Wondering what the hype is about fascia? Here’s why it’s so important: When fascial tissue gets tight, your whole body pays the price. Incorporating fascial stretch therapy into your regular fitness routine can help reduce joint pain, improve athletic performance, and increase your range of motion, among other notable health benefits.
Whether you’ve only heard brief mentions of fascia at the gym or you’ve had a fascia release massage and explored fascia blasting, there’s more to understand about this complicated, important part of your body and how to stretch it so you feel your best. DailyOM spoke with experts to find out more about fascial stretching and how to do it correctly.
What Is Fascia and What Does It Do?
To put it simply, fascia is one of the most important, as well as one of the least recognized, systems in the body — the “glue” that holds everything else together. It’s made up of several substances, including collagen, elastin, and reticulin, which help your body stretch, exercise, and move effectively.
“Fascia is a thin casing of connective tissue that wraps around and holds every organ, blood vessel, bone, nerve fiber, and muscle in our body,” Los Angeles-based physical therapist Joey Mattina tells DailyOM. “Think of it like a stretchy cling wrap made of membrane that surrounds all the internal structures and muscles so they move freely alongside each other without friction.”
Fascia is one of the most important systems in the body. Think of it as the glue that holds everything else together.
In other words, it is essential to your overall health and wellness. “Fascia is incredibly important because it’s one of the richest sensory organs in the body,” says celebrity trainer Andrea Orbeck, whose A-list clientele includes Julia Roberts, Emma Roberts, and Gigi Hadid. Orbeck, whom DailyOM spoke with for this story, explains, “It influences our range of motion and our muscle, joint, and organ function, and influences pain. Embedded in fascia are nerve endings and receptors that perceive all of our movements affecting our balance and coordination. These messages are interpreted by our central nervous system, then relayed back to our body.”
Interested in learning more? Check out Fascia Flows to Free Your Body
Why a Healthy Fascia Is Important
If your fascia is strained due to incorrect posture, sports or other injuries, or too much time sitting, it could cause limited mobility, joint pain, and even headaches. According to a study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, a strained fascial system can cause a decrease in your athletic performance, as well as the development of musculoskeletal disorders like back and neck pain. Luckily, researchers in the study concluded that movement and stretching can help reduce inflammation in the fascial tissues, offering pain relief and reversing the effects of fascia damage. Incorporating regular fascia stretches into your daily routine isn’t just a great way to maintain your overall fascia health; it’s also an important step toward preventing future injuries.
Slow, mindful stretching helps in recovery from — and protection against — injuries. It can also offer calming and de-stressing benefits, so fascial stretching work is valuable for your whole self.
5 Easy Fascia Stretches
Here, Orbeck shares this five-step fascia stretch sequence to do daily before your workout to increase your range of motion from head to toe, and to improve aches and pains caused by tight connective tissue. Do these movements slowly and carefully, mindful not to push past what feels okay for your body. A gentle stretching sensation is fine; straining or pain is not.
1. To Stretch the Plantar Fascia: Try a Heel Sit
Plantar fascia is the thick band of fascia that supports the arch on the bottom of the foot. Fascia tightness and dysfunction can lead to plantar fasciitis, but stretching can help alleviate these symptoms, Orbeck says.
Instructions: Kneel on the ground with your shins parallel to the floor. Curl your toes under, then slowly sit back on your heels. Turn your knees outward, placing the emphasis between the toes. Maintain a straight spine and lean back to intensify the stretch. Hold for up to three minutes. You should feel this stretch along the entire arch of your foot.
Modification: If you have knee problems or severe plantar fasciitis, place a towel under your knees for extra support.
2. To Stretch the Posterior Kinetic Chain: Try Downward Dog Posterior Kinetic Chain Stretch
The posterior kinetic chain is made up of the glutes, hamstrings, lumbar spine, and calves. Mobility and flexibility of the posterior kinetic chain enable these muscles to regulate balance, good posture, power, and gait.
Instructions: Start on all fours in a tabletop position. With your hands grounded firmly beneath your shoulders, draw your head down toward your feet as you raise your hips up toward the ceiling to form a triangle, like the Downward Dog yoga pose. Keeping your legs straight, lower your heels toward the ground. This movement will increase pliability and elastic potential, reducing the effects of tight fascia. Return to your starting position and repeat five times, eventually working up to 15.
Modification: If you have wrist or back sensitivity, you can perform this move on your elbows and modify the height of your hips.
3. To Stretch the Back Fascia: Try Upper Back Roller Stretch
This stretch targets all of your back muscles, including rhomboids, rotator cuff, lats, and the erector spine and the fascia that surrounds this hardworking part of your body.
Instructions: Lie on your back on the floor with a foam roller placed horizontally underneath your shoulder blades and your hands behind your head. Bend your knees and put your feet flat on the floor. Lift your hips up off the ground. Push yourself forward and backward with your feet over the foam roller so it travels across most of your upper and lower back. Find tension spots by opening your elbows to stretch across your chest as you move and rotate slightly to the right and left to stretch your lower back.
Modification: Simply keep the foam roller in place horizontally across sections of your back without traveling and stretching over the roller. You can also do this stretch standing up with the roller against a wall.
4. To Stretch the Iliotibial Band Fascia: Try Standing ITB Stretch
The iliotibial band (ITB) is a thick, tendinous fascia that attaches to the outer portion of the hip and descends down to the side of the knee. Heavy activity without mobility can cause the iliotibial band to become tight and inflamed, resulting in iliotibial band syndrome, an aching, burning feeling that spreads from the thigh to the hip.
Instructions: Stand upright and cross the leg you want to stretch behind the front leg with your feet on the floor. Lean away from the front leg until you feel a stretch across the iliotibial band. Some people feel this stretch in the area where their ITB connects to the hip, while others feel it in the knee. Uncross your legs and switch sides. The ITB band is a flat, fibrous, taught structure, which is elusive and harder to target than other muscles. This stretch is extremely beneficial because it increases the iliotibial band’s range of motion.
Modification: If balance is an issue, perform this stretch against a wall and lean into the wall for stability.
5. To Stretch the Hip Fascia: Try Runner’s Lunge Stretch
This stretch helps increase range of motion and mobility around the hip flexors, psoas, and glutes.
Instructions: Start in a push-up position with your hands and the balls of your feet on the floor. Make sure you have good, straight spinal form. Step your right foot so it lands just outside your right hand, resting your knee next to your right shoulder. Hold this position until you feel the front leg stretch the glutes and the back leg stretch the hip flexor. Slightly arch your back with your chest lifted to intensify the stretch. This will help decrease tightness and increase mobility in your fascia.
Modification: If your hips are extremely tight, you can sit on your knee with the back leg or use a chair for stability.
