The Magic of fascia and it's reactive nature

I have called this my happy blog, read on to find out why.

Happy Blog or The magic of Fascia and it’s reactive nature

I often wonder how much less complicated my life might be if I stopped asking questions.

At the end of last year, together with Laurie Booth, we created a concept called The Myolastic Project whose whole ‘raison d’etre’ is to ask questions.

We set up classes and workshops in Brighton to look in particular at the research and information coming out of the Fascia (connective tissue) research labs using movement to create an experiential way to interpret the science. After each class or workshop we evaluate what has emerged from this form of questioning and come up with a new question for the next class. The project evolves and has led us up along some very interesting paths. For my own part I have learnt about the thought processes developed by dancers to perceive their world, opened up lines of research into human and fascia evolution and experienced the body’s magnetism and it’s facility to store energy.

The one thing I do know for sure is that after 6 months of this project instead of getting answers to our questions we just keep thinking of new questions to ask!

The last couple of months I have turned my attention to spirals, The lock, load, Release and Flow ‘Myolastic’ concept and the new Anatomy Trains book. Anyone in my Pilates classes and all those attending the Myolastic classes will know we have been spinning round and locking energy in and reaching out along those lines of myofascial tension.

Has it made a difference?

An interesting self observation is that over the last 6 months of personally doing the lock, load, concept I have experienced a marked increase in reaction to these movements.

The question, which I keep coming back to is; why is the reaction getting more powerful?

Is it familiarity, is it muscle strength, is it an increase in fascial storage capacity, are we training a reaction rather than an action (a muscle contraction is an example of an action), will it continue to get stronger until the amount of effort is very small compared with the output response. Will we forget the response as easily as we learnt it.????

What do we know about the Fascial system, which will help to answer some of these questions?

Fascia is a body wide tensional energy storage and transmission system, it responds to load and reforms over time in response to that load.

It is a reactive system.

What do I mean by reactive? I ‘Googled’ the word ‘reaction’ and got some interesting results:

1.    Something done, felt, or thought in response to a situation or event.

2.    A force exerted in opposition to an applied force:

the law of action and reaction

3.    A person’s ability to respond physically and mentally to external stimuli.

4.    A reverse or opposing action.

Word origin:mid 17th century: from react + -ion, originally suggested by medieval Latin reactio(n-), from react- 'done again'.

So when we say Fascia is a reactive system do we mean that:

1.    It can feel something in response to a movement event.

2.    If a force is directed into it, an equal force in the opposite direction will happen.

3.    External stimuli cause the Fascial system to respond

4.    and finally that it reverses or opposes an action.

I think that experientially we can say that all of the above is true.

So can we train our fascia to become more reactive? The Fascial Fitness catapult principle as set out by Divo Müller and Robert Schleip in 2011 would suggest that it may be trainable,  (see earlier blog for more information on the catapult principle).

It’s very exciting to think that we have found a way to demonstrate to ourselves that the reaction can be increased but to what end? How will this experiential exercise help us maintain a healthy body and youthful fascia or is that exactly what it is doing but we have no way of measuring it.  Has the reaction always been there and we have only just awakened our senses to it or has the storage capacity of our Fascial net actually improved. More questions to which I do not have answers.

However at last a question I can answer:

What does this reaction feel like to me?

It could be described as ‘magical’, my body reacts without any conscious instruction to reverse the action or lock I have imposed upon it. Each week the reaction gets stronger, faster and lasts for longer. There is no effort or energy required to evoke the reaction and it feels like the most natural thing in the world. It’s fun and pleasurable.

It makes me happy.

Tracey Mellor

March 2014

© All rights reserved to the original thoughts and observations in this blog.

"Cost of Transport" - a new way of calculating the energy used for movement

Regulars to the Thursday class (1-2.30 pm at BNHC) know that Laurie and I have been playing around with the idea that the jellyfish is the purest fascial movement based organism that we can think of.

Of course the jelly like substance of the jellyfish and our collagen-based fascia is not identical but they share many properties, which leads us to postulate that it affects movement in a similar way.

Jellyfish are an ancient life form on the evolutionary ladder, which raises several questions as to when our fascia formed in the timescale of human evolution.

This blog update is about another interesting aspect of the jellyfish and it’s movement.

We have all seen the graceful way a jellyfish propels itself through the water, it is hypnotic, so much so that in Japan they observe tanks of jellyfish as a way to reduce stress.

In a recent article in the Sunday Times (20^th October 2013) researchers in the U.S. have named the Moon Jellyfish (the most common type) ‘the most efficient swimmers on the planet’.

Brad J Gemmell of the Marine Biological Lab in Massachusetts has analysed the movement of the Moon jellyfish.

Brad, like Laurie and I has had trouble describing this movement in conventional language, there just are not the words available to us. So like us (we invented the word Myolastic), he has invented some new terms to describe the way the Jellyfish moves.

He invented a new way of describing and calculating the energy used in Jellyfish (fascial!!) movement calling it the “the cost of transport”

i.e. how much energy used to move.

He observed a 2 phase swimming motion:

Phase 1- jellyfish contracts it’s open bell and pulses water behind it, propelling itself forward.

Phase 2 – Jellyfish returns to its original bell shape as the bell refills with water.

Traditionally Phase 1 is the active phase, the contractile stage and Phase 2 is the passive or recovery stage.

However it has been shown that the second phase is also creating a push of it’s own, accounting for 30% of the distance travelled without actually doing any work! This is because the elastic tissue (their description not mine) of the bell, acts like an elastic band, reforming the bell and it is this action that produces a water action under the jellyfish called a vortex, which pushes it forward. This recovery stage and the kick it produces is, they believe, purely mechanical and VERY energy efficient.

The question is can our fascia be as efficient?

Our fascia is made up of two substances, collagen and elastin. We know that the location and use determine the exact quantities of the two substances. We also know that use or load placed upon the fascia can lead to changes in the ratio of collagen and elastin in a tissue at a specific site.

The fascial tissue or connective tissue in our body has an elastic quality. We know it stores energy and releases it, with huge efficiency such as can be seen when a kangaroo jumps.

(All of the above can be read about in previous blogs on the MMP site and www.Traceymellorpilates.co.uk blog site.)

The speed/strength of the return to original size and shape is what determines the elastic capability of a tissue or substance. Stainless steel has a high elastic capability for instance. The elastic of a jellyfish also has a highly elastic capability, giving it a low “cost of transport”.

It is possible to feel the restoration of shape in our tissue in the quiet stillness of non-movement, we have been exploring how this feels in our classes and workshops.

So what is our “cost of transport”? Can we improve it with training or is it there already just waiting for us to recognise it’s existence?

Tracey Mellor

© December 2013

The Catapult Mechanism and the birth of MMP

In this blog I am again looking to explore one of the Fascial Fitness concepts in more detail, the Catapult mechanism.

This blog also introduces Myolastic Movement Protocol.

The Catapult mechanism, the body’s storage capacity and MMP.

‘The catapult mechanism’, a unique ability of Fascia, and was discovered by scientists in 1998. Kram and Dawson were investigating why Kangaroos can jump further than can be explained by the force of the contraction in their leg muscles alone. They discovered that the tendons and fascia of the Kangaroo’s legs are tensioned, and it is the release of this stored energy that enables the Kangaroos to jump so high. Investigation of other ‘jumping’ animals such as gazelles showed that these other animals use the same mechanism. With the use of high-resolution ultrasound technology (Sawicki et al, 2009) it has been possible to show that humans also use this mechanism, and that our fascia has the same elastic storage capacity as kangaroos and gazelles and that we use the catapult mechanism not just to jump but in our everyday locomotion and movements.
Just this discovery alone is quite remarkable. We have all watched on television the amazing jumping ability of high jumpers and long jumpers at events such as the Olympic Games, but for most of us to be able to train to jump so high and far is beyond our imagination, but is it beyond our capabilities?

What is elastic storage capacity? How does the fascia hold this energy? How can we increase the capacity? These are just some of the questions, which spring (sorry about the pun) to mind.

First of all we have to look at, ‘what is meant by elastic?’. Contrary to commonly held belief the elasticity of a substance is measured not by how much we can stretch it but by the strength and speed the material returns to it’s normal size, be it length, width or capacity. When it comes to elastic capacities we have to look at materials such as stainless steel as well as rubber, it’s all about how much elastic energy the material can hold.
The laws of Physics tell us that energy cannot be destroyed so that elastic capacity has to be stored until it is released, the bigger the storage capability the bigger the release.
If we take a length of stainless steel wire, and coil it, it becomes a very efficient spring, if left as a length it has less capacity to hold energy and has less capacity to release that energy in the form of forward or upward motion. The research suggests that the fascia is like that length of stainless steel, it is very strong and if young and healthy the collagen fibers within it display a crimp like structure (Staubesand et al, 1997) very much like a spring. By keeping this spring like quality we can maintain or even increase the elastic storage capacity of the fascia, which means it can store and hold energy, which can then be released when we jump, hop, run or walk. If we lose this crimp, we lose capacity to hold energy and cannot jump or hop so high or run and walk so fast or for so long.
Science has also given us the perfect answer to how to train the fascia to maintain or improve this crimp like structure, regular oscillatory exercise.

This leads me to ask many questions:

How do we translate all this fascinating information into out movement practice?
Is there a way to feel the power of this storage capacity?
Can we observe this increased capacity?
Can we use this unique ability to store or absorb this energy?
Is it a good thing to hold this energy in our tissue?
Can it be released safely and upon demand?

However the first question we have to ask is:

Is it possible to be objective about how a tissue feels as everyone has different references and experiences?

Lets look at some of the answers given by fascia research for these questions.

There are some very expensive gadgets, which can measure the tissues ability to spring back to shape. Most of us do not have access to these machines but we can say our legs feel strong or they feel full of spring. We all know the difference between legs, which are tired and feel heavy and fresh legs, which float along under us as if we have no weight at all. Is this how we can measure the quality of the elastic storage capacity of our fascia?
Another, almost magical, way of demonstrating the storage capacity of the body is the simple parlor game - floating arms, where pressure is applied to a muscle which when released takes on a life of it’s own and floats upwards. The game perfectly demonstrates how the body could hold energy, painlessly and without an external change in shape or colour or weight, is this about the storage capacity of fascia, we do not know but it feels like an explanation of storage.

The training of the human body’s catapult system was considered in the research paper written by Schleip and Muller in 2011. They suggest that by re-introducing child like bounce into our exercises you can encourage the retaining or re-creation of a ‘youthful’ crimp structure in the collagen fibers of our Fascial network. This crimp will act like the storage capacity of springs. Research done on rats seems to suggest that this is possible.
This ‘bounce’ is easy to add to any movement; indeed it is already in our language to describe healthy movement and the feeling of happiness. Pulsing in exercise has gone out of favour, so we must look at quality and quantity, rhythm and rest periods amongst many other considerations, or perhaps it is just as simple as adding bounce into our movement and taking out heavy footed, noisy movements.
What happens when energy cannot be released, or cannot be easily moved around, where it becomes trapped or stuck? We all recognize these words and can associate them pain, a trapped nerve or stuck tissue. The body cannot move efficiently and effectively. As we age the crimp naturally becomes matted as we slow down, the tissue is not active, it is not hydrated or heavy and thickened, the tissue becomes like a mat, an area of stagnation, like a darn in a sock, where stretch and movement is inhibited. If not attended to this area of stagnation begins to grow unless there is a change in habit, a change in movement pattern or an intervention by a manual therapist, to re-open the tissue and release the stored energy usually in the form of heat.

Regular whole body, intelligent movement is, in my view, a simple answer to improving crimp, opening tissue to allow toxins to drain and avoid stagnation. Improving our Fascial health and general well being.

This is not a new idea, movement systems such as Qigong and Tai Chi, which open ‘energy pathways’ and promote health, have been practiced in the East for thousands of years.

In 2012 the Fascial Fitness Training programme was introduced by The Fascial Fitness Association to encourage Fascia friendly movement. I became one of the first Fascial Fitness trainers in the UK.

In 2013 I made the decision to find new ways to investigate and test this research and to bring my findings to a wider audience. This is a huge task, fascial research is still very much a new science, and there is still so much we do not know about this tissue, which makes up so much of our body. There are also so many misconceptions and misunderstandings surrounding fascial training.

I started by tearing up the rulebook and turning the existing ideas of Fascial Fitness training on its head. The current training looks from the top down, I want to come from another direction, taking away preconceived conceptions about how or what we should move, asking questions and letting the fascia (our body) suggest the answers, this requires the formation of a new language and a very open mind.

Dance is a perfect medium to start this interrogation its free form comes from the body listening to itself and suggesting the next move or shape to make. In this way Myolastic Movement Protocol (MMP) was conceived, I asked the questions and Laurie Booth- a very experienced choreographer translated the question into movement/dance and we waited for the answer to make itself understood within our own body, in a language our body understood. Laurie and I have spent years talking about Fascia and what it means, debating and coming up with ideas, this idea seemed to make perfect sense. We took the plunge and started a MMP class to see if others, who did not have any fascial research background, could find answers and understanding through movement, and they did.

We have now taught two, 5-hour workshops to provide time for the questions and answers to be formed, developed and answered, and they have been very successful. The wonderful creativity and the bringing together of ideas and thoughts has been beautiful. A truly experiential workshop.

Research, which is so intellectual and often difficult to explain can be translated into movement and understood even if that understanding is still difficult to put into conventional language.

I love asking questions, often the answer is another question and so it continues, curiosity and a desire to acquire knowledge and understanding is what makes us human, sometimes we already have the answers we just need to find a way to listen. Perhaps like Fascia the answer has always been there, and like Fascia it has been overlooked or ignored, we have lost the ability to listen to our in-tuition or inner-tuition.

We have more workshops scheduled (check out the Facebook page and look out for the new website).

We are recording reactions to the work. I see this as a way of creating research. Coming full circle from research to movement and then back to research, and if it informs people to be healthier and happier along the way, then that is perfect.

Tracey Mellor
November 2013
copyright protected

Bite size Fascia Research- Can exercise make you younger?

Can exercise make you younger?

Many of you will know that I am part of a collaboration to bring the principles of Fascial Fitness to the attention of all exercise professionals in the United Kingdom. This is quite an undertaking.

The principles are outlined in a paper by Robert Schleip and Divo Muller called the Training Principles of connective tissues scientific foundation and suggested practical applications published in the JBMT.

I thought it would be useful to look at the paper’s research in small bite sized pieces to use as a resource for the workshops.

Fascia has been described as ‘the body wide tensional network, which consists of all fibrous collagenous soft connective tissue’ (Schleip).

Research done by Staubessand et al, 1997 showed that the fascia of young people expresses, more often, a clear two-directional (lattice) orientation of their collagen fibre network. In addition the individual collagen fibres show a stronger crimp formation.

As evidenced by animal studies, application of proper exercise can induce an altered architecture with increased crimp-formation. Lack of exercise on the other hand has been shown to induce a multidirectional fibre network and a decreased crimp formation.

What does this mean?

Put simply young people have more bounce, more elasticity in their fascia (connective tissue). The crimp in their youthful fascia is reminiscent of elastic springs.

We all know that children bounce; their body’s are full of spring and energy. As we age however we lose this springiness to our movement.

My lovely Friday class of older people (average age 70) summed it up beautifully- we are getting stiffer.

 Research by Jarvinen et al., 2002.showed that as we age the fascial architecture takes on a more haphazard and multidirectional fibre arrangement. This arrangement resembles a darn in a stocking, it is indeed stiffer. The fibres of this older fascia cannot glide past one another as easily as the younger fascia fibres. The fascia becomes matted.

Think the net you find around oranges as the youthful lattice, and a piece of Felt as the older matted fascia. The orange net easily changes shape, molding around its contents, reacting to changing positions. A felt bag is less flexible and stiffer.

The most interesting part is that research shows that when applied to animals, exercise can stimulate fascial fibroblasts to lay down a more youthful fibre architecture (Fukashiro et al., 2006). Perhaps in time someone will be able to prove that exercise can do the same in humans.

But which exercise is the best one to stimulate fascia fibroblasts to lay down a youthful lattice of fascia and dissolve the older matted stiffness caused by years of living a sedentary lifestyle? What form of exercise or movement pattern can delay the aging of our fascial network? At what age do we have to start worrying that our fascial network losing it’s crimp and springiness?

