What is fascia? It is the connective tissue in the body, it consists of collagen, elastin, and fluid. Collagen provides its strength, elastin gives it flexibility and the fluid provides the nutrition and lubrication.

All together that means it provides stability, strength, shock absorption, flexibility, mobility, fluidity of movement, pliability, nerve impulse conduction…AND all the opposites of these when it is compromised.

Fascia is the reason for movement, it is what holds us all together. If you removed everything from the body except for the fascia you would have this opaque, web-like form of the body, all connected from one layer to the next.

Physiologically fascia is a very important structure. Research on fascia is changing rapidly. Fascia can be considered a communication network that can convey bio-electric signals between every part of the body and every other part. Deep fascia of the body is richly innervated with nerves. Anatomists have discovered fascia conducts nerve impulses faster than muscle tissue. Makes sense since most of the makeup of fascia is fluid, why wouldn’t it? It also makes sense that it is so richly innervated considering it infiltrates every fiber of our bodies.

Fascia has many sensory receptors:

nociceptors – report pain
proprioceptors – report stretch and tell our brains where the rest of our body is in space and time
mechanoreceptors – report pressure and vibration
chemoreceptors – report the chemistry of the particular tissue
thermoreceptors – report fluctuation in temperature.

All of these receptors/nerves relay messages to the brain. The brain interprets the sensory information and sends the appropriate signals to all parts of the body.

Tom Myers, author of Anatomy Trains says, “Fascia should be considered our biomechanical regulatory system”. He also thinks we need to look at the whole picture…the neuro-myofascial web to understand it completely. It seems like in thinking about anything happening in the body without fascia being involved is like trying to separate the wet from the ocean…it just isn’t going to happen.

Fascia is a system that is all connected and interconnected. It relies on the entire system for its strength and stability, but it must remain free and moving to function optimally. Fascia surrounds every muscle fiber, muscle bundle, muscle, muscle group, organ, blood vessel, bone, nerve, the spinal cord, and the brain. It has been discovered everywhere in the body except on the inside of the digestive, respiratory, and lymphatic systems.

Fascia plays a role in the structural integrity of ligaments and tendons, providing their strength and yet giving flexibility. One of fascia’s most dynamic functions is protection - by distributing the force of impacts the horse may be subjected to, whether accidentally or traumatically. It spreads mechanical force or load via the web of soft tissue that is the fascial system – this is tensegrity. Tensegrity is the balance of skeletal structures through continuous inward tension of the fascia but also continuous outward tension of the skeleton. The skeleton is not put together like a stack of bones one on top of another but instead are almost free floating. This is a brilliant design of nature. It is made to distribute the load. If you load one part of the skeleton more than another, it adapts and distributes the load throughout the whole system. Since all parts of the body are connected to all other parts through the fascia it is an ideal system for doing this job. Fascia is the ultimate shock absorber. But there lies the negative aspect as well. Since it is all connected, when there is adhesion it easily affects other areas of the body, often at great distance from the actual problem.

Fascia plays a role in our immunity as well. Fascia has the ability to help in the defense against the spread of pathogens. The fluid of the fascial system, the blood, the lymph and the cerebral spinal fluid are almost all identical, so the fluid easily passes between all these systems and they all work together to rid the body of pathogens. The body tends to store toxins in fascia and connective tissue in general, so it makes sense that the fascial system is also able to move these toxins and/or pathogens through the vast amount of fluid that runs through it. When the fascia is dehydrated or adhered it will trap the toxins in the tissue. The immune system is able to fight the pathogens while it is in the fascia, before there is a possibility of infecting the rest of the body. But what do you think happens if the fascia becomes compromised?

Fascia is only as strong as its weakest link (its adhered spot). It may become adhered for many reasons but here are a few:

A lack of nutrition
An injury or trauma
Overuse
Surgical procedures
Inflammatory responses
The wrong compensatory patterns (possibly caused by injury or trauma)

The weakest point is where the fascia will give… which will result in injury. Fascia is not just wrapped around every muscle fiber, muscle, organ, etc., it is connected together in patterns. It is connected in fascial trains or lines. Fascia of one muscle is connected to the next and the next. The trains are arranged in the same “grain” as the muscle fibers. Fascia was first discovered by Andrew Taylor Still on his path to the founding of osteopathy. There have been many since Still's discovery that have made huge contributions in the research and education of fascia including Ida Rolf, Dr. Robert Schleip, Dr. Jean-Claude Guimberteau, Tom Myers, and Gil Hedley. Interestingly enough, not as much research has been done in the horse and veterinary world…until recently. There has been some mapping of the fascial trains by a Danish vet in 2015 named Dr. Vibeke Sødring Elbrønd and here is a link to her original research paper.

If you have had the pleasure of attending a dissection with Dr. Ivana Ruddock-Lange, she is fascinated by fascia and has done her own research, via hundreds of dissections. She has recently published an anatomy book of pictures from her numerous dissections called Atlas of the Equine Musculoskeletal System. Dr. Kerry Ridgway has done some fantastic work in this area, elaborating on the work of Dr. Vibeke Sødring Elbrønd but I don’t think any is published…yet. Pamela Blades Eckelbarger, who worked with Dr. Kerry Ridgway for years, offers a very informative manual called, Myofascial Kinetic Meridians in Horses (for more info find it under links). Fascial trains are undoubtedly the reason we move in the patterns that we do or get stuck in the patterns that we do, more often than not. So why would it be any different for our horses. Here are some pictures of the fascial lines from Tom Myers’ book Anatomy Trains:

Myofascial release therapy is a manual therapy intended to release adhesions within the vast network of connective tissue called fascia. The therapy uses pressure to release the fascia that has become hard and fibrous, thus restoring its flexibility, relaxing contracted muscles, easing pain, improving blood and lymphatic circulation, and restoring mobility throughout the body.

Fascia and Myofascial Release