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Fascial Fitness

Fascia oriented training for bodywork and

movement therapies

Divo G Müller, Robert Schleip

Fascial Fitness

Fascial Remodelling

When a football player is not able to take the field be-

cause of a recurrent calf spasm, a tennis star gives up

early on a match due to knee problems or a sprinter

limps across the finish line with a torn Achilles tendon,

the problem is most often neither in the musculature or

the skeleton. Instead, it is the structure of the connec-

tive tissue – ligaments, tendons, joint capsules, etc. –

which have been loaded beyond their present capacity

(Renström & Johnson 1985, Counsel & Breidahl 2010).

A focused training of the fascial network could be of

great importance for athletes, dancers and other move-

ment advocates. If one‘s fascial body is well trained,

that is to say optimally elastic and resilient, then it can

be relied on to perform effectively and at the same time

to offer a high degree of injury prevention. Until now,

most of the emphasis in sports training has been fo-

cused on the classical triad of muscular strength, cardi-

ovascular conditioning, and neuromuscular coordina-

tion. Some alternative physical training activities - such

as Pilates, yoga, Continuum Movement, Tai Chi, Qi

Gong and martial arts – are already taking the connec-

tive tissue network into account.

A unique characteristic of connective tissue is its im-

pressive adaptability: when regularly put under in-

creasing physiological strain, it changes its architectur-

al properties to meet the demand. For example,

through our everyday biped locomotion the fascia on

the lateral side of the thigh develops a palpable firm-

ness. If we were to instead spend that same amount of

time with our legs straddling a horse, then the opposite

would happen, i.e. after a few months the fascia on the

inner side of the legs would become more developed

and strong (El-Labban et al. 1993). The varied capaci-

ties of fibrous collagenous connective tissues make it

possible for these materials to continuously adapt to

the regularly occurring strain, particularly in relation to

changes in length, strength and ability to shear. Not

only the density of bone changes, as for example in as-

tronauts who spend most time in zero gravity, their

The importance of fasciae is often specifically dis-

cussed; however the modern insights of fascia research

have often not been specifically included in our work.

In this article, we suggest that in order to build up an

injury resistant and elastic fascial body network, it is

essential to translate current insights of fascia research

into a practical training program. Our intention is to

encourage massage, bodywork, and movement thera-

pists, as well as sports trainers to incorporate the basic

principles presented in this article, and to apply them

to their specific context.

Figure 1. Increased elastic storage capacity. Regular oscilla-

tory exercise, such as daily rapid running, induces a higher storage

capacity in the tendinous tissues of rats, compared with their non-

running peers. This is expressed in a more spring-like recoil move-

ment as shown on the left. The area between the respective loading

versus unloading curves represents the amount of 'hysteresis': the

smaller hysteresis of the trained animals (green) reveals their more

'elastic' tissue storage capacity; whereas the larger hysteresis of their

peers signifies their more 'visco-elastic' tissue properties, also called

inertia . Illustration modified after Reeves 2006.

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Fascial Fitness

bones become more porous; fascial tissues also reacts to

their dominant loading patterns. With the help of the

fibroblasts, they react to everyday strain as well as to

specific training; steadily remodelling the arrangement

of their collagenous fibre network. For example, with

each passing year half the collagen fibrils are replaced in

a healthy body.

collagenous structures (Kubo et al. 2003).

The Catapult Mechanism: Elas-

tic Recoil of Fascial Tissues

Kangaroos can hop much farther and

faster than can be explained by the force

of the contraction of their leg muscles.

Under closer scrutiny, scientists discovered that a spring

-like action is behind the unique ability: the so-called

catapult mechanism (Kram & Dawson 1998). Here the

tendons and the fascia of the legs are tensioned like

elastic bands. The release of this stored energy is what

makes the amazing hops possible. Hardy surprising,

scientist thereafter found the same mechanism is also

used by gazelles. These animals are also capable of per-

forming impressive leaping as well as running, though

their musculature is not especially powerful. On the

contrary, gazelles are generally considered to be rather

delicate, making the springy ease of their incredible

jumps all the more interesting.

The intention of fascial fitness is to influence this re-

placement via specific training activities which will, af-

ter 6 to 24 months, result in a ‗silk-like bodysuit‘ which

is not only strong but also allows for a smoothly gliding

joint mobility over wide angular ranges.

