Structural Integration (Rolfing) - San Lorenzo Valley & Santa Cruz County: Ben Lomond, Felton, Scotts Valley, Boulder Creek, Los Gatos

Fascia & Tensegrity

A Closer Look at Fascia

There are four classes of cells in the human body: neural, muscular, epithelial and connective tissue. Here we turn our focus to the connective tissue cells and their products which, taken together, form the extracellular matrix or fascial system throughout our bodies. This system is sometimes referred to as the "organ of form." It supports and protects by wrapping each muscle and organ in its own fascial wrapping. These wrappings in turn form part of an inextricable web that connects as well as separates all functional units of the body down to each individual cell. It serves as container and restraining support for the whole body. In addition, this living and responsive matrix provides the vehicle for communication between cells and even links the inner network of each cell to the mechanical state of your body via proteins called integrins.

Connective tissue goes by many names: tendons, septa, ligaments, membranes, even bone and blood. Connective tissue cells meet a wide range of flexibility and stability needs by secreting and mixing a variety of elements in varying proportions within the ground substance, a proteinous gel which varies from fluid to gluey to solid. The same elements which are capable of producing such a vast array of materials will also rearrange themselves in response to individual activity and injury. Stress going through a material stretches the bonds between the molecules creating a slight electric flow known as a piezo-(pressure) electric charge. This charge is read by nearby cells which respond by augmenting, reducing or changing the intercellular elements in the area to best accommodate the stress.

In healthy fascia the smooth coating permits neighboring structures to slide over one another. However, following inflammatory illnesses, traumatic injury or continued strain due to patterns of movement (or non-movement as described above), layers adhere to one another in glue-like fashion. They no longer slide but instead cause adjacent structures to tug on one another. At the same time the muscles become undernourished and their function reduced as nutrients and chemical messengers struggle to make it to their intended cells.

An Introduction to Tensegrity

The conventional idea of body alignment is similar to that of a stack of blocks which line up one on top of the other with the skeleton sustaining their weight. In reality the integrity of our alignment depends on the balance of the various fascial tissues (tendons, ligaments, strings, cords and sheets) that hold the bones, muscles and organs in relationship to each other. Just as Buckminster Fuller used pliable materials to invent the geodesic dome, a structure sustained by tension rather than compression, our bodies rely on the tensional force of our softer tissues to keep us erect. Take away all our connective tissue and our muscles and bones would fall to the ground in a heap.

Tensegrity structures distribute strain across the entire structure. To illustrate this, consider the following metaphor. If you pull on one corner of your sweater, the rest of the sweater distorts and moves toward the place you apply the pull. Now imagine that your sweater has chopsticks interlaced in the weave, and as you pull on your sweater, the chopsticks move too. This is a crude example of a tensegrity structure. The integrity of the structure is based on the tension between the hard parts (chopsticks, or skeleton) and the soft stretchy parts (sweater, or fascia). When you move one, you move them both, and furthermore, the whole structure moves as one. This is how symptoms can appear far from the site of the application of pull, or the force of injury. In fact, when a tear or lesion occurs in the fabric of our body, it will do so at its weakest point rather than at the sight of stress. This is why whiplash is a problem of the neck for the next few days, a problem of the spine for a few weeks, and is a whole body problem within a few months. On the same token this also explains why the effects of fascial manipulation are felt far removed from the site of application.