The One Rule of Effective Fascial Release - And Why Massage Doesn't 'Release' Fascia

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Mobility Mastery Monday. I'm Alicia and this is the place to be if you want to lose the pain, lose your fear of pain, learn to trust your body, and do what you love for life. Have you ever wondered why massage therapy doesn't really work to release your fascia? I'm going to let you in on a little fascia secret that will help you create change in that soft tissue that lasts. First, we're going to do a little quick science lesson in case you don't really even know what the heck fascia is. You've probably heard the term, and you've certainly heard me use it, but do you really know what it is? Um, this is just a crash course. Basically, fascia wraps every single nerve ending in the body. It wraps every fibbral of muscle tissue and then fiber, which is made up of multiple fibbrals. It wraps the muscle bundle and the muscle group. And all of that comes out of the musculature and turns into tendons and ligaments which are basically just denser versions of fascia or connective tissue. It wraps our bones and our organs. We have more of it in our body than anything else. And I have come to theorize that because it's the thing that literally wraps and protects every part of our body that's critical to life. It's meant to be almost bulletproof like Kevlar. It's meant to protect us. So due to that being its very nature, it doesn't want to be easily changed by any outside force. If it were really easily changeable from the outside, then we'd be in big trouble because every time we bump into anything, we would damage ourselves. We would damage our cells and our nerves and, you know, our bones and our muscle. So for this reason, I believe fascia won't really let an outside force change it very easily. And this is why most methods of massage or really any of the tools that are kind of coming on the market um that are, you know, the sticks and the rollers, if you're using them for fascial release, um but you're using it as an outside force coming into the body, trying to create change from the outside in, I don't think it's going to work very well. Not only that, but I think most of the time when we approach changing fascia this way, the fascia resists because it's not meant to be easily changeable. So this, I believe, is one reason we get sore or bruised or inflammation gets created from these methods. To truly change the fascia, we have to ask the fascia to change itself. And the only methods that I'm aware of that really do this use compression. So compression of a piece of fascia and active movement on the part uh the part of that body that you're trying to create change in. So the part of the client. So if you're the client and you're not being active moving, then you're probably not going to be asking that fascia to change itself. Methods that do use this form of compression and active movement engage all systems of the body at once. You're engaging your brain and your nervous system, your muscle fibers, and your fascial system. And because of this, that's why rapid change happens and you get out of pain so quickly. When we approach it this way, we're actually creating change from the inside out. And think about this for a second. Don't you think this makes sense for literally everything in life? When someone or something is in an unhealthy state and it needs to create change, no one from the outside forcing it to change is going to be very successful. um you know, it would be nice if someone else could do my work for me, but it just doesn't work that way. And the same is true of the body. When you ask the body to change itself, that change lasts a lot longer and it's much more powerful. And this is why most methods of massage therapy or any method that's using an outside force doesn't work that well to actually create lasting change in the fas fascial system in my opinion. Now, I'm not knocking massage. I was a massage therapist for a year and I get massages all the time. I love them. But I think it's really important to understand why we're getting a massage and understand its limitations. So, you know, I go because a massage therapist can get into places that the work I do or regular fascial release can't get to like these small areas of the neck. Um, and because it feels good and I really enjoy it. So, it's somewhere I get to go like, you know, crash out for two hours and feel supported and loved up and that is why I go. So, I think it's really important to understand why. If you're going weekly to get massages, trying to create change in your body because you're in pain and you're not getting that result, it might be time to choose something else. So, for me personally, when I want to change my body, I use some form of compression and movementbased fascial release work. So, there you have it. Fascia's little secret is out. To create lasting change in that system, you have to get it to change itself. Thank you so much for watching. If you want new episodes of Mobility Mastery Monday emailed to your inbox, then sign up for our newsletter at mobilitymastery.com or here on YouTube and make sure to like our Facebook page. As always, I hope you're learning to trust your body so you can adventure through life with confidence.