The mysterious world under the skin.
For a long time the fascia has been regarded as a redundant white tissue, ‘packing material, thrown to the side during dissections and unrecognized for what is truly was. Now it appears this elastic, fibrous connective tissue is of great importance in our bodies. It’s the one system that surrounds, permeates and connects all the other systems in our bodies, webbing its way from the more superficial and gross levels to the deeper and cellular levels. It is a body wide, three-dimensional interconnected web of sliding, fluid filled tissue, that also gives structure to our bodies.
The fascia has been discovered to have more nerve endings than anything else in the body and thus is our richest sensory organ, sensing and communicating information about pressure, movement and direction. It allows us proprioception, for us to perceive the position and movement of our body, including our sense of equilibrium and balance. Generally speaking fascia has an importance to the way we hold ourselves, our shape, our postural balance, the way we (efficiently) move and the way we sense ourselves. As you can tell, keeping this system of our bodies in good shape and health is so important for our sense of ease and well-being in life.