More likely than not, you’ve heard this word being thrown around if you’ve seen a physiotherapist, massage therapist, osteopath, or any natural health practitioner.  So, do you know what fascia is and how influential it is to our everyday life?

What is fascia and why is it so important? 

Fascia is a connective tissue that connects the skin, muscles, bones, organs, and nerves so you can imagine if anything is wrong with your fascia, any of the systems in your body can also be affected. It is considered a whole-body communication network that is capable of communicating information throughout your body for daily function. Fascia can also be described as a force transmission system. If there is any problem in your fascia’s ability to transmit this force, it can negatively affect your proprioception. This is your ability to sense the position, movement, and orientation of your body and its parts. In athletes, any problem with force transmission can lead to decrease in strength, stability, power, speed, agility, and quickness.

What is fascial stretch therapy (FST) and how is it different from traditional stretching?

FST is a pain free treatment table based technique that involves stretching of the fascial networks throughout your body. With traditional stretching you are only targeting individual isolated muscle groups. Whereas, with FST we are increasing the mobility of your nerves and the flexibility of your muscles & fascia as a unit. In reality these tissues all work together to allow us to move, so they often need to be treated as a system, and not as the individual components of that system.

Benefits of FST

• Great at reducing or eliminating pain 
• Increased mobility 
• Helps improve your sleep and energy 
• Helps with posture 
• Greatly reduces stress
• Improves athletic performance

Who can benefit from FST? 

Anyone can benefit from FST! Whether you are an elite level athlete or someone who is looking to increase mobility for everyday life, FST would work great for you!

What can you expect from an FST session?

Everyone is different in what needs to be treated to get optimal results. It will start off with a consultation with Eli to discuss your problem areas and what your goals are for treatment. From there, the session may include FST and massage therapy or just FST on its own, depending on the treatment plan.

To find out more about FST and if it is right for you, give us a call at the clinic and we can get you all set up!