Athletic Fitness and Fascial Conditioning

Fascia (pronounced fah-sha) is a term used to describe the connective tissue that weaves throughout the entire body to stabilize and bind the muscles, bones, and organs collectively. In short, fascia holds your body together.

Fascia plays a critical role in managing and synchronizing movement—which is essential for speed, power, and reactiveness in any athletic endeavor. Keeping your connective tissue soft and pliable provides you with a larger range of motion, as well as more overall athleticism and mobility.

Causes of an Unhealthy Fascia

Signs that your fascia is unhealthy include experiencing restrictions in mobility, adhesions, and distortions like muscle knots. The primary causes of unhealthy fascia are:

1. A sedentary lifestyle
2. Poor posture
3. Dehydration
4. Overusing or injuring your muscles
5. Unhealthy eating habits
6. Poor sleep quality
7. Stress
8. Repetitive motion activities resulting in pain or limitation

Fascia Fitness Benefits

Fascia Fitness repairs and reorganizes our fascia into supple, reactive bands, dramatically increasing your range of motion, athleticism, and mobility when the fascia loses its elasticity due to inactivity, lack of mobility, or aging.

The benefits of keeping your fascia healthy include improved body symmetry and alignment, increased blood flow, scar tissue breakdown, reduced day-to-day pain, enhanced sports performance, and reduced risk of injury.

Recommended Steps

• Re-Structure Fascia with Daily Stretching – The right movement can restructure the fascia and connective tissue to increase elasticity, enhance strength, improve movement skills and develop the structural integrity to resist injuries like pulls or strains. Simple stretching exercises of each arm and each leg for 30 seconds to 1 minute help elongate your muscles and can help you release tension.

• Aerobic Activity - Walking briskly, swimming, running, or even gardening, will get your blood pumping, can help to lower your blood pressure, strengthen your immune system and reduce chronic pain. Warming the body through movement helps to elasticize soft tissue.

• Rebound Elasticity - Springy activities, like butt kickers, skipping and high knees, are an integral part of fascia training. The goal is to strengthen structures and train your elastic storage capacity.

• Fascial Release - Comprises a kind of self-massage of the fascia using special foam rollers, tennis balls, or rubber balls. Slow pressure placed on the connective tissue leads to a replacement of fluids in the tissue, whereby lymph and other metabolic products are removed.

• Stay Hydrated - Approximately 60% of your body weight is made of water. You need it for every single body function. Water rinses toxins from your organs, passes nutrients to your cells, cushions your joints, and helps you digest the food you eat. For men, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommends a total of 3 liters or 100 ounces of fluid each day. For women, they suggest a little over 2 liters or 67 fluid ounces each day.

• Get Professional Help - Because fascia is so interconnected, one area can impact other areas of the body. If you experience chronically stiff and sore muscles, or you have an injury that just won’t heal, consult a Certified Rolfing professional to see what treatment would be right for you. Options for fascia fitness treatment include acupuncture physicians, massage therapists, physical therapists, or licensed Rolfing practitioners.

Fascia training and therapy” is taking the sport and fitness world by storm, whether it be in the form of new book releases, articles, or special training tools like the popular foam roller.

To learn more about how Fascia, Fascia Fitness, and Fascia Therapy and how it will improve your fascia health and help you become more athletically fit visit: https://bobalonzi-advanced-rolfer.com/and call for an evaluation appointment.