"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]
