When we think about pain we understandably frame it within the structures we’re most familiar with: bones, joints, and muscles. But in recent years we’ve learned more about another body structure: fascia!

What is Fascia?

Fascia is a thin casing of connective tissue that surrounds every organ, blood vessel, bone, nerve fiber and muscle. This tissue provides internal structure and has nerves that make it almost as sensitive as skin.

Although fascia looks like one sheet of tissue, it’s actually made up of multiple layers with liquid in between. Fascia is meant to stretch as you move and healthy fascia is smooth, slippery, and flexible (you can see it in this post!) But like our other tissues, fascia can be injured, respond to stress with tightness, and lose its healthy qualities. Unhealthy fascia is thicker and sticky. Contributing factors to decline in fascial health include:

• Too little movement day after day

• Repetitive movement that overworks one part of the body

• Trauma such as surgery or injury

Is Fascia Contributing to Your Pain?

Determining whether your pain is due to muscles, joints or fascia can be difficult. In general, muscle injuries and joint problems feel worse the more you move. Fascial adhesions tend to feel better with movement and also respond well to heat therapy, which helps bring back the tissue’s elasticity.

For some people, adhesions can worsen over time, resulting in hard, tender knots in the muscles, called trigger points. Trigger points may cause pain to occur:

• During movement

• When pressure is applied

• In seemingly unrelated parts of the body (referred pain)

Treatment focuses on relieving pain, breaking up adhesions and promoting relaxation of tight fascia and muscle fibers. In some cases proper hydration may also help lower fascial viscosity. Of course, pain can be a combination of fascial, muscular, and joint problems.

How to Keep Fascia Flexible

Keeping your fascia healthy has many benefits. You’ll move more easily, have better range of motion and experience less pain. Things you can do to prevent fascia problems include:

• Move more: #MovemementMatters! Daily movement might be an exercise routine, but also might simply mean taking more breaks at work to stand up, stretch and walk around. If you do have an established exercise routine, it’s important to change up the kinds of activities and exercises you do. Fascia loves variety!

• Stretch regularly: Stretching can help joints move better, and promotes the slip-and-slide of fascia around other tissues.

• Focus on posture: Try to maintain good posture while sitting or standing. Your chiropractor can give you tips on specific things to watch for in your posture based on your unique habits, needs, and body!

Ways to Relieve Fascial Pain

Despite our best efforts, none of us is perfect. Here are some things to try for those sticky fascia areas that we all have somewhere. There are various strategies to loosen up painful knots, such as:

• Heat therapy: Apply a heating pad to the affected area or take a warm shower or bath.

• Foam rolling: This is a form of self-massage that applies pressure to the soft tissues of the body. Foam rolling can also help move fluid and chemicals through the fascia, getting the body systems moving more effectively.

• Massage therapy: Therapeutic massage is another way to target specific knots and adhesions and gain more pain-free range of motion.

• Acupuncture: Acupuncture has been shown to be very effective for the relief of musculoskeletal pain.

Treatment often requires using more than one therapy. While pain is a normal part of living life and having a human body, if your pain interferes with sleep or daily activities, talk to your doctor, chiropractor, or acupuncturist.