Free your fascia (and your mind will follow!)

What is fascia and why should I care?

Like many new skills, becoming a massage therapist feels akin to learning how to drive. We pass our tests so that we can get out on the roads legally….but only then is when the real learning begins! In just over a year of being a professional therapist I have learnt so much and I know I am way more skilled now than I was at the start.

And yet, I know there is also so much more for me to learn. To that end, I have recently started a new course in ‘Advanced Clinical Massage’, which aims to give me the insight and knowledge to help people suffering a from a range of chronic pain conditions.

I am only a couple of months in to this year-long course but I have already picked up plenty. And one area that has been really fascinating to me has been working with fascia.

Fascia is a thin, tough, and elastic connective tissue that forms a continuous 3D web throughout the entire body, wrapping around muscles, bones, organs, nerves, and blood vessels. It provides structural support, allows tissues to glide, and acts as the body's internal, sensory-rich networking system - which means it’s giving constant feedback to the brain about the current status in the body. One of the best descriptions I’ve seen is that fascia is like the white pith that surrounds an orange or tangerine.

The key point about fascia is that it responds to our repeated action - so if we are repeatedly hunched over or scrunched up, it will tighten into that position. Fixing that means moving our body in different ways - whether that’s a simple stretching regime, or activities like yoga, swimming, climbing, dancing or whatever.

And of course massage is also a great way to open up fascia, and I am loving bringing fascial release work into all of my treatments - even after just a few minutes the results can be amazing. So if you feel like you might be ready to flex out your fascia, click the booking link at the top and get your next treatment booked in :)