Interestingly, the fascial tissues of young people show

stronger undulations within their collagen fibres, remi-

niscent of elastic springs; whereas in older people the

collagen fibres appear as rather flattened (Staubesand et

al. 1997). Research has confirmed the previously opti-

mistic assumption that proper exercise loading – if ap-

plied regularly - can induce a more youthful collagen

architecture, which shows a more wavy fibre arrange-

ment (Wood et al. 1988, Jarniven et al. 2002) and which

also expresses a significant increased elastic storage ca-

pacity (Figure 1) (Reeves et al. 2006). However, it seems

to matter which kind of exercise movements are ap-

plied: a controlled exercise study using slow velocity and

low load contractions only demonstrated an increase in

muscular strength and volume, however it failed to

yield any change in the elastic storage capacity of the

Through high resolution ultrasound examination, it is

now possible to discover similar orchestration of load-

ing between muscle and fascia in human movement.

Surprisingly it has been found that the fasciae of human

have a similar kinetic storage capacity to that of kanga-

roos and gazelles (Sawicki et al. 2009). This is not only

made use of when we jump or run but also with simple

walking, as a significant part of the energy of the move-

ment comes from the same springiness described above.

Figure 2. Length changes of fascial elements and muscle fibres in an oscillatory movement with elastic recoil properties

(A) and in conventional muscle training (B). The elastic tendinous (or fascial) elements are shown as springs, the myo-fibres as

straight lines above. Note that during a conventional movement (B) the fascial elements do not change their length significantly while the

muscle fibres clearly change their length. During movements like hopping or jumping however the muscle fibres contract almost isometri-

cally while the fascial elements lengthen and shorten like an elastic yoyo spring. Illustration adapted from Kawakami et al. 2002.

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Fascial Fitness

Figure 3. Collagen architecture responds to loading . Fasciae of young people express more often a clear two-directional (lattice)

orientation of their collagen fibre network. In addition the individual collagen fibres show a stronger crimp formation. As evidenced by ani-

mal studies, application of proper exercise can induce an altered architecture with increased crimp-formation. Lack of exercise on the other

hand, has been shown to induce a multidirectional fibre network and a decreased crimp formation.

This new discovery has led to an active revision of long

accepted principles in the field of movement science.

energy transfer is still true for steady movements such

as cycling. Here the muscle fibres actively change in

length, while the tendons and aponeuroses barely grow

longer (Figure 2). The fascial elements remain quite

passive. This is in contrast to oscillatory movements

with an elastic spring quality in which the length of the

muscle fibres changes slightly. Here, it is the muscle

fibres contract in an almost isometric fashion (they stiff-

en temporarily without any significant change of their

length) while the fascial elements function in an elastic

way with a movement similar to that of a yoyo. Here, it

is the lengthening and shortening of the fascial elements

that ‗produces‘ the actual movement (Fukunaga et al.

2002, Kawakami et al. 2002).

In the past it was assumed that in a muscular joint

movement, the skeletal muscles involved shorten and

this energy passes through passive tendons which re-

sults in the movement of the joint. This classical form of

Work by Staubesand et al. (1997) suggested that the

elastic movement quality in young people is associated

with a typical bi-directional lattice arrangement of their

fasciae, similar to a woman‘s stocking. In contrast, as we

Figure 4. Loading of different fascial components.

A) Relaxed position: The myo-fibres are relaxed and the muscle is at

normal length. None of the fascial elements is being stretched.

B) Usual muscle work: myo-fibres contracted and muscle at normal

length range. Fascial tissues which are either arranged in series with

the myo-fibres or transverse to them are loaded.

C) Classical stretching: myo-fibres relaxed and muscle elongated.

Fascial tissues oriented parallel to the myo-fibres are loaded as well

as extra-muscular connections. However, fascial tissues oriented in

series with the myo-fibres are not sufficiently loaded, since most of

the elongation in that serially arranged force chain is taken up by the

relaxed myo-fibres.

D) Actively loaded stretch: muscle active and loaded at long end

range. Most of the fascial components are being stretched and stimu-

lated in that loading pattern. Note that various mixtures and combi-

nations between the four different fascial components exist. This

simplified abstraction serves as a basic orientation only.

