What the Fuzz: Myofascial Anatomy

By Matt Smith ART, CES, CPT, FMS

Recently there has been fantastic development in the self-rehabilitation component of CrossFit. Kelly Starrett and various other people have shared important knowledge with our community on how to be more efficient, more powerful, and injury-free. As CrossFit continues to develop as a sport and a lifestyle, the complementary rehabilitation aspect of fitness must grow as well. As part of that movement, this article is the first of many to come from Tabata Times in dedication to furthering the efforts to make our community healthier, stronger, and injury-free — now and in the years to come.

What is Myofascial Release?

If you have ever doneMobilityWOD homework, more than likely you have worked on some form of myofascial release to improve your positioning — and therefore create more efficient movement.

Myofascial Release has been performed for centuries as a treatment for musculo-skeletal pain. Many health professionals have based their careers on getting people out of pain through manual and instrument-assisted techniques like Active Release Technique, Cross-Friction Massage, Myofascial Release, Graston, and others. In recent years, there have been developments in tools that allow people to perform myofascial release on themselves — a welcome convenience for busy folks. These tools have allowed athletes to take their health into their own hands and drastically improve their performance.

In Part I of this series, learn how and why myofascial release works in addition to how it can benefit you as an athlete.

Understanding Myofascial Anatomy

Defining Myofascia

“Myo-” is a simple prefix for muscle. Fascia is composed of collagen and elastic fibers that are suspended in a more fluid substance called the extracellular matrix. This matrix is made up of different cells that produce a fluid-like substance in which the collagen and elastic fibers exist.

Video Lesson: “The Fuzz”

Dr. Gil Hedley, one of the great minds of our generation, has produced incredible work through dissection and exploration of the human body. In the video below, he provides a clear demonstration of the web of fascia that runs in, out, around and in between ALL of the structures of the body (muscles, bones, organs, etc.). Keeping this fascial network healthy is imperative to performing proper movement patterns.

Myofascial Continuities

Feeling pain in one part of your body could mean a deficiency in any part of the myofascial chain connected to it. Try the hamstring self-test below to prove it.

As Dr. Hedley’s video explains, the web of “fuzz” creates a network of musculo-skeletal structures working together to produce movement. Each component of the human movement system is dependent upon the other structures within the system. Although anatomy books depict muscles, bones, tendons, and ligaments as singular objects that function alone to produce movement, we have seen through fascial research that all of these things are inter-related and are absolutely not stand-alone figures.

To experience what this really means, try out a quick self-experiment that Tom Myersdemonstrates in his book Anatomy Trains:

• First perform a toe touch by locking out your knees and bending over at the waist, reaching for the ground with your hands. Pay attention to the tension of your hamstrings and notice the side that feels tighter.
• After choosing your tighter side, take a lacrosse ball or tennis ball and roll out the bottom of your foot on your tight hamstring side. Do this for about 2-3 minutes with firm pressure down on the ball. If you find a spot in your foot that feels very sensitive, press down on the ball in that spot with gradually increasing pressure for 20-30 sec and then keep moving.
• After your 2 minutes of rolling out, retest your toe touch and see if there is a difference. Most often, there will be a significant change in hamstring flexibility after simply rolling out the bottom of the foot for 2 minutes, due to the myofascial chain that links the hamstrings to the bottom of the foot. Often, a tight hamstring problem is not actually a problem with the hamstrings; instead, it could be a manifestation of a deficiency within another part of that myofascial chain. Tom Myers has demonstrated through his dissections that there are many chains of structures within the body that are connected through fascia. (For a more detailed explanation, this information is displayed in his bookAnatomy Trains.)

In the next part of this series, we will explore the injury cycle in order to explain how inefficiencies develop throughout the fascia and the ensuing problems they cause.

References

1. Macdonald G, Penney M, Mullaley M, Cuconato A, Drake C, Behm DG, Button DC. An Acute Bout of Self Myofascial Release Increases Range of Motion Without a Subsequent Decrease in Muscle Activation or Force. J Strength Cond Res. 2012 May 10. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 22580977.

2. NASM: Essentials of Corrective Exercise Training. 1^st. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2010

3. http://www.gilhedley.com/ghvideo.php

4. Myers, Thomas. Anatomy Trains. 2nd. Churchill Livingstone, 2008. 440. Print.

5. Reversibility of immobilization-induced articular cartilage degeneration after remobilization in rat knee joints. Ando A, Suda H, Hagiwara Y, Onoda Y, Chimoto E, Saijo Y, Itoi E. Tohoku J Exp Med. 2011;224(2):77-85.

6. www.mobilitywod.com