows the tissue the time it needs to release. I think we can all relate to the need to not be rushed, our tissue is the same way.

In MFR we engage the collagenous barriers of the muscular fascial system. It takes time to engage the collagenous barrier. This is the barrier that exists at each membrane of each layer of fascia. When entered with specific pressure that moves gently yet deeply until resistance is felt in the tissues. Then we wait and hold the tissue, and with time and pressure the hands hold the tissue until the hardened solid ice phase transitions into a dewy hydrated fascia, the ice melts and gives way. The restrictions in the fascia melts and releases the hard gummy adhesions are pulled out into a softer more pliable and hydrated state of connected tissues.

In our western culture time is one of the most important features to the healing process that is often skipped over in our medical health care systems. In MFR we spend time with each restriction to deliver a deeper more long-lasting result. During the crucial time of a release there is a number of phenomena occur that do not always occur with other forms of massage and bodywork that lead us to consider MFR to be authentic healing. Around five minutes, the technique will start to elicit the piezoelectric effect. Piezoelectricity is a Greek word meaning pressure electricity. Our cells have a crystalline nature, and when you apply pressure into a crystal it generates electrical flow. In our body it’s a bioelectrical flow. We call this unwinding. Using sustained pressure creates a biochemical, hormonal affect at the cellular level. Many of the biochemical problems that people have, actually come from fascia restrictions on the cellular level and that of a thwarted inflammatory response that solidifies the ground substance, which can lead to disease.

Myofascial Release is a highly specialized form of bodywork that releases fascial restrictions that may have occurred from childhood development, repetitive movement patterns, postural positions, acute and chronic injury or trauma. MFR delivers superior results. Treat your symptoms at their source with MFR.

Angela Rose is a Myofascial Release Therapist and an Injury Specialist. She treats clients who are in great health and use MFR as preventative healthcare. She treats clients who are recovering from an acute or chronic injury, have had surgery recommended and are looking for an alternative, have had surgery and are ready to rehab and loose the swelling and gain their mobility. She uses a holistic approach. She body reads her clients as unique individuals and treats their specific symptoms at their source, the fascial restrictions. Release the restrictions so you can get out of pain and immobility and get back to doing what you love doing with MFR.

Angela Rose works at Sol Bodyworks in Grass Valley.
Sources Rettner and LiveScience (2018) Meet Your Interstitium, a Newfound “Organ" Scientific American March 27,2018