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Fascial Fitness

Figure 5. Training example: The Flying Sword A) Tension the bow: the preparatory counter movement (pre-stretch) initiates the

elastic-dynamic spring in an anterior and inferior direction. Free weights can also be used. B) To return to an upright position, the

‘catapulting back fascia’ is loaded as the upper body is briefly bounced dynamically downwards followed by an elastic swing back up. The

attention of the person doing the exercise should be on the optimal timing and calibration of the movement in order to create the smoothest

movement possible.

age and usually loose the springiness in our gait, the

fascial architecture takes on a more haphazard and mul-

tidirectional arrangement. Animal experiments have

also shown that lack of movement quickly fosters the

development of additional cross links in fascial tissues.

The fibres lose their elasticity and do not glide against

one another as they once did; instead they become stuck

together and form tissue adhesions, and in the worst

cases they actually become matted together (Figure 3)

(Jarvinen et al. 2002).

transverse fibres across the muscular envelope are stim-

ulated as well. However, little effect can be expected on

extra-muscular fasciae as well as on those intramuscular

fascial fibres that are arranged in parallel to the active

muscle fibres (Huijing 1999).

Classical Hatha yoga stretches on the other side will

show little effect on those fascial tissues which are ar-

ranged in series with the muscle fibres, since the relaxed

myo-fibres are much softer than their serially arranged

tendinous extensions and will therefore ‗swallow‘ most

of the elongation (Jami 1992). However, such stretching

provides good stimulation for fascial tissues which are

hardly reached with classical muscle training, such as

the extra-muscular fasciae and the intramuscular fasci-

ae oriented in parallel to the myo-fibres. Finally, a dy-

namic muscular loading pattern in which the muscle is

both activated and extended promises a more compre-

hensive stimulation of fascial tissues. This can be

achieved by muscular activation (e.g. against resistance)

in a lengthened position while requiring small or medi-

um amounts of muscle force only. Soft elastic bounces

in the end ranges of available motion can also be utilized

The goal of the proposed fascial fitness training is to

stimulate fascial fibroblasts to lay down a more youthful

and kangaroo-like fibre architecture. This is done

through movements that load the fascial tissues over

multiple extension ranges while utilizing their elastic

springiness.

Figure 4 illustrates different fascial elements affected by

various loading regimes. Classical weight training loads

the muscle in its normal range of motion, thereby

strengthening the fascial tissues which are arranged in

series with the active muscle fibres. In addition the

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Fascial Fitness

Figure 6. Training example: Elastic Wall Bounces. Imitating the elastic bounces of a kangaroo soft bouncing movements off a wall

are explored in standing. Proper pre-tension in the whole body will avoid any collapsing into a ‘banana posture’. Making the least sound

and avoiding any abrupt movement qualities are imperative. Only with the mastery of these qualities a progression into further load in-

creases – e.g. bouncing off a table or window sill instead of a wall – can eventually be explored by stronger individuals. E.g. this person

should not yet be permitted to progress to higher loads, as his neck and shoulder region already show slight compression on the left picture.

for that purpose. The following guidelines are developed

to make such training more efficient.

is shifted in this direction.

The opposite is true for straightening up – the mover

activates the catapult capacity of the fascia through an

active pre-tensioning of the fascia of the back. When

standing up from a forward bending position, the mus-

cles on the front of the body are first briefly activated.

This momentarily pulls the body even further forward

and down and at the same time the fascia on the poste-

rior fascia is loaded with greater tension.

Training Principles

1. Preparatory Counter-movement

Here we make use of the catapult effect as described

above. Before performing the actual movement, we start

with a slight pre-tensioning in the opposite direction.

This is comparable with using a bow to shoot an arrow;

just as the bow has to have sufficient tension in order

for the arrow to reach its goal, the fascia becomes active-

ly pre-tensioned in the opposite direction. Using one‘s

muscle power to ―push the arrow‖ would then rightfully

be seen as foolish, in this extreme example of an elastic

recoil movement. In a sample exercise called the flying

sword , the pre-tensioning is achieved as the body‘s axis

is slightly tilted backward for a brief moment; while at

the same time there is an upward lengthening (Figure

5). This increases the elastic tension in the fascial body-

suit and as a result allows the upper body and the arms

to spring forward and down like a catapult as the weight

The energy which is stored in the fascia is dynamically

released via a passive recoil effect as the upper body

‗swings‘ back to the original position. To be sure that the

individual is not relying on muscle work, but rather on

dynamic recoil action of the fascia, requires a focus on

timing – much the same as when playing with a yoyo. It

is necessary to determine the ideal swing, which is ap-

parent when the action is fluid and pleasurable.

2. The Ninja Principle

This principle is inspired by the legendary Japanese

warriors who reputedly moved as silent as cats and left

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