Make Your Fitness Routine Fascia Friendly With These 6 Tips

If our fascia is an overlooked regulator of so many foundational aspects of wellness, how do we take better care of it? What can we do to improve its pliability and resilience so that it can fill its many functions effectively?

At first glance, the answer appears to be simple: “Take a look at the list of activities that are said to improve fascial health,” King says. “Hydration, stretching, stress reduction, deep breathing. It sounds a lot like regular training.”

Still, he adds, the new science of fascia can help us home in on exactly the types of movement and self-care we should do regularly. What follows are six considerations to make your routine more fascia friendly.

1) KEEP MOVING.

You’ve heard that sitting is hard on the body. Too much of it may increase your risk of developing chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. Sitting can also affect your fascia. When you’re seated for long periods, the tissues at the front of your hips, where the muscles are shortened, tighten excessively, while those in your midback, where the muscles are extended, thicken and lose elasticity.

Research suggests that, over a period of several minutes to several days, fascia doesn’t just stiffen passively but shortens and contracts actively, like muscle tissue moving in slow motion. Over time, it can feel as if you’re wearing a skintight suit with kinks in your hips, shoulders, ankles, and spine — the very places you want your body to move freely. Sit for a few hours on occasion and it’s no big deal; a few stretches can unkink you in a couple of minutes. Stay seated for hours a day for weeks on end, and your fascia becomes tougher to stretch out.

So don’t get stuck in a sitting position — or any position — for too long. If you work a desk job, move around: Use a standing desk or walking pad, toggle between a standing desk and a sitting desk, or take breaks to stand and move for a couple of minutes every hour.

2. MIX IT UP.

Repeating the same movement over and over — even a beneficial one — can have many of the same effects as staying sedentary. “With repeated asymmetrical movement, you often see tightness from one shoulder to the opposite hip,” says Harvey.

Think of pickleball, tennis, and boxing: These activities force the torso to rotate primarily in one direction and much less in the other.

Even repetitive movements that are generally symmetrical — say, strength training — can cause the fascia to thicken and shorten in ways that can limit movement. Pushups, for example, can lead to stiffness of the fascia across the upper chest. So, if you do a lot of pushing movements, add some pulling to the mix. If you run, also swim. Yoga, tai chi, and primal workouts can encourage you to rotate, twist, and bend to the side. Variety irons out imbalances.

3) GO GLOBAL.

Single-joint isolation exercises — think dumbbell curls and lateral raises — build muscle and strength. But they don’t take full advantage of the power and efficiency of your myofascial system. Make your gym workouts more fascia focused by adding an upper-body component to a lower-body move (a reach to a lunge, or a press to a squat) or a rotation to an upper-body move (turning your upper body while performing standing curls or presses).

4) BOUNCE.

You’ve likely been warned not to bounce when you stretch. When you’re doing your deepest lunge in a yoga class, this is good advice: At their most extreme lengths, muscles and connective tissue are vulnerable.

But moving in and out of a gentle stretch — a technique known as dynamic stretching, which includes arm circles, forward kicks, and straight-leg walks, for example — could be one of the best things you can do for your fascia, says King. Up-and-down movements like jumping jacks, pogo hops, jumping rope, plyometrics, and bouncing on a mini trampoline have a similar effect: You’ll warm and hydrate all the nooks and crannies along your fascial lines.

5) WORK YOUR TISSUE.

We’ve long known that massage feels good. But what exactly it does to our tissues is an open question. One possibility is that compressing a muscle encourages the adhesions in your fascia to relax, explains Harvey.

It’s also a simple way to circulate some key fluids, like hyaluronic acid and lymph, he adds. When you press on a muscle, you force fluid out of the tissue, much like squeezing a sponge. As the muscle resumes its normal shape, fresh fluids rush in, hyd­rating and loosening the tissues.

In addition to massage, consider trying other bodywork techniques, like Rolfing; healing modal­ities, like cupping and acupuncture; and self-myofascial release, using foam rollers, massage guns, or even a tennis ball.