Fascia is often referred to as the glue that holds us together, but few of us know what it is and why it matters. This article discusses the ways in which we can stretch our fascia to loosen tight muscles (believe it or not, tight hamstrings can actually be caused by a forward head lean) for both sports performance as well as a high quality of daily life.
Imagine your entire body wrapped in a fibrous suit, designed essentially to hold all the parts of you together. Its elasticity allows for the capacity to expand and contract, to be both flexible and strong. This incredible, all encompassing band of connective tissues is known as the fascia. It lies beneath your skin, connecting and encircling all of the bones, muscles and internal organs of the body.
The question of the connection between mental and physical health has been asked repetitively for centuries, and it has only been in the last several decades that Western medicine has caught up to holistic practices and began to acknowledge an interdependent relationship between the two. Mental and emotional patterns create biochemical pathways in the body, and it follows that just as the mind affects the body, so too the body can affect the mind.