fascia – Personal Euphoria: Pilates & Fitness Classes in CT

What is fascia?

Drink fluids for healthy fascia!

This month we are highlighting fascia. Fascia is the connective tissue that runs along every surface of the body, encasing the organs, muscles, and other soft tissue like a sausage casing or the sections of an orange—where each large and tiny segment of juice is held together by a sleek, thin film. So the muscles themselves are encased, but so is each muscle fiber. Fascia is everywhere in our body. There are different types of fascia in your body that serve different purposes.

Fascia helps us move. It helps make us glide so that when we move our skin, tendons, and muscles don’t stick to all our other parts. Each part can slither smoothly alongside each other. Fascia can help the muscles do their job. When healthy fascia remains springy (for lack of a better word) in movement, the muscles can use less energy and won’t fatigue as quickly because the fascia takes some of the burden of force and helps the body return to its “normal” shape. Fascia is your friend for all kinds of movement.

Recently it was “discovered” that a particular type of […]

What is fascia?Maggie Downie2018-05-04T11:38:40-04:00

Fascia & Chronic Low Back Pain

Supporting the legs will often make it easier to do a pelvic tilt from the abs.

If you are prone to low back pain, you might want to consider fascia as the culprit, especially if an X-ray and MRI reveal that nothing is wrong.

Fascia is the connective tissue that runs along and encapsulates everything in our body. Research has shown that people with chronic low back pain have lumbar fascia that is about 25% thicker than people without pain.

What should you do if the lumbar (low back) fascia might be causing your pain?

1) Massage

Find a qualified good massage therapist. An effective massage does not have to feel like torture. You don’t have to opt for a sport massage, unless that’s up you alley.

2) Hydrate! Hydrate! Hydrate

Like most of our body our fascia needs […]

Fascia & Chronic Low Back PainMaggie Downie2018-04-27T06:57:45-04:00

Move More

Just me trying to get my feet behind my head and stay relaxed at the same time.

I love to move. I’m always looking for ways to move more throughout the day. This month on a whim I’ve been doing an Instagram challenge to try a different, assigned yoga pose every day. Some of the moves feel great. Other days I look at the way I’m supposed to contort myself and I just laugh. I haven’t been able to get my feet behind my head since I was six months old.

Most days I play with movement. I have some monkey bars and I experiment with what I can do with them. I try to feel what my clients say they feel on certain exercises. While taking a walk, I check to see if my butt is involved in each step. When I breathe, I experiment with where I can send my breath. When watching television, I roll around on Yoga Tune Up balls. Movement is a game for me. Discovering what, where and when can I fit movement into my day makes me happy. I enjoy the challenge.

To some degree this […]

Move MoreMaggie Downie2018-05-04T09:57:18-04:00

Moby Dick was Filled with Fascia

Moby Dick wasn’t on my high school reading list, and I’m grateful. At seventeen I never could have appreciated the novel about revenge, obsession, life and whales.

Today, I loved it, though I can’t recommend it. Whole sections were a slog, parts were dull, others I couldn’t put down, images were beautiful, comments were poignant and powerful, passages were constantly contradictory, at times I’d reread a section four times not sure what the point was, but positive if I could figure it out, the passage would be filled with meaning. Melville created moments and pictures that I hope I’ll remember for years.

But one part may have stood out more to me than most Moby Dick readers. It may prove that I am overly obsessed with fascia—the connective tissue that runs through our bodies like sausage casings around every muscle and organ. That description is merely the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more to fascia. Call me fascia-fixated.

About halfway through I started reading with renewed vigor when I realized Melville was unknowingly describing the connective tissue and fascia of a whale. Actually, it shouldn’t come as a surprise because […]

Moby Dick was Filled with FasciaMaggie Downie2017-12-29T21:47:50-05:00