You know, Fascia. It's that body-wide tissue network, continuous from just right under the skin all the way down to the bones. It contributes tensile strength to the musculoskeletal system because it is rich with strong protein collagen fibers.

It is found everywhere in the body. Think of it as a three dimensional matrix, or fabric — supporting, surrounding, and interpenetrating all muscles and every organ, continuous even at the cellular level. It gives shape to the body. 

Let me repeat, not just surrounding ... interpenetrating. Like the pulp in citrus fruits. In other words it's the shiz. Can't do without it.

Also stressing that it is continuous. One unbroken tissue, head to toe. The toe bone is in fact connected to the head bone. Oh, Lord!

Here's the problem. Owing to the nature of dissection where things are separated and treated as parts, the nature of the Fasciae should be appreciated from another point of view. That is, it's not a separate thing, unlike plastic wrap on a bowl is. Or a cellophane candy wrapper. It can be described like that, but the understanding we're going for is in how it is a continuous singular thing, uninterrupted from skin, running through everything, down to the bones. It's what gives the body its shape. And, support. 

It may be difficult at first to visualize due to its three-dimensionality. Repeating: it runs through and through. 

It's also not separate from all the muscles and organs it interpenetrates. For example, consult the above image. Muscles don't exist separate as such. Muscle tissue is intimately associated with Fascial tissue throughout, even down to the level of the individual muscle fiber. The correct term for this tissue amalgam is "Myofascia". Sort of like the human psychosomatic apparatus, the body/mind. We separate it for discussion. Did you know it's one thing in fact? Dissection — and, language itself — inadvertently by its very nature creates divisions where in the living organism there are none; this is important to understand if you want to learn about the Fasciae. Or, understand the so called body-mind problem.

Very importantly, it is plastic. It takes and holds shape. 

Not just the Fasciae. In fact, the body itself is plastic. We are shaped by our experiences. 

How we get in trouble. Random imbalanced patterns develop as a result of many factors: repeated bad habits, accidents, traumas, limited or no training in proper use of the body in general or specific activities, modeling poor examples from significant others as we grow up. When those imbalanced patterns are repeated things get set into place; clumped up, thickened, and shortened. The natural glide between muscle groups in movement gets interrupted when myofascial groups get glued together. The natural plasticity and flow in the system is lost. This restricts movement, wastes energy, and inhibits the vital physiological role of the Fascial system itself. 

Contrary to general belief, though we grow bigger and stronger as we mature, the actual how-it-is structural arrangement is to a significant extent learned. Of course, the arm attaches to the shoulder, the toes to the foot, the head to the neck. It's about HOW the parts fit together. More precisely, how they come to fit together. We use our bodies in certain ways and in time they eventually take a shape that reflects those patterns.

Balance good. Imbalance ... well, not so much. As you can imagine.

Witness the use of irony in Old Egypt:

Good news! Since the body is plastic it can also be trained into a healthy, efficient pattern. But, now, just what is that right pattern? Gravity itself is the guide to determining how the human body should stack up. Hint: Plumb and square.

The human body must deal with the constant and ever present pull Gravity. By Anatomical design and the dictates of Physics it is normal for it to be stacked up vertically, with everything even and level. We all know this standard intuitively as a given from when we played at stacking blocks as children. Yet, as adults we rarely take the factor of structural balance of our bodies into account as determinant of health, performance, and creativity.

Dr. Ida P. Rolf originated a definitive and peerless approach to human structural balance. Here's her take on what is in fact a firm grasp of the obvious: "Some individuals may perceive their losing fight with gravity as a sharp pain in their back, others as the unflattering contour of their body, others as constant fatigue, yet others as an unrelentingly threatening environment. Those over forty may call it old age. And yet all these signals may be pointing to a single problem so prominent in their own structure, as well as others, that it has been ignored: they are off balance; they are at war with gravity."

Yet, since the body is plastic and the Fascial system is continuous throughout the body, reimagining the body along the lines of Gravity is easily doable.

It's a whole body process. Read more ...