MYOFASCIA AND PERFORMANCE

If the action is novel or subject to interference from the outside world - like leaping a stream on a horse, or going up for a header in football - then the brain is actively listening to reports back from the muscles (and the eyes and ears of course) as to what is hap- pening with the movement, and making fine adjustments to the plan in light of deviations or new factors.

Whether you completely understand the preceding paragraphs (and I am sure I do not as the brain is as yet little understood, and I understand way less than that!), you take for granted the continu- al working of the process it describes. If you suffer from neurolog- ical damage caused by an accident or a disease such as polio or Parkinson’s, then this natural complex flow from idea to movement fulfilment is interrupted as the signals go awry and the balance between brain and body is disrupted.

If the nervous system is working properly, then training works to refine and bolster the performance to the fine states of balance required for ball control, the perfect chip shot, or a snooker match. The integration of the nervous system, from concept to squirts of acetylcholine, ensures the ability to play a ‘mental’ game.

Now let us turn our attention to the context in which muscle con- traction occurs. We assume that the muscles attach to bones and cause the movement of body segments. In truth as an old saying goes ‘no muscle no ‘tach to no bone nowhere at no time in nobody’. All muscle cells are surrounded by a fascial net - the white sinewy fabric you see in raw meat – which keeps the muscle cells in place, and actually provides the means of attachment to the bone - or at least the cling wrap fabric in which each piece of bone is wrapped (see Figure 2). Taken together as a single organ, the fascial fabric and its surrounding ‘glue’ surround and invest nearly every structure of the body, not just the muscles. The fascial net, which could be thought of as a pliable ‘loofah’, coordinates the mechanical forces which all of our activity - and chiefly the ever-present, shadowless force of gravity - places on the other more delicate body tissues.

One of the properties of the fascial connective tissue is that they love to connect. Left to themselves, they will build hydrogen bonds between any two non-serous fascial membranes that are not regularly moved relative to each other.

Figure 3: ‘The sailboat’ - the myofascia, especially the fascial elements, hold up the human spine as a sailboat’s rigging reinforces the mast. Unbalanced rigging leads to poor sailing, and finally to damage; same for humans.

Fascial and myofascial release practiced by manual therapists, is therefore an essential component in achieving full body balance.

We used the image of a loofah to describe the ubiquity and perva- siveness of the fascial net, now please entertain another image, the rigging of a sailing ship. Without the stays and shrouds, the mast would snap like a twig with the first hard blow. Not only must there be these wires, but the wires must be in balance so that ‘twanging’ the port and starboard shrouds produces nearly the same musical tone. One side being too loose will not cause you to lose your mast, but will seriously affect the performance in a race. In other words, the more performance you expect out of your body, the better the fascial ‘stays’ must be balanced (see figure 3).

This binding, especially

between the epimysial envelopes of muscles, prevents certain movements from taking place, as the muscle (which we could now more properly call a ‘myofascial unit’, since no muscle exists with- out its fascia) cannot move through its full range without dragging its neighbours along.

Figure 2: Myofascial tissue, magnified and teased up - the muscle fibres are all bundled together and given strength and organisation by the ubiquitous fascial webbing

While good muscle balance and sustained stretching will certainly help balance the stays of the body - the fascial strips such as the Achilles tendon and iliotibial tract - there are a thousand other spots that are less visible, less palpable, but may nevertheless affect performance on a global scale in the body. Good myofascial practitioners can detect and release fascial holding which is ‘below the radar’ of even the person doing the performing. Some of these restrictions tend to act at a distance; the persistent problem in the hip originating in the foot, or a slight malalignment of the neck showing up in the coordination of the hand and arm.

When the fascial fabric, as a whole as well as in specific areas, is free, the muscles can operate to the full range of contraction to stretch and the coordination of the body is unfettered and yet as strong and resilient as it can be given our human physiology. So many new wonderful sports and endeavours are reshaping our idea of what is possible in a human. The art of fascial and myofascial deep tissue release can be a great help to the realisation of these possibilities.

THE AUTHOR

Thomas Myers trained with Drs Ida Rolf, Msche Feldenkrais and Buckminster Fuller. He has practiced integrative bodywork for over 25 years in a variety of clinical and cultural settings. He is a former chair of the Rolf Institute’s Anatomy Faculty and Tom currently conducts professional seminars on fascial anatomy and structural integration internationally through Kinesis Inc. Tom is the author of ‘Anatomy Trains’ as well as numerous articles for trade magazines and the

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