Yoga has been around for a few thousand years. Within this discipline we have come to understand ourselves from a spiritual perspective. For many, yoga has become a belief system and a way of understanding the body and the world in which we live.

Science is a relatively new way of perceiving our world. Our rational and analytical way of thinking is only a few hundred years old by comparison. While similar in many respects both yoga and science offer a very different view of the body. Combined together, both viewpoints might give us more insight than each one individually.

The human body is such a marvelous creation. It is both complex and very easy to grasp. There are many systems that work independently. Each system has its own function and serves its own purpose while supporting other systems.

Science offers us a perspective of physical soft and hard tissue. Yoga relies on its lines of energy and concept of Chi to guide us. The goal of science has been to dissect us into many parts. Yoga's strength is to bring us back to wholeness. Each perspective can enhance our ability to understand ourselves even more.

What Science has Brought us

Within the body there are many types of cells. Some of these cells might be brain cells, muscle cells, and nerve cells. There are also connective tissue cells. Connective tissue can appear in many shapes and sizes. Bone is a form of connective tissue. Cartilage and the membranes around red blood cells are also forms of connective tissue. Fascia and tendons are also part of the connective tissue physiology.

Connective tissue is a relatively recent discovery. The importance of connective tissue is just beginning to be realized. While connective tissue may take on many forms the common thread that holds all of connective tissue together is that it is a gelatin based substance with cells and fiber within it.

For instance, bone is made of this gelatin substance, called ground substance or matrix. There are mineral deposits within this gelatin to give bone its hardness. Calcium is the main mineral within the connective tissue structure. Bone also has some cells and many fibers, the majority being collagen fibers. Because of this bone is very dense and hard. Blood and lymph, also forms of connective tissue, have many cells and few fibers within its gelatin-like matrix. This helps to create more of a fluid form than that of bone. The type of connective tissue is determined by this ratio of cells to fiber and density of ground substance.

Fascia, sometimes referred to as as called connective tissue proper, consists of this gelatin matrix and cells. Along with this mixture, are many collagen fibers for strength, (white fibers), and elastin fibers for flexibility, (yellow fibers).

There are many roles for fascia. One of the most obvious roles is that fascia is a container. Fascia surrounds fluid and is a boundary for the liquid in our body. If we did not have fascia we would leak out all over the place. Every cell is compartmentalized by fascia. We are also supported, bound together, and held upright by the tensile strength of fascia. We would be just a puddle of liquid and a bag of bones lying on the floor if it weren't for fascia.

Fascia can be compared to that of an orange. When an orange is sliced in half you will notice quite a bit of white material. Each slice of the orange is compartmentalized by the white fibers. Fascia does the same thing in our body. In addition, each tiny sack of juice would be surrounded by more fascia in order to keep the liquid from draining out. All of the white fibrous material, including that around the individual juice compartments, would be fascia.

Fascia cells were some of the first cells to be produced when we were born. A heart or a brain first needs to have a container that holds them in place. Fascia facilitates that role. Our cells continue to grow and multiply and are held in place due to the containment properties of fascia.

Under our old model of thinking we were taught to believe that our skeleton was responsible for holding us up. But if our skeleton were to hold us up we would not be able to move. In fact, it is our fascia that holds us upright. Fascia functions like a guy wire, providing tensile strength in all directions. This is how we are kept uplifted. Fascia works like the cables of a suspension bridge. The bridge is held up by the tension of the cables. The pillars only act as a place to anchor unto. This occurs in a similar fashion within our body. Our bones act as spacers between the fascia and as a place for the muscles and fascia to connect unto.

Many of us were taught to believe that our skeleton is what holds us upright. This is the column theory of engineering. This is how most buildings are built. But if this were our reality, and we did function like a column, then we would never be able to lift our leg or move our knee. The gravitational force would cause all of our joints to collapse onto each other from all of the weight from above. Buildings built from the column method do not move very well.

Fascia creates a system o cables and pulleys that provide lift and movement. Our bodies are not built like a skyscraper, one column stacked on top of the other. Instead, we function like a well-orchestrated system of cables, consisting of fascia wrapped around muscles. We are much like a suspension bridge than a column. The muscles are like tiny motors that provide the movement and the fascia creates the tension to hold us upright.

The body is like a honeycomb of fascia from head to toe. Magically injecting a poison through the body to dissolve all of the bone, nerves, and muscles, you would have left an enormous amount of connective tissue. Fascia would be the vast majority of this connective tissue.

