Fasciology, Teaching of the fascia

Fascia are connective tissue structures. Together they form a liquid enriched network that runs through the entire body. It envelops, protects and supports bones, muscles, nerve fibers, blood vessels and organs: a protective support network for the body. These fibrous connective tissues play an important role in joint stability and overall movement coordination. They help muscles, ligaments and tendons to perform movements and transmit force. Fascia can contract independently of the musculature; last but not least, together with the smooth muscle cells stored within it, it also regulates the vascular lumen, and also participates in the regulation of venous reflux and the circulation of lymphatic fluid. Fascia researchers consider it to be an organ system that envelops and penetrates the entire body. They speak of the whole-body concept of the fascial system, a fascial continuum with a wealth of functions. From an anatomical point of view, all parts of the connective tissue that are mainly composed of collagen and elastin fibers (the two structural proteins) are part of the fascia. Thanks to their macrophages (phagocytes of the immune system) and numerous lymphatic vessels, they perform important tasks in immunological defense reactions and wound healing.

Their exact composition depends on where they are located in the body, the function they perform and, above all, the amount stimulated by muscular movement to renew themselves. Fibroblasts (connective tissue-forming cells) adapt the shape of fascia as required. They produce the components that make up fascia: collagen fibers (barely extensible, but resistant to traction), elastin (elastic) and glycoproteins (protein and sugar macromolecules). Depending on function, the fascial net is therefore sometimes tighter or looser, i.e. they contain less or more water, are inelastic or extensible. We can imagine fascias as a network of thousands of thin, mobile threads that work together and are narrower or further apart depending on the movement stimulus. When there’s a lack of movement, they stay closer together and become more immobile. Fascias that are compacted/glued together or constantly under tension become taut, influencing mobility and sensitivity: animals and humans move less and become more sensitive to pain. The same applies to inflammation and disease processes. Fascias are involved in diseases and pain perception, such as joint and back pain. For us, they are an indicator of health conditions. These connective tissues are equipped with sensory receptors and are considered a major sensory and communicative organ closely linked to the autonomic nervous system. This enables them to send uninterrupted signals to the brain. Fascias are sensitive to various stimuli, particularly pressure and movement. Every movement, pressure or pull affects the whole complex network of connective tissue, and changes in tension are transmitted to it. Targeted stimulation of mechanoreceptors can reduce muscle tone, ensure relaxation via the autonomic nervous system, contribute to the “irrigation” of fascia and improve movement coordination via proprioception (perception of one’s own body). Fascias also enable animals and humans to perceive their bodies and coordinate movements without having to concentrate on them. Fascial connections or chains provide an explanation of the distribution of pain transmission and connection between the lower limbs, trunk and upper limbs. Their anatomical and biomechanical unity also enables us to access fascial points in therapy that do not allow direct manipulation.

Functions of fascia in a nutshell

• Stability for posture and movement
• Protection of organs and heavily stressed parts of the body
• Immunological function
• Regulation of blood and lymph flow

Tensegrity – Body architecture

The term Tensegrity is a melting word of “tension + integrity“. Richard Buckminster Fuller, architect who built the Dymaxion** and dome-like constructions, coined the term to indicate that the integrity of the structure comes from the balance of the stress elements, not from the compression struts.
In most of our houses, their integrity lies in continuous compression from the highest brick of the roof to the lowest cement block. The compression runs in an unbroken line from element to element to the ground.

We thought of our body in the same way: the skeleton as a sequence of bones, a continuous compression structure, whereby the individual muscles are attached to each bone via tendons in order to move it.

According to this explanatory model, the weight of the skull weighs on the cervical spine and that of the upper body on the lumbar spine – like a stack of building blocks, it is the bony structures that carry the body and give it stability.

Tensegrity structures are characterized by the fact that stability and cohesion are ensured by a continuous tensile stress – and not by compression as in the usual design.
Tensegrity structures consist of rigid pressure and elastic stress components. The rigid components do not touch directly anywhere, but are connected via the elastic components. The elastic components, in turn, are under tension and distribute this tension over the entire construction. It is a dynamic construction that stabilizes itself.

If a force acts on a site of a Tensegrity structure, the whole structure adapts, the acting force is captured and distributed to the entire construction.

In recent decades, scientists such as Stephen M. Levin have identified Tensegrity as a universal biological model. From the virus to the vertebrate, even in every single cell, the Tensegrity principle can be discovered. The researchers call it biotensegrity. It revises the centuries-old idea that the skeleton of living beings forms the shaping and holding framework of a body, in favor of the idea of a body-wide tensile network (fascia), in which the pressure elements (in vertebrates, the bones) are “floating” integrated.
Research on fascia has shown how it works as a distribution network at many levels. The body reacts at least like a Tensegrity structure, and many of us believe that it works as a Tensegrity structure.

Of course, living beings are much more complex and, in a sense, more confusing than a simple tensegrity structure. Nevertheless, such a model makes it clear that everything is related to everything and a change in one place always affects the whole.
The tensegrity model clearly illustrates that it is not the bones that provide stability and erection of the body. Bones usually do not touch directly anywhere in the body, but are flexibly connected to each other by connective tissue structures – by cartilage, capsules, ligaments and tendons, which in turn turn turn into muscle fascia. Within a tension network of fascia, the bones are held and moved. With this concept, the spine can also be better understood. It is not a load-bearing column, but a highly movable vertebral chain made of many parts, which are tensioned by ligaments and other fascial structures as well as small muscles.

An essential feature of the biotensity is that there is continuous tension within the fascia network. The balance in the fascia network is important. It decides how smoothly muscles can work, how bones and vertebrae are positioned, how joints are loaded, even how freely animals and humans can breathe and organs can move and function.

The consideration of the body as a tensegrity structure enables holistic thinking in therapy as well as strategies in which local symptoms are seen and treated in larger contexts. Then it becomes clear why treating alone at local pain points is usually of little use. At the same time, it is explained why, for example, in the case of problems with the hip or knee, treatment on the cranium and spine can already help.