Whether you are a weekend warrior, lifelong exerciser, athlete, pilates gal, weightlifter, or yogi, this next bit will be of interest you.
As it relates to exercise, our fascia can become “jacked up” and become tight, restricting the performance of the muscles underneath. If you do high intensity workouts like running or lifting heavy weights with improper form, this will definitely cause your fascia to clamp down to protect the muscle underneath. Furthermore, if you do those workouts with any kind of alignment issue, such as a posterior pelvic tilt, hip jam, muscle imbalance, or shoulder impingement, that will also throw the body out of proper alignment and can be damaging to your whole fascia system. Chronic pain, frequent injury, inability to hold a chiropractic adjustment, lack of flexibility and decreased range of motion are just a few of the symptoms of jacked-up fascia.
Also, when fascia is tight, it restricts the ability of the nerves to signal properly. Nerves are the messengers that send signals from the brain to the muscles. When the signal is disrupted or gets choked out by tight fascia, the muscle output is lessened, and you can’t get as much out of your workouts. Fascia can also encase the muscles, not allowing the muscle “cuts” to show through. Furthermore, your muscles can become so encased with fascia that it can restrict or limit the size of muscle growth!