We are connected together because of this vast, spider web-like network of fascia, which travels through our entire body like a heavy sweater. Tugging gently in the middle of tech back one may be able to feel how the frontal sinus cavities are affected. A traumatic injury to the ankle may create tension around the ears. Fascia travels everywhere and is responsible for connecting all of the parts of the body.

Predominantly liquid in nature fascia provides a medium for our organs to float within and our bones to have something to attach to. If we were to expand on this idea and take it to its extreme we would notice that the body is not really a set of columns that are stacked on top of each other as our 7th grade science teacher would have wanted us to believe. This is an old myth. The body is much more like a ball of fluid with our organs, bones, and muscles all floating within.

Fascia anchors our intestines to our rib cage. Fascia membranes anchor the brain to the skull and minimize movement. Fascia is also responsible for encapsulating every bone and organ. Fascia is also responsible for encapsulating every bone and organ. Fascia that wraps around the heart is called the pericardium. The fascia which covers bone is called the periosteum. The fascia that covers muscle tissue is called perimysium. It is the role of fascia to wrap around every muscle belly, muscle spindle, and the myofibril. Fascia not only wraps around muscles and organs but travels through them.

Fascia is important because it has the ability to change shape. When heat is applied to the gelatin matrix, which forms the basis for fascia, will liquefy. While in a liquid state the fascia can then be stretched and elongated, somewhat like pulling taffy. That is why the human body is much more like a ball of dough that can be molded than a rigid cement-like structure.

The joys of yoga.

The world of yoga has brought us many unique concepts and techniques in order to guide us through our world. On of these valuable gifts has been the development, over time, of the hatha yoga postures. These postures and specific movement and breath techniques can become vital in the maintenance of our health and wellness.

This gelatin matrix of our fascia can be changed by the application of heat and stretching. Heat applied through pressure, as in connective tissue bodywork, or in our own muscle activity, as in hatha yoga practice, will liquefy the fascia. Muscle activity creates heat and stretch. Yoga poses act as a system of pulleys to stretch our fascia once it is warmed up. The fascia is then stretched, through bodywork or through the muscles' own force of action while practicing a yoga pose. The fascia then becomes like taffy being pulled.

Using this approach, heating and stretching fascia by muscle activity from a yoga posture, the body can be shaped and carved like a clay statuette. As the muscles are stretched and fascia elongated a person will actually grow taller and such ailments as scoliosis can be corrected. Not only is the skeletal muscular system affected but our internal organs as well. Yoga helps to stretch open our organs, allowing the fascia around each organ to be lengthier. More space for the organs to operate more efficiently is the result. Yoga postures become our tool to recreate our bodies each day as we warm up, stretch, and reshape our fascia.

Most of the traditional exercises that many of us have been taught will emphasize hardening and shortening the body. Yoga poses are different. Yoga will stress the lengthening and expanding of our body. Not just are our muscles lengthened but our entire network of fascia. By holding poses for a length of time allows this internal heat to melt and dissolve the hardness of our fascia. Over time, with a continued practice, we can changes the shape of our body, like an artist carving a statue. We do not have to end up shortened and compacted as we age. Because of our fascia's ability to change shape we can utilize our yoga practice to continue to expand in our body.

Yoga is much more than a series of poses to exercise to. Yoga sends shock waves to the core of our being to energize and lengthen our fascia tissue. If you were to just focus on perfection while in the poses you may miss the true benefits of yoga. Perfection causes stress. Stress causes tightness in musculature and then in fascia tissue. A perfectionist, even at yoga, may actually be causing more hardness and tightness in the fascia tissue. Instead, relax into every pose. Do not push yourself beyond your edge. Be patient and allow your muscles and fascia to warm up and then receive the stretch.

Fascia and Energy

Another gift that the yoga world has given to us has been our understanding of Chi, or vital energy. Chi is the electrical energy which travels to each and every cell in our body. Yoga has broadened our concept of lines of energy and meridians. We visualize our major energy centers in what have been called Chakras.

Unbeknownst to the yogis many years ago, our fascia system travels throughout our entire body as a conduit for energy. In fact, it may just very well be that it is our fascia that the yogis were trying to describe as our meridian and energy flow. Without the benefits of science they described this system the only way they knew how.

Fascia acts like copper wire to transport the Chi or life force energy through it. Our body becomes energized due to the Chi traveling through the fascia network. The condition of the fascia will affect the flow of energy through our body. Unhealthy and hardened fascia does not transport energy very efficiently. This would be like trying to send and electric current through a rubber tire. It will not work very well. There is too much resistance for the electrons to flow.

Yoga also offers us the theory of "lines of energy". This concept teaches us to feel the direct pull through the body. When lined up correctly in a pose these lines of pull can be felt. This concept directly translates to the idea of fascia. There are specific lines which act as stabilizers in the body and also as energetic conduits. Yoga and science are both on the right track.

Fascia can also be responsible for the containment or the spreading of the disease. Fascia is the network in which energy travels. If disease is present in a specific area then fascia will compartmentalize and contain it from spreading. This will happen if the fascia is healthy. Diseased fascia, however, will tend to spread infectious disease throughout the body because of its lack of containment properties and the fact that fascia travels to every cell in the body.

Fascia and Aging

Throughout our lifetime most of us begin to stiffen and to shrink with age. This does not have to happen. The health our our fascia will determine the state or our body as we age. A person who continues to move regularly, especially with expanding movement like yoga, will continue to keep his or her fascia healthy and alive. Fascia requires movement, warmth, and adequate hydration to remain healthy.

The accumulation of days does little to age our body. Aging is mostly determined by what we do with those days. Someone who practices yoga regularly will have more likely hood of changing the fascia to be more expansive and fluid like, allowing greater excess of energy or Chi to flow through the body. Lack of movement, or movement that is contractive in nature, will only lead to stiffness and deadened fascia.

Insufficient muscle activity leads to the fascia drying out and becoming rubber like or brittle. Contractive movements in excess can affect the fascia in an adverse way also. Back and forth movement that is both repetitive and machinelike is not best for fascia. Movement that is contractive and tends to tighten the body up will lead to the demise of the fascia in the long term.

Regular muscle activity keeps the muscles warm and this will keep fascia healthy. Movement that is expansive, like yoga, and regular in its application, will be a better recipe for healthy fascia tissue.

Immobility is death for fascia. Fascia tends to glue together over time due to lack of mobility. This is a process called hydrogen bonding. Lack of muscle movement and increased pressure will stiffen and adhere the surrounding fascia to each other. One might feel stiff all over as if glued together. This might feel as if you had cement throughout your body. Another factor in the hydrogen bonding process is stress. Because stress tends to shorten muscles in a manner of protection from fear, the hydrogen bonding process is furthered along.

When our fascia becomes glued together in the hydrogen bonding process other complications may result. For instance, the neck region consists of many compartments and layers. Large blood vessels lead up to the head, as in the carotid artery. the esophagus and trachea are in this region. So are glands, like the thyroid gland. Within this very delicate area there are many muscles which crisscross about. Each muscle, gland, blood vessel, and nerve is surrounded by fascia. There is fascia between the layers of muscle. As fascia dries out and glues together all the tissues and organs within this region get pulled tighter. Difficulty swallowing food might become a result of this. Blood flow may be reduced to the head. The thyroid gland may be affected because of the hardening of the fascia.

But there is hope. Regular expansive movement, like yoga, intended to warm the muscles which in turn heat the gelatin matrix in the surrounding fascia, will help to maintain the fluid like nature of the fascia instead of turing it to rubber. Connective tissue bodywork and learning to reduce stress level are also some ways to keep the fascia healthy.

Lack of regular movement is an automatic poison to the fascia. Regular movement that is contractive or is designed to tighten or harden the body is not much better. A "hard body" is not necessarily a healthy body when it comes to your fascia from losing its liquid nature and from gluing together. Remaining vigilant to stay fully hydrated is also an important consideration while maintaining the health of your fascia.

Science and yoga are now meeting at the crossroads. They both bring us a different perspective on who we are. They both offer a unique perspective. Separately they offer us understanding. Collaborating together we have a vision for a new future.

We do not have to shrink with age nor glue together and become brittle. Our spine does not have to shrink and compress. Our fascia does not have to harden. We will all age. How we age becomes the critical fact.

Examining our commitment each and every day will help to determine the nature of our fascia. To stop moving in an expansive fashion and remaining idle will only harden and shrink us. Doing nothing to reduce your stress levels will shorten your muscles and our fascia will harden. The choice is yours. What is your commitment today?

By Jon Burras, a Tarzana based Yoga Therapist, Bodymind Therapist, and body worker who specializes in Connective Tissue Bodywork.