A short description of
Fascia and Connective Tissue
This article is meant as a quick description for the lay person. For a more complete understanding read all the primary articles on the articles page: Yoga & Fascia, Yoga for Healthy Bones, and Backs do NOT just "Go Out" by Jon Burras; also read Tensegrity Models by Marc Heller. Advanced students should read the reference books at the end of the page.
Focus on working the body's connective tissue developed out of the work of Ida Rolf. She recognized yoga's great restorative effects on the body's structure and began to try to affect the connective tissue even more with manual manipulation. So, why this focus on fascia and connective tissue?
First of all, what is meant by connective
tissue? or fascia? Fascia is an important type of connective tissue
in the human (and other animals') body. Imagine an orange or 
grapefruit.
Slice it in half across its equator and see the patterns. The patterns seem
to be created by some "white stuff." First there is a thick
bunch of white stuff around the outside, then the white stuff divides the fruit
into wedges. If you look closer at one of the wedges you will notice there
are finer wrappings of white film encapsulating the pockets of juice. This
white film that creates the structure of the orange and holds the 'parts' of the
orange in place is what fascia is doing in your body. Like the pockets of
juice, each cell has a thin membrane of fascia holding it together. Each
group of cells form a piece of tissue fiber. The tissue fiber has a bit
thicker fascia membrane around it. A number of fibers create an organ or
muscle which remains intact by having its own thicker membrane around it.
The bicep and heart each need a container to hold it in place. The fascia
is exactly that, a container for parts of the body that interweaves and
encapsulates other smaller containers just like the white connective tissue of
the orange. Fascial membranes anchor our intestines to our ribcage.
Fascia encapsulates every
bone and every organ. Fascia not only wraps around muscles and organs, but
it wraps and interweaves through them. The entire body has a final thick
fascia membrane right underneath the skin.
Imagine melting everything in the body that is not fascia. So that only the body's fascia matrix is there. Because the fascia surrounds everything, if you did this you would still have a perfect model of the body's structure down to the cell (just as you would have a perfect model of the orange down to each juice pocket). You would have the map to put the body back together. But over the average life, this map gets damaged. When the map gets damaged. Body tissue ends up in the wrong place and we pay the price of chronic pain that usually ends up the the shoulders, neck, back, hips, or feet.
Jon Burras writes: [brackets are Alex's comments]
Over a lifetime of stress, lack of adequate hydration, inefficient or absent exercise, contracted muscles and contracted thoughts, the fascia tends to dry out. Once the fascia dries out it becomes brittle and lifeless, tending to keep one contracted and immobile.
When fascia becomes unhealthy it tends to glue together in a process called Hydrogen Bonding. This feels like there is cement in your muscles. Just like a stack of old newspapers that are stored in the garage for a lengthy period, our fascia will stick together as well.Fascia is very important because it plays a major role in shaping disease. Fascia is a vast network that carries energy through it. [Life force or chi energy. Look at the acupuncture meridians and you will see a deep correlate to the matrix of fascia. Open, healthy fascia opens the subtle energies to flow.] In Western terms, this is like a source of electricity that runs throughout the body. When a muscle or organ does not receive energy it decays. When the fascia is contracted and dries out then less energy is able to move through the body, resulting in disease or chronic pain.
On a much less subtle level, pulling or imbalance in one part of the fascial matrix creates pulling all over the matrix. This is why your feet effect your back pain or how an old twisted ankle can create shoulder pain years down the road. Just as pulling on a sheet of elastic on one end creates a shift in the entire sheet, so does this happen with your body's fascial matrix. Add up the injuries and stress of years in life, you might end up with so many pulls on the elastic sheet that stress starts to occur where there are no pulls, but the pulls have summed to overexert or over stretch one particular portion of the elastic sheet. When the fascial matrix is pushed past its compensation point, pain results. In the body, this often occurs where the body is most flexible: the back, neck, shoulder girdle, or hip or where the body takes the most pounding, the feet or sciatic nerve area (the butt).
The good news is that the fascial matrix is just like that. Elastic. It can be stretched, restored, and brought back to balance. Fascia can be best brought back to life through yoga, bodywork, or a combination of the two. One bodywork session can be the equivalent to years of yoga, but a regular yoga practice will allow one to maintain the benefits of healthy fascia for a longer period of time. With a healthy fascial matrix the body stops its degradation into compression and begins to behave as a natural tensegrity structure.
Fascia is very integral in this way. It is the system, the literal stuffing that helps the body transcend and include: cells to tissues to organs on up. Without healthy fascia the body cannot rest in its natural kosmic alignment. It is the system of the body's support and structure. Free and easy movement, freedom from chronic pain, and the simple joy of being in tune with the world rely on a fluid and balanced fascial matrix.
References (further reading)
Anotomy Trains by Thomas w. Myers
The Endless Web by R. Louis Schultz PhD & Rosemary Feitis
Job's Body by Deane Juhan
Molecules of Emotion by Candace Pert, PhD