Fascial Adhesions: What They Are and How They Affect You
Our muscles are three-dimensional structures that respond to pressure from all directions. When you move, you're not only putting vertical weight on your muscles, but you're also expanding them laterally and in a spiral fashion. This is crucial when considering both recovery and performance.
In healthy tissue, fascia is flexible and fluid, gliding effortlessly over muscles and joints, adapting to different movements. However, when fascia becomes unhealthy due to injury, overuse, or inactivity, it stiffens and forms adhesions, limiting your range of motion and causing pain. Healthy fascia moves like silk; unhealthy fascia feels more like stiff fabric—tangled and resistant.
Most interventions you’ll encounter focus on surface-level sliding and gliding techniques. While these methods have their purposes (more on that later), they won’t help much if you’re dealing with pain and immobility. The best way to reverse muscle pain is through a technique called Myofascial Release (MFR). Let’s explore what MFR is, why it works, and how to use it.
Feelings First
When muscles are healthy, they are soft in a relaxed state. For example, clench your fist and then relax; that tight feeling near your wrist should only be present when you're flexing. In a relaxed state, your muscles should feel pliable, almost like a sponge. If your muscles are in this relaxed state, there’s no reason for your body to experience pain.
The problem occurs when muscles that should be relaxed remain tense. Since nothing in the body works in isolation, surrounding muscles stiffen up as well, leading to limited range of motion and discomfort.
Muscle tightness, as explained by Eric Owens, often comes from two issues:
Densification of collagen tissues: This happens when hyaluronic acid aggregates and pushes water out of the tissue. Hyaluronan tends to bind to itself due to inactivity. When you sit at a desk all day and don’t move, hyaluronan builds up, creating hard, dense tissue.
Fibrosis of fascia tissue: This forms deep within the perimysium, which surrounds the muscle fascicles inside the muscle.
Let’s break that down.
Densification of Collagen:
Imagine your body is like a sponge. When you move, the sponge stays nice and bouncy because it holds water. But when you sit still for too long, hyaluronan, which we can think of as "sticky stuff," starts to clump together, pushing the water out of the sponge and making parts of your body harder and less flexible—like a dried-up sponge.
That’s why movement is essential—it keeps your body "sponge" nice and soft!
Fibrosis of Fascia Tissue:
Picture your muscles like bundles of spaghetti wrapped in a stretchy layer that helps them move smoothly. If you don’t move enough or if your muscles get injured, that stretchy layer can become stiff and tight. This stiffness, called fibrosis, is like the spaghetti starting to stick together, making it harder for your muscles to stretch and move freely. When fibrosis forms deep in the muscle, everything feels more rigid.
Staying active helps keep that layer loose and flexible so your muscles can move freely.
Reversing Densification & Fibrosis
We’ve learned that lack of movement changes the fascia, causing pain and disrupting your body’s sense of movement (proprioception). What can you do about it? Let’s first discuss what doesn’t work:
Foam Rolling
Foam rolling rolls over the surface of the muscle and, while it has benefits—improving fluid flow, loosening densification, temporarily increasing range of motion—it doesn’t address the deeper layers of tissue. Foam rolling can be a great tool for warming up, but it won’t solve underlying issues.
Stretching
Stretching provides temporary range of motion but doesn’t fix the core problem. In fact, prolonged stretching can make fascial adhesions worse. Picture a rubber band with a knot in the middle. If you pull on both ends, the knot tightens. This is what stretching can do to your fascia.
Massage
Unless you’re seeing a professional who understands how to release fascial adhesions, most massage techniques only offer temporary relief. While this can help in the short term, it won’t solve the problem long-term. Use it as a tool, but not the ultimate solution.
A Better Way Forward: Myofascial Release (MFR)
To break fascial adhesions, you need to apply pressure through the tissue from different angles to force separation of stuck layers. This stimulates the body to loosen the tissue, increasing range of motion, reducing pain, and even improving strength by allowing better force transmission.
Layers to Fascia
Fascia is multi-layered, and when left uncared for, these layers adhere together. To reverse this, apply pressure in a pumping and oscillating fashion from various angles. This creates a shearing force that encourages the release of stuck tissue.
Avoid dragging tools across muscles, as this can trigger a guarding response from the body. Instead, use angular pressure and in/out movements to give the muscles slight breaks, preventing a neurological “guarding” reflex.
By applying this pressure, you help remove waste and allow the tissue to absorb new water, refreshing and cleansing the tissue. Never fully withdraw the tool from the area; stay engaged, like in a dance, to maintain continuity in the treatment.
Muscle Tightness
The reason you feel tight and in pain is simple: our muscles are wrapped in collagen. When we don’t care for the collagen formation in our tissues, it hardens and becomes dense.
Types of Tightness:
Hyaluronic Aggregates:
What it is: Hyaluronan, a gel-like substance, keeps things smooth by holding onto water.
Problem: When you don’t move, it forms clumps, crowding out water and making tissues denser.
Fibrosis:
What it is: Fibrosis is when soft tissue becomes thick and scar-like.
Problem: It causes stiffness, making it harder for muscles to move.
Action Steps
Here’s what you should do:
Feel the muscle tissue in areas without symptoms (pain or tightness). Healthy muscles should feel spongy.
Compare this with areas that have symptoms. You’ll likely feel hard, knotted spots.
Use a trigger-point ball or another MFR tool to apply pressure, hold for 3-5 seconds, then release and move to a new spot.
Apply in/out pressure at different angles to break down fibrotic tissue. Gradually work outwards.
If the area is too tender, start at the edges and move inwards over time.
Future Steps
Regular MFR improves muscle function and allows for better movement. For long-term results, incorporate other practices such as:
Biomechanics
Resistance Training
Anti-inflammatory Diets
Stay tuned for more information on how to live a healthier life, and remember:
"Master Movement, Conquer Gravity."