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Over the last several years, myofascial release is starting to be recognized as a major contributor in how well we recover from our injuries. Considering that all injuries you have ever had and ever will have involve the fascia, this is quite a relief for us athletes.

It has 6-10 times more sensory nerves than muscle and is responsible for making our internal parts slide more easily when we move. Fascia will contract with more stress and it will at times contract independently of the muscles it encases, meaning we may need to be working our fascia more and stretch our muscles less.

What is Fascia?

Fascia is comprised of spider web-looking connective tissue that encases everything in our bodies. This includes muscles, nerve endings, tendons, ligaments, bones, joints, and organs; everything is wrapped and encased in fascia.

You can think of it like the packing peanuts or bubble wrap of our body as it protects all our vital structures and connects them as well.

But don’t think that these are it’s only functions. This was the mistake of the medical field for a long time; dismissing fascia as nothing more than some tight wrapping for extra security. It is MUCH more than that and affects quite a bit more within our bodies than we might think.

Fascia, at its healthiest, is quite elastic but still very strong. If you think about it, this makes perfect sense because while we do need it to serve as protection, we also need it to be very flexible or else WE will not be very flexible. This is where most athletes have problems whether they know it or not.

When fascia gets tighter, we get tighter because the fascia becomes so thick and fibrous that it limits our range of motion. When you don’t have full range of motion, your muscles shorten and tighten and you find yourself with even more problems.

A good example of this is plantar fasciitis. Your calf muscles have been getting tight for years because they’re being held in poor positions for too long or they’re being used but not getting stretched or “released” enough.

This makes the fascia in and around your calves get tight and then leads to your ankle mobility getting restricted.

Now that your ankle can’t dorsiflex (bend back towards you) properly, your body compensates by mobilizing it in a new way (more pronation). Then you find yourself with the arch of your foot and your heel hurting constantly.

So remember that fascia is there to help and protect you, but if you don’t take care of your muscles by keeping them loose and supple, your fascia will just add insult to injury as it will tighten with your muscles and become thicker so its hard (but not impossible) to undo.

Why Does Fascia Get Tight?

For the most part, fascia gets very tight over time because our habits as modern day humans are poor. While we’ve heard most of these reasons for our underperforming bodies already at some stage, you may be surprised to know that some non-physical habits can have just as damaging of an effect to our fascia.

• Lack of Activity

This is where consistency over intensity comes into play. Our bodies would rather be moderately active all the time instead of doing intense workouts that keep us on the couch for 3 days afterwards because we’re so sore.

A general lack of activity will make the fascia stick to whatever it is surrounding and become less able to slide along those surfaces like it should.

• Chronic Stress

Something we deal with increasingly more in the modern day is stress. It affects our day-to-day well being, it messes with our sleep, but you might not have known that it damages your fascia as well. Stress makes fascia thicken as a response because it wants to protect the muscle under it.

This sounds fine from a protection standpoint, but we don’t need fascia to be any thicker than it is, we do need it to remain flexible though which is harder as it becomes thicker.

• Poor Posture/Lack of Flexibility

We always have heard and always will hear that poor posture and being inflexible are detrimental to our health. Here is one more reason to fix these issues: fascia gets stuck in ingrained patterns when our body is misaligned.

When fascia is stuck in the same limited patterns, it is unable to slide smoothly and adhesions will develop within that fascia. These adhesions can be pretty difficult to get rid of and for me particularly, I’ve had to be persistent in removing them from my calves and plantar fascia.

One way to combat this is by investing in something like a medicine ball chair or a standing desk solution for your workspace. Even by switching off between standing and sitting throughout the day is a significant improvement on a full day of sitting in a rigid chair.

• Lack of Movement Variation

This may sound like an odd one and there’s a reason I worded it this way. I didn’t want to say repetitive movement is bad because then people would be worried about going on too many runs or doing the same workout multiple times.

What lack of variation means is that your fascia needs to stay hydrated like everything in our bodies, and the way to hydrate all your fascia is to differentiate your movement patterns.

Our bodies have been evolved in such a way that they are adapted to making different, complex moving patterns every day. This is why fitness trainers will tell you to mix up your workouts or “confuse your muscles”. Our bodies actually feed off of this differentiation.

Why Do You Need to “Release” the Fascia?

Over time, the fascia throughout our body gets adhesions in it from all the previously mentioned reasons and probably even a couple more. These adhesions restrict the fascia’s ability to be supple, strong, and resilient like it ideally should be.

Knowing that fascia permeates our whole body, that means these adhesions are most likely permeating our whole body. We just don’t necessarily know it yet.

We cannot change the condition of the fascia easily. If we could, a quick massage or rolling over a foam roller nonchalantly would be cure-alls for our bodies. This simply isn’t the case though. Anyone reading this should know that most solutions out there are quick fixes, and quick fixes give you temporary relief.

When I first started foam rolling, I didn’t target the tightest spots in my calves and I didn’t sit on the tender spots with a lot of force like I should have. This is why for the first couple weeks, I only got hourly or daily pain relief from it.

Once I started targeting those adhesions, then I found myself getting out of pain for a couple days at a time. If I skipped a day of rolling out, it was finally okay for me as I wouldn’t be in pain while walking anymore.

Use a firm massage ball to release the adhesions in your smaller muscle groups. This is what I use when I have to roll around my achilles and along either side of my shin bone for a deeper release.

In summary, you need to force those adhesions to loosen up if you want the condition of your fascia to change. They are keeping your fascia from sliding smoothly, staying hydrated, and keeping you injury-free.

Please read on to find the most effective ways to change your fascia:

The Most Important Thing You Can Do to Get Out of Plantar Fasciitis and Heel Pain