Fascia is a thin band-like sheet of connective tissues primarily containing collagen which lies beneath the skin and whose main purpose is to attach, enclose or separate the muscles and other internal organs. Fascia has nerves making it as sensitive as the skin. Fascia is present throughout your body and that’s why it is very important to take good care of it.
Fascia is divided into four parts – structural, intersectoral, visceral, and spinal. All these four kinds are interconnected with each other. When your fascia is healthy it keeps the body flexible, movement supple, and easy to glide. On the other hand, when it is not healthy, the fascia is sticky, clumpy, tight, and flaky. All this is caused by a sedentary lifestyle, poor posture, dehydration, stress, inadequate sleep, bad eating habits, and exhausting muscles.
Yoga is a perfect remedy to keep your fascia healthy and ultimately keep your body and internal organs in good health. Yoga provides the necessary stretch, elasticity, and healing for the wear and tear of your fascia. You can consult your doctor and an expert yoga instructor to start your yoga remedy to treat fascia issues to witness its wonderful effects in treating the fascia conditions.
What does a healthy fascia do?
Improves body symmetry and alignment
Induces blood flow resulting in faster recovery from injuries
Increases collagen production resulting in reduced stretch marks and cellulite
Reduces risk of injury and tissue breakdown
Improved sports performance and less day to day pain
Yoga remedies to keep your fascia healthy-
Stretches to release muscle tension
Daily stretches with yoga pose like the tadasana, trikonasana or bitilasana & marjarasana helps to release tension from the muscles and also elongate them. Don’t overstretch, stop when you start feeling the pain. A set of 10 suryanamaskara is also very good practice to give your whole body a good exercise.
Get your body alignment correct
Yoga asanas like the veerbhadrasana, vrikshasana is a good practices to correct your body alignment and improve your body posture. Another yoga pose worth mentioning here is the adho mukh svanasana. This pose gives a good stretch from toe to tip of the head, it also facilitates the blood flow towards the face and head, especially helpful in treating the myofascial pain.
Superficial body lines
Give a good massage and stretch to your front, back, and side lines with the help of yoga asanas like ustrasana, parsvakonasana. Similarly, asanas like matyasana are very beneficial in creating a loop around the body on two opposite sides, stretching the spine, releasing the mental and physical stress, opening the hips, and giving a good massage to your throat and endocrine glands.
Relaxing your nerves
Yoga poses like balasana, pashchimottanasana gives a relaxing effect to the whole body. They are kind of restorative poses which gives a relaxing effect to the spine and stimulates the nervous system. The relaxing and restorative properties of balasana are good for your sleep also. So, it is also helpful in internal healing.
Other remedies apart from yoga to treat fascia-
Along with yoga and exercise, there are several other things to be considered to keep your fascia healthy and in good condition. To keep the nervous system active and keep your blood flow at an optimal level always start your day with good stretching and follow your daily routine of exercise. Include yoga and cardio exercises in your day-to-day life. Keep your body hydrated always, as we all know that seventy percent of our body is consist of water. Follow good eating practices like eating nutritious food, avoiding fast food, and having regular meals at fixed times every day.
You can also follow the rolling exercises with props to give a good massage to your legs, and hands, also giving the acupressure treatment. You can also go for hot and cold treatment like steam bath, sauna visit, or even cryotherapy to reduce the pain and inflammation. Always prefer the warmup before any yoga or cardio exercise session to avoid further pain or injury.
Still, it is always advisable to take the help of your doctor and undergo the required medical treatment along with these yogic remedies to get full relief from the issues related to the fascia.