Fascia is Adaptive and Communicative.
The way we hold our body is highly influenced by our fascia and how we hold our body highly influences the shape and qualities of our fascia. This impacts our health greatly!
Fascia is sometimes nicknamed the wetsuit of the body. Fascia is also a system that is everywhere in our bodies: under our skin, between organs and muscles, in our cells, and more. Fascia provides support, elasticity, and sliding within our bodies. Fascia is not just the shiny looking stuff you associate with covering muscles or meat. There are many kinds of fascia, from fluffy to dense, superficial to deep. Fascia is also associated with our circulatory, lymph, and immune systems. Healthy "stress" to fascia is essential for our health.
Fascia has a quality called glide. Glide refers to a lubrication that allows efficient sliding (gliding) between adjacent structures in the body. This allows our tissues to absorb load (stress) and allow freedom in motion.
You can have too little or too much glide. Have you ever referred to "the good side, bad side of my body, or my bad knee (shoulder) or my weak and strong side?" Much of this can be associated with the qualities of your fascia in relation to your skeleton and to the movement of your body. How we move and hold our bodies highly impacts the glide and the health of our fascia.
So what happens when there is not healthy glide between the layers? Stiffness (joints and organs), inflammation, dysfunctional posture and/or pain, to name a few!
Yoga and Benefits To and From Our Fascia.
Force Transmission
Yoga performed functionally and not alignment based (i.e., aesthetic focused) can significantly aid in the health of your fascia. There is a concept called "Force Transmission" that can be applied in yoga classes. Think of fascia as having chains or lines that can be the whole length of the body, cross to the other side of the body, and include different kinds of fascia. Therefore, the influence of the condition of one section or point in this line can reveal itself to neighboring structures within one limb (e.g., between synergists) and between sections (like between a leg and the torso). This is sometimes called nonlocal exercise effects. Three examples where force transmission is involved:
When you have less glide between the layers of your body or maybe more dense fibers of fascia on one side of your body, it changes how you hold your body and bones. This imbalance can cause an increased force on the other side of your body, maybe some compression, and maybe pain. The pain often can be addressed by functional movement of the body to produce more glide in the side that is more adhesive and many times relieves the chronic pain. Many times this change lasts many hours or days, and over time, repeating the effective functional movement can last and becomes the new norm. But “use it or lose it” is applicable here.
Another example is when a student is in a supine twist and there is too much sensation in the hip being stretched. If the student places a prop on the opposite side of the sensation, it shifts the force and lessens or removes the sensation.
Lastly, a student stretches their hips in a yin class and find relief in tension in their neck. The student should be encouraged to notice the rebound after a pose in yin. One reason why is to notice throughout the inner and outer body what some effects of the practice were.
Interoception:
As important as force transmission and positive benefits of moving based on learning your body’s fascia network, there is a super important side of the myofascial system that plays a role in our emotions, and how we feel and react to how we relate to sensations inside our bodies (e.g., hunger, restlessness, thirst, pain). This is not proprioception (i.e., where is my external body in space), but rather the awareness of internal sensations and how we react to them that we can change = INTEROCEPTION. This is pivotal in being effective in long term management of chronic pain and psychological addictions. This has easily fit nicely in yoga, meditation, and mindfulness practices.
An example: you have tenderness inside your right shoulder. You label it your “bad” shoulder. This leads to less movement, holding more tension in the area, equaling more pain!
Why Therapeutic Yoga? Yin and Yang Yoga
Yin Yoga and Improving Your Glide!
Yin Yoga at Dogwood Studio is taught in a lower lit setting with a variety of props to support many kinds of bodies. Yin Yoga can be taught various ways, but usually has some consistent principles: longer held poses with relaxed muscles and a meditative mindfulness component during and between poses.
Teaching Yin Yoga to support awareness of Force Transmission and Interoception is done with a focus between the poses, called the “rebound,” coined by Paul Grilley and his teacher Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama. In a yin class you have time to notice and learn - to notice the repatterning of how we react in our bodies, how we do and do not use our bodies, and how we emotionally are connecting with the internal sensations of the body, including movement of energy in the spine and out to various spaces in the body.
Not all Yin Yoga classes are accessible to everyone, but the concepts and benefits of a Yin Yoga session taught with these qualities of fascia in mind can open yin yoga classes to anyone in a private one on one session, small groups class, and hopefully an individual’s personal yoga practice. The benefits of exploring the rebound can be felt by ANYONE if adapted to an individual's medical history, and bone and connective tissue health. Be sure to connect with a very experienced therapeutic yoga practitioner. Dogwood Studio yin yoga classes are designed this way and taught by trained and experienced practitioners.
Yin Yoga includes poses that are performed on the floor. For those that cannot get up and down from the floor, private sessions can be ideal to offer the same benfits.
Yin Yoga entails poses that target particular superficial fascia plains, but unlike many standing movement yoga classes, also targets certain deeper fascia plains.
Additionally, yoga is sometimes designed to target pairs of energetic meridians (Yin and Yang). Remember force transmission, the stillness and slower pace Yin Yoga is a wonderful way for east to meet west in a therapeutic approach for increasing flexibility and glide deeper in our body, and repatterning negative mind-body reactivity, but also cultivating deeper consciousness, like seen in some meditation practices. Many find this benefit transcends to day to day life in how one interacts with their external and internal awareness and behaviors.
Yang Yoga and Improving Your Glide!
Movement classes can be designed to be slower and more mindful of the transformation in the layers of the body and the connection between the emotions and the sensations inside the body. For example at Dogwood Studio, there are movement classes that are primarily designed to target the superficial fascia plains of the body for the participant to discover how their posture influences their fascia and ultimately their skeleton (classes: Mindful Movement and Yoga, Flow Yoga for YOUR Body, and Joint Freeing Yoga). The focus is increased focus on the layers of the body and the transformation during class that can happen.
This approach can support the student’s application of the uniqueness of their skeleton and how it influences the way they should practice a pose safely and functionally to obtain the benefits we love about yoga. Practicing yoga in this way will improve their posture, balance, awareness, fascial glide, and decrease stress with less risk of injury.
Fascia benefits by certain types of movement and forces. The chorography, therapeutic speech, and props used during our classes are specifically designed to positively impact functional movement, the qualities of fascia and movement, and more. Each class is a journey to discover where we hold tension, verses where we have a need for more stability or flexibility.
Fascia and Energy Meridians.
"Fascia assists gliding and fluid flow and holds memory and is highly innervated. Fascia is intimately involved with nourishment of all cells of the body, including those of disease and cancer. The human body's fascia network may be the physical substrate represented by the meridians of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine)." Reference: Fascia and Primo Vascular System (National Institute of Health (NIH), 2015) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4561979/
About Dogwood Studio.
At Dogwood Studio all of our classes, workshops, and private sessions are focused on functional movement to help you learn about your fascia, skeleton, and mind-body connection and how these impact on tension and the negative patterns in your mind and body. Repatterning our movements and thought patterns when producing imbalances is a goal for all sessions.
SAM Sather, owner of Dogwood Studio, has over 1000 hours of training with experts like Paul Grilley, Sarah Powers, and many others. She feels very lucky to have had the ability to study with great masters and integrate that into her nursing and yoga therapy.
Yin Yoga Class with props to support your body and medical history.
Classes, Workshops, and Private Sessions at Dogwood Studio are taught by experienced practitioners in therapeutic yoga benefiting the fascia for increased well-being of clients. Visit our website to learn more or contact us! https://dogwoodstudioyoga.com/
