Flossing can make all the difference.
Engaging while you elongate (Flossing) means you are working on a deeper level, the level of your fascia.
Huh? What’s fascia?
Fascia is connective tissue. It’s the tissue that connects all other tissues (that’s why it’s also called connective tissue). Fascia is the webbing of the body. We have been taught muscles and bones hold us up; actually, if it wasn’t for the fascia’s suspension and tension web all of our parts would slosh to the floor. Read more here.
Toes to your nose.
Toes to your nose. Bones down to your cells, fascia is allllll over your insides. It wraps around and morphs into our organs, muscles, bones, tendons, ligaments, nerves, brain matter etc. Fascia is a huge deal! The fascia is continuous and ubiquitous, as Joanne Avison says. It is the scaffolding of the body.
Why haven’t I heard about it?
Don’t worry it’s not you, it’s them. It was discarded by classical anatomists for centuries as if it was packing material. Finally, western science is realizing that the connective tissue is a major player in the body (lots more research to be done!). Clinicians, acupuncturists and body workers have known for a long time that impacting the fascia can impact our health in a major way because it is the great connector.
Changing my fascia can impact my health?
It is the one tissue that touches every other bit and piece of us (and it acts as a compartmentalizer, separating the lungs from the digestives zone for instance). When I (Bon) started changing my fascia, thanks to my teacher Bob Cooley, my immune/hormone system and digestive health went way up. Thanks BC.
Learn more on why to change your fascia.
Fascia is cool.
The fascia forms an interweaving silk like web morphing from sheets of fascia to spindly fibers. If we were to extract everything in the body and just leave the fascia, a very detailed webby ghost like replica of you would remain. It transfers fluids, blood and electricity. It even generates its own electricity. We can think of the web of fascia as a transportation and communication network, the conductor of electricity, in Chinese Medicine: the Qi.
Collagen, hot topic.
Fascia is 90(ish)% collagen, some elastin and hylaronic acid (and base material). You might have heard of those if you know something about natural beauty. Yup, playing to your vanity a bit here. Healthy fascia means you are more hydrated, and everything is smoother, more plump, and integrated, you can imagine the rest…
What’s the difference between Flossing and conventional stretching?
Farther is better...(eh-hem)
You guessed it, it’s not. We need to delineate hyper-mobility from truly flexible. Truly flexible means your tissue is pliable/elastic/ hydrated and ready to pounce. So many studies show us that over-stretching tears our tissue, the next day the body has repaired itself over night by laying down scar tissue fibers and then you feel tight again. Oy! Beyond that, wherever you are super mobile, the body will try to find balance by creating restrictions (scar tissue) nearby to stabilize: that’s the nagging neck pain, or achy hip. Once tissues around the joints are overstretched, they act more like an overused rubber band. Dr. Helene Langevin of Harvard Medical, has some things to say about this.
Say it with me…Pan-dic-u-lation
Pandiculation is the act of naturally contracting while you stretch, like yawning, most animal species do this especially when moving from a restful to more awake state (ponce-ready!). We are borrowing this idea of contracting while elongating and applying it to the body in an organized, conscious fashion. Want to get on the floor and stretch like animals stretch with me? Yes, please.
Flossing has a built in safety net.
The kind of stretching we do stays out of the joints (where we generally become hyper-mobile), we work with shorter ranges of motion and we work with active effort. We get into the belly of the tissue (think the depths of your hamstring, quads, or traps—imagine them strong and elastic, springy) and we don’t hang out in the end range of motion where micro tearing usually occurs. Read our Mind Body Green article on safe stretching.
For tight & super flexy types.
If you are not hyper-mobile and instead feel tight or even super tight, this work applies to you in the same way: resistance and elongation will make your tissue elastic. Everyone will gain range that is functional, sustainable and makes you feel comfortable in your body by harmonizing imbalances. This is an all levels kind of practice.
Workout and Recovery.
Two-in-one baby. Fascia Flossing is not easy. Put effort in and we get results. People feel like they have had a workout and massage in one 45 min set. Boom.
Flossing is the inverse of rolling
Ok remember we are trying to change the fascia from the inside-out. Rolling utilizes an external force to change the superficial fascia from the outside-in. While Flossing, you are contracting inside your body, and as you elongate while contracting, you change your body from the inside-out, getting down to the structural fascia.
