Danielle Friedman
Fascia May Be a Key to Better Health - The New York Times
Caring for fascia, the tough and flexible tissue that surrounds and connects muscles, bones, and organs, has become popular in the fitness and wellness industry. Fascia is now recognized as playing a vital role in how our bodies function, including flexibility and range of motion. Research suggests that taking care of fascia may help treat chronic pain, improve exercise performance, and enhance overall well-being. Staying active through resistance training and exercises that involve a range of movements can keep fascia strong and lubricated. While tools and treatments that apply pressure to fascia may provide temporary relief, simply staying active is considered the best way to care for fascia.
Pilates instructors and massage therapists offer to make fascia more supple, and products like foam rollers, massage guns and “fascia blasters” claim to help you improve your fascia health at home. (View Highlight)
Fascia as a buzzword has really exponentially taken off,” said Christopher DaPrato, a physical therapist at the University of California, San Francisco, who studies the connection between fascia and athletic performance (View Highlight)
We’re still at the very, very beginning” of understanding fascia, said Helene Langevin, the director of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health at the National Institutes of Health. “This is a part of the body which we have neglected for so long.” (View Highlight)
When you’re sedentary for a long time, fascia can shorten, become overly rigid and congeal into place, forming adhesions that limit mobility, said David Krause, a physical therapist at the Mayo Clinic. Over time, inactivity can also lead fascia to reshape itself. If you spend most days hunched over a computer, the fascia surrounding your neck and shoulder muscles may change so that your posture becomes curved. Fascia can also become damaged from repetitive movements, chronic stress, injury or surgery — becoming inflamed, overly rigid or stuck together. And it stiffens with age. (View Highlight)
The same may be true for treatments like myofascial massage and cupping. If these treatments make you feel and move better, that’s great, experts said — but simply staying active is the best medicine (View Highlight)