Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how everybody and everything in our lives is connected. From the people we meet to the things we read to the decisions we make–everything is a network, connected and moving together. The same goes for our bodies. Everything we put into our mouths affects every part of bodies even in some small way. Every exercise we do can affect every muscle and fiber even down to the cellular level. Therefore, it is important to make the right choices when eating and when exercising. Since everything is connected, we can work on one area which should in turn, help another area. For instance, when we focus on our core and engage our abdominal muscles, we are also keeping our spines stable and therefore strengthening our entire core, aligning our spines and helping our posture. Improving our posture can help keep away pain in many areas of the body.
I was speaking with an internationally known and well-respected chiropractor to doctors, physical therapists and other chiropractors who deal with soft-tissue, Warren Hammer (MS, DC, DABCO) who has written several books on soft-tissue and more recently has been focusing on FASCIA. Fascia is a three-dimensional, uninterrupted web of tissue that extends from head to toe, from front to back, from interior to exterior. It acts as a shock absorber to all of our organs and every part of our body. Dr. Hammer has been studying and researching fascia to figure out how to work with the fascia to get rid of back and neck pain that many people experience. He explained to me a little bit about fascia:

The fascial system is becoming more and more recognized by scientists (www.fasciaresearch.com) as a source of pain and dysfunction in the human body.  Fascia literally almost surrounds everything in our bodies.  All of our organs, nerves, blood vessels and muscles are covered by or penