Flossing can make all the difference.
Why Fascia Flossing™ Makes a Difference
Engaging while you elongate (Flossing) means you are working ON THE FABRIC OF YOUR FOUNDATION, your fascia.
Huh? What’s fascia?
Fascia is connective tissue. An endless fabric of varying properties and thicknesses, organizing our form. It’s the tissue that connects all other tissues, present as the main building material of our bodies from inception to the day we pass, lining the skin and joining everything on the most microscopic level. Fascia forms a network or a matrix and could be thought of as the webbing of the body, creating connection, continuity and coherence. 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, permeates 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 organizing principal 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, instead they focused on “important” parts (organs, nerves etc); developing an anatomy formulated by mechanical metaphors. 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. Finally. anatomists, movement practitioners alike are moving away from “studying the individual component (parts), to appreciating the wholeness of the architecture holding all of them (the parts) together.” -Joanne Avison”
Changing my fascia can impact my health?
It is the one tissue that touches every other bit and piece of us (it acts as distinguisher , separating the lungs from the digestives zone for instance). When I (Bon) started changing my fascia, thanks to my teacher Bob Cooley, besides all the structural benefits, my immune/hormone system and digestive health functionality significantly increased. 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 mainly made of collagen, some elastin, proteoglycans and hyaluronic 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?
Instead of holding a position while trying to relax like we do in our traditional practices, the function of the flossing is imparted via the ENGAGEMENT + ELONGATION (within a reasonable/safe range). Without these two actions, the result of reconfiguring the fascial fibers is lost. The resistance/engagement also must be applied in the correct direction of movement - the elongation phase, moving the tissue from short to long. This is an eccentric contraction.
Farther is better...(eh-hem)
You guessed it, it’s not. We need to delineate hyper-mobility from true flexibility. Truly flexible means your tissue is pliable/elastic/ hydrated and ready to take action (meaning tissues can shorten, lengthen, coil, recoil, glide, slide, twist, rotate etc). Many studies show us that over-stretching tears our tissue; overnight the body has repaired itself by laying down scar tissue fibers causing increased tightness and feeling stiff. Oy! Beyond that, wherever you are super mobile, the body will try to find balance by generating restrictions (dense fascia / 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 formerly 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 (pounce-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? Yes, please.
Flossing has a built in safety net.
The kind of “stretching” we do stays out of the joints (where we can 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 and/or joint instability 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. After Fascia Flossing, practitioners feel like they have had a workout and massage in one, whether its 5 mins or a full 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 depths of your tissues (think near the bone), even interfacing with the fascia that wraps the bones, and the structural fascia.