Fascia is constantly remodeling itself reacting to dominant loading patterns (Schleip). It stands to reason that an exercise or movement practice, which offers variation, will produce a body wide exercise answer to this question. Concentrating on one area or muscle will cause the network to become unbalanced. Exercise systems, which work the whole body such as Pilates or Yoga, should perhaps be encouraged over repetitive muscle specific exercise.

Repetitive movements create repetitive loading on our fascial network and we know that repetitive loading changes the composition and arrangement of the fascia. From an earlier and earlier age we allow our children to train repetitively in the belief that they will excel. We also see young people adopting a more sedentary lifestyle, playing computer games, repetitive actions shaping their body’s literally.

Luckily a change in loading and adopting exercises and lifestyle choices that bring variation and bounce back into their movements can reverse this trend, and exercise professionals are perfectly placed to bring about this change.

Watch out for our ElasticBody series of workshops for more information on Fascial Fitness. 

Tracey Mellor

© 2013

Class ideas. Empty and Full, a sense of interoception

Like many other teachers of Mat Pilates classes I like to have a theme for my classes each week. The inspiration for the themes could be from something I have read, an interesting lecture or workshop. Often it is just one element, a phrase or movement, which appeals to me and I expand it to be a theme not only for the mat class but into the studio as well, the challenge is to apply the theme to all the different bodies I see during the week adding variety and interest to the sessions. This theme develops as the week progresses and my creative side gets going. I'm always thinking that I should write it down these ideas for re-cycling at another time or as inspiration for other teachers.

Last week I was at my Tai Chi Class on Monday morning, it's such a lovely way to start the week, especially if I have been away training all weekend. We were going through the 'form'( a set series of moves), taking instruction from our teacher, Mike, who is so patient with those of us who struggle to remember the precise movements from one week to the next! Sometimes Mike reads from a translation of the original teachers instructions and the way of describing the feel of the movements is often very beautiful and insightful. On Monday the instruction to make our legs feel empty or full depending on whether we had our weight in them or not struck a cord and I played with this idea all week.

Before I give you some ideas on how I took this theme into a class, I just wanted to look at the idea that the teacher was describing how the move felt to the mover. I think that this ancient teacher was describing the feeling or emotion the moves might evoke. I wondered if this could be encouraging interoception. This may be a new word to many of you. We have all heard of proprioception, which is a sense of where your body is in space. Placing a hand on someone's back as they are moving gives them proprioceptive feedback as to how they are moving. The machines are constantly providing proprioceptive feedback, using small equipment in a mat class also trains this sense.
Interoception is defined as a sense of the physiological condition of the body, including, for example muscular effort. They are almost always attached to an emotion. The sensations are triggered by stimulation of free nerve endings, most of which are found in fascial tissues throughout the human body. Proprioception and interoception however are organised differently in the human brain. Anxiety, depression or irritable bowel syndrome have been described as interoceptive disorders. Robert Schleip and Heike Jager provide a very full description of interoception in the book Fascia (Elsevier 2012), providing full references for their research.

Put simply Interoception is how your body feels or is perceived by you.

In last week's class I asked my participants to firstly understand the idea of empty and full, considering their body, their arms, legs and head as a containers which is either full or empty. To each of us the words full and empty has a different meaning, I used all kinds of imagery to evoke this feeling. Something which is empty is light and airy, cool, something which is full is heavy and warm. Changing an angle changes the way their containers ( their arms and legs etc) feel, smooth changes of leg,arm positions required a smooth transfer of weight and content. Different body positions created new challenges, rolling like a ball meant a feeling of momentum caused by the contents of the container moving from one end of the body to the other. Sitting or standing made the head light ( describing it as empty brought a burst of giggling!) the feet/pelvis heavy or full. To keep the pelvis level, when in neutral for instance, I used the image of a bowl half full of liquid. Bringing this self awareness of how the inside of the body feels, makes it interoceptive in nature.
I also encouraged my class members to enjoy the feeling of their body moving, no discomfort or pain should be experienced, again this is subjective, listening to the body, how it feels today is very important, particularly in a class when the instructor has so many body's to watch, if a class member can feel and enjoy the movement, it becomes a safe movement.

I believe that as instructors we can encourage awareness and build the senses of interoception and proprioception of our class participants. A manual therapist can use touch to stimulate the fascia to encourage proprioception and interoception, as movement teachers we can use movement, the power of imagery and gently well placed manual cueing to do the same.

This was a fun theme to play with, it worked well keeping the movement smooth and rhythmic - no sudden, jerky moves. The class members enjoyed the challenge of the theme. The only down side is that as an instructor it involves a lot of talking, so take a drink into class and remember to warm up your voice beforehand and rest it after.

Tracey x
(c) November 2012

Tensegrity

This wonderful Summer of sport is about to come to the end. Many of us in the UK will have had the experience of attending the Olympic games and Paralympic games in London. I was lucky enough to go to the Olympic Park last night and watched Oscar Pistorious win the 400 m imperiously. 

The Paralympicans have amazed us with their athleticism. I heard many spectators say ‘how do they do that?’ How can a one legged man do the high jump or a one legged woman turn cartwheels after her long jump; check out the youtube video’s; I have attached one here for you to watch and be inspired to bigger and greater achievements.

 <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/34uRrkZsxI4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The newspapers have had some spectacular pictures of athletes captured in mid air, making shapes in the air, holding form against the effects of gravity.

How do they do that? how can the body hold shapes in the air, defying gravity?

I think its all to do with tensegrity. The fascial ( connective tissue) network acts as a tensegrity structure, allowing supported movements of our arms, legs and body. A tensegrity structure is made up of compressed struts (bones) and elastic strings (connective tissue or fascia and muscles). The resulting structure holds space in the body, from both a cellular level to a full body level. We all use our internal tensegrity structures all the time. The paralympians  use their fascial network to defy gravity everyday. 

I have been making tensegrity models, yesterday I built one which mimics a spine, it’s great fun to do, but also by making the models you can appreciate how they divide space, make space and surround space. Look them up on www.biotensegrity.com, 

Hope you have as much fun making the models as I did.

congratulations to everyone who got to the Olympics, competitors, officials, game makers and the great spectators. 

Tracey Mellor

(c) September 2012

Workshops in Fascia Fitness

Today is my first day back to work after my summer break. I've returned refreshed and ready to get on with the next phase of my Fascia Journey. 2 years ago I promised myself that I would devote the next 2 years to investigating fascia research. At first this was a personal interest which I used to inform and inspire my work in the Pilates studio, beyond this I had no great ambition. I enjoyed passing on interesting fascia facts to my clients. I've attended workshops, congress, courses, meetings; read books and research articles. I have met and spoken with many of the men and women leading the fascia revolution, I have been inspired and, in some cases, shocked by the lengths they have gone to further their research.
I have known for a while that fascia can be changed and trained by movement; also if neglected fascia can deteriorate and be easily damaged. Neglected and damaged fascia effects our ability to move without pain. I know that Robert Schleip and Divo Muller have been teaching courses on how to keep our fascia fit, and I have attend several of them in London and Germany. The principals are simple to grasp once a basic understanding of fascia is obtained. The principals can be layered on top of existing exercise or movement systems. For the last 2 years I have been applying these principals to Pilates. This has involved a certain amount of creativity which has been fun for everyone involved. The idea for this blog was born out of the want to record and share the experiences of applying these principals to the Pilates system.
Earlier this year I wanted to make sure that my way of applying the principals to the Pilates system was in line with the Fascia Fitness Association's standards and made a series of videos. A compilation of short clips I set to 'bounce' music for a bit of fun and gifted it to Robert and Divo when I met them in Canada at the Fascia Research Congress. I have attached this private video to this blog for information/education and not for public publication or reproduction. Following the video's and because of the level of my interest in Fascia research and it's application to movement I was awarded a qualification to teach teachers about Fascial Fitness.
In truth I have been daunted by the amount of information which needs to be imparted, where to start?
Preparation of workshop material has now begun.
Workshops will be presented on 3 levels:-

Introduction-   Understanding Fascia and Fascial research .

Application-    Understanding Tensegrity, Myofascial Meridians, lines of tension and elasticity in the body,sensory ability of Fascia and the importance of hydration on Fascia.

Fascial Fitness- Application of Fascial Fitness principals to movement/exercise for the enthusiast,instructor and educator of instructors.

Enjoy the video- it was made for fun.

Tracey Mellor
(c) August 2012