"𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭 - 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐅𝐚𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐚!"

"Muscles Don’t Contract - Muscles Tension Fascia!"

Jaap Van Der Wal 2022

It’s a relationship made in harmony.

Traditional academic education on muscular contractions informs this process happens in isolation and then provides an appropriate force to move a joint, thus creating motion.

This is the bedrock theory of the muscular skeletal system, backed up by the sliding filament theory which we’re all familiar with. However, this understanding missed out a most important ingredient and essential element of the party…. If there is a muscular spindle then there must then be a corresponding Fascial spindle at the same location?

Where is your Fascia? It is the most ubiquitous tissue within your whole being, it is the environment every cell & system exists & behaves within, having a plethora of roles to perform & interact amongst a symphony of coexisting systems.

Without doubt one of it’s most influential roles, second only to its relationship with the neurological system, must be its relationship with its intertwined muscular system without which neither could exist or function!
As muscles shorten or lengthen they tension the corresponding fascia environment within which each muscular sarcomere lives, by this tensioning effect a dynamic reaction occurs that enables structural integrity to be achieved and efficient motion can commence….

You cannot move or contract one without the other, they cannot be separated.

This harmonic relationship is called dynament (dynamic ligament tensioning) and must work seamlessly for effortless transfer of power and the associated forces to be distributed throughout your body.

Unfortunately people focus on strengthening & stretching the red muscular elements without understanding the dramatic effects on the white architectural fabric which dictates your form, ability to adapt & allows function. It’s called Fascia! Understanding the consequences of abusing this robust but delicate fabric is paramount to understanding movement for longevity and purpose.
For if you comprise your fascia’s ability to adapt & develop in a fashion that ensures gliding qualities consistently exists within the extra cellular matrix the result will be a loss of enhancement of your sensory feedback and inhibition will be the main outcome. Furthermore it’s essential that fascia is not over tensioned by excessive muscular forces as fascia thickens under tension and then makes the environment and structural location immobile and open to damage & pathology.

So be mindful of your choice of movement modalities & functional training methods as more often than not, they’re creating a dysfunctional outcome.

Remember ……. "Muscles Tension Fascia" [Paul Thornley]

𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓 𝐅𝐚𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐚 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐭

DRAFT

Fascia “informs” ... Gravity “justifies”

 

INTRODUCTION/OBJECTIVES

There’s an inextricable relationship between Gravity and Fascia. This is overlooked. [Interesting, remember how Fascia itself had been overlooked?]

Gravity should be included as a prime factor in understanding Human health and well being. Make it an integral consideration in Fascia science, research studies, and clinical practices.

Simply put, Fascia wouldn’t behave as it does without Gravity.

BACKGROUND

The Fascia Research Congress was started by Tom Findley MD, PhD and Robert Schleip PhD — both practitioners of Structural Integration, the method originated by Ida P. Rolf PhD. She is acknowledged as the “Mother of Fascia”.

Knowing the ideas which underpin Dr. Rolf’s approach will clarify the significance and utility of working with an included view of the integral relationship of the form that is Fascia with the force that is Gravity. And, hopefully recontextualize the subject to open for new creative ideas on approaches for the bench and for the office.

DISCUSSION

Key points on the Fascia-Gravity connection ...

Gravity is an essential reference. Balance in the architectural arrangement of the whole body is healthy, normal. The standard for bodily balance is the same as for all structures on Earth: balance in respect to the three cardinal planes. The Fascial system is the “Organ of Structure”. It is the bodywide, three dimensional fabric [“matrix”] of support and organization. Seeing its interconnected tensionality we now model the body as a tensegrity structure; i.e., balance maintained in the equipoise span of the connective tissues. Imbalances in the Fascial web are contributive in symptoms of chronic pain and stress. Imbalances in the fascial web have accompanying compensations. Fascia is plastic, adaptive. Myofascial anatomy is a clinical map. Integration of the body structure with Gravity is wholistic, somatic: that is, we access the whole Human being at the concrete, hands-on body level. Upright verticality in the Human body structure is in the definition of normal. It is the direction of Human physical evolution.

CONCLUSION/SUGGESTIONS

The Human body design calls for balance with the force of Gravity. Imbalances contribute to dis-ease.

That the Human body can transform to such a level of structural integration is still to be seen as a realizable possibility. Much less a value in itself. Including this can open new areas for research study as well as clinical diagnosis and applications.

PROPOSED RESEARCH

Compile an image record of pre/post Dr. Ida P. Rolf Method Structural Integration processing enlisting models in training classes in schools accredited by the International Association of Structural Integrators. Images to include strictly comparable photographic imaging/analysis, and other innovative measurement devices; e.g., on site foot pressure plate mapping, gait analysis; selected digital pattern overlays in system with analysis of spacial variances.