How spongy are you? 50 day blog - day 34

I used to struggle to get my head around the fact that the human body is almost 2/3rd water. I just couldn't picture it. I could imagine the fluidity of our blood and plasma but not where the rest of the water was or could be held.

But if we consider how a sponge works and relate this to the body then it becomes easier to imagine how water works in our tissues. Healthy fascia has a lovely 'juicy' quality to it and the sponge analogy can help explain this. 

Imagine first a well hydrated but slightly dirty sponge. Wring it out and the excess liquid runs out, the dirt with it. The sponge then rebounds back into shape. You can move it a lot, squeeze it, twist it, knead it and it will rebound with spring and resilience. This is like healthy fascia. It is juicy and well hydrated and can be moved in many directions with a springiness to it. It bounces back to into shape relatively easy. Just as the wringing out cleans the sponges, so too does moving clean out the toxins held within the fascia (we sweat or pee the liquid out). 

Now imagine a dried out dirty sponge. It is brittle and more vulnerable to areas potentially breaking or ripping off. It takes longer to get the sponge soaked and more and more wringing to get the dirt out of it. This is like unhealthy fascia. It is hard and immobile and retains toxins. 

So what would you do with the second sponge. Well, you'd potentially throw it away, but I'm guessing that's not what you want to do with your body! Most likely you'd soak it in clean water and then keep wringing it out and rinsing it until it became clean again. The dried out sponge has become the way it was because it wasn't getting used and moved or getting any water through out. 

Can you see, on a global scale in your body, how clean water and movement help to keep you healthy?

Now, in all of us there will be localised areas of this harder, dehydrated fascia. It is an inevitable part of life. Until we move or hydrate it, it will stay that way. BUT, they can be moved! Doing so and hydrating these areas can do wonders for your overall health and vitality. I forget the exact quote and who said it, but someone once said that we don't get old, we just get dried out (I will find the quote and quotee). Wouldn't it be nice to 'dry out' at a much slower pace and delay the 'ageing' process??  Although drinking a good amount of water every day will help you overall, it won't get into these stuck areas without the water channels being opened up. It's a bit like irrigation.

Those areas in your body where you feel tight, stiff and generally a bit inflexible are where you are most likely to have areas of fascia like the 'neglected sponge'. The very areas that you may feel you aren't able to move, are EXACTLY the areas that you HAVE to get moving. But this needs to be done carefully, with patience and persistence. Disciplines such as yoga and pilates are good for getting moving these areas. A good class or one to one teacher will literally help you get into the nooks and crannies and get them moving better. 

Such movement is one way of wringing the sponges out, so to speak. Fascia release work is another. Going to a myofascia release practitioner is a good way to get specific areas worked on for you and to benefit from the eye and skill of a specialised practitioner. But you can do some general work yourself, with rollers and balls. 

Rollers, balls and fascia release deserve to be the subject of a whole blog post, so let me pick up from there there tomorrow. 

So, til tomorrow then.... :-)

CT :-) x

Related blogs:
Fascia Fascia Fascia
Here's Where We Start With Fascia
What Fascia Likes, What Fascia Don't Likes
Fascia Rock N Roll