What The Fuzz?!?

What The Fuzz?!?

By Carolyn Rankin

You’ve probably heard the phrase “it’s all connected.”  But, what is “it?”  And what connects it all?  

The answer to the first question is your body: your skin, your muscles, your bones, etc.  

And what connects everything?  

The answer, which sounds entirely unhelpful at first glance, is “connective tissue.”

There are many different types of connective tissue, but we’re going to focus on muscular fascia.  

If you’ve ever cut up a chicken breast, you’ve had hands-on experience with fascia.  It’s that clear, thin membrane that pulls off in one sheet and is really hard to cut.  Fascia wraps you together at your deepest layers. 

So how does muscular fascia work?  

Muscles are composed of thousands of individual fibers.  Fascia wraps these fibers all together, creating an individual muscle.  Then, fascia wraps these individual muscles into muscle groups (think of your quadriceps –  the four muscles on the front of your thigh).  These groups are then connected to other muscle groups by – you got it – fascia!   

You can think of fascia as living saran wrap.  The difference between healthy fascia and saran wrap is that all the layers of healthy fascia will be smooth, pliable, and allow muscles to glide easily against each other.  

Unhealthy fascia works the same way the saran wrap does – it adheres to itself.  These adhesions impair free movement between the layers and cause the tissue to bunch up and form “knots” in the fascial tissue.

Essentially, fascial tissue becomes a glue rather than a lubricant. This happens for a variety of reasons including injury, repetitive movement, and lack of movement.

Fascial tissue will also bond to itself naturally.  Every night, a sort of "fuzz" develops between layers of your fascia.  If that fuzz is allowed to accumulate, it will get thicker and become less and less pliable.  Over time, Knots will develop and your range of motion will be greatly reduced. (Click the "Watch this Video" link below for more information on the Fuzz). 

You can help keep your fascia lubricated in a few different ways, but massage therapy has been proven to be one of the most effective.

Fascia release massage uses long, slow dragging strokes over the adhered tissues.  As the tissue softens, the strokes become gradually deeper.  

These long strokes increase blood flow, soften fascial tissue, break down adhesions, realign muscle fibers, and lengthen tissue that has become shortened and bunched up.  This allows your muscles to smoothly glide over each other increasing range of motion and decreasing pain.

For a great visual explanation of fascia and how, if not properly maintained, it can slowly but surely cause your entire body to stiffen up, check out this video. 

(Warning: this video contains images of cadaver tissue)

So, do you think your fascia is in need of some releasing?