When we look at the human body, we see the outer layer of skin surrounding that person. What we don’t get to see is what is going on inside. That is only felt by the user (unless you are talking about that one friend that tends to share a little too much from time to time). You may or may not know we have what are called “deep fascial lines” that run though our body from head to toe. These lines surround our bones and muscles as well as house some of our nerves, blood and lymph vessels.
Lets talk about the deep matrix within, these lines of fascia span over long distances in the body (one from the bottom of the foot to the top of the head). The matrix makeup of this type of fascia tends to be a lot more fibrous that its superficial counterpart, this makes it a lot more robust and stronger however on the flip side of that sometimes creates restriction deep down in the body.
Deep in the matrix of connective tissue that is deep fascia we have lots of vascular structures that are interwoven throughout. Now when we think about a vascular structure, picture our blood supply that is a driving force of our essence helping to support our own internal universe. Think about a garden hose for a moment, you are watering the garden and all of a sudden, the flow turns to a dribble. You glance back and see that there is a “kink” in the hose, no wonder the flow stopped. You get rid of that kink and you’re back in business, delivering that life bringing water to your garden. Now, imagine this is happening inside your body, you have vascular structures that are delivering blood throughout the body and then “bam” there is a kink in the hose!
Now before you freak and think that you’re in trouble just remember that the body is really adaptive and when met with resistance it tries to find another way. However, let’s not forget that we need to aim to keep these pathways free for movement in order to create an environment for optimal health to grow, just like our garden that we just watered.
Similar to our vascular tissues (blood vessels), our deep fascia is also host to our lymphatic vessels. Thinking about the lymphatic system my mind immediately goes to the idea of a sewer system within the body. Now I know that sounds gross but just think about how important our sewer systems are in our every day life. It transports our waste materials away to be processed and disposed of, now imagine this within the body when it comes to removing toxic waste from our universe.
Now the lymphatics operates more like a sponge in that they mop up our cellular “debris” and send it back to the heart for recirculation to the required organs. Now imagine that your toilet has become backed up and the contents cannot travel down the pipe like we would like it to, "Houston, we have a problem". In our body if our deep fascia becomes too tight and restricted in movement this may become our reality, clogged up pipes within!
Now, our immune system plays a big role in our lymphatic system, so our ability to keep the body “clean” and ready to defend itself against anything is a must. Keeping up with regular, light movements as well as taking time to take some big breaths regularly will greatly assist in keeping this system working well.
So, taking time (even just 5 mins every hour or so) to get up; move the body, take a few big breaths, this is going to keep that fascia moving, get the blood pumping, and keep that lymphatic system squeezed!
Stay bendy,
Dr Dan (The Osteo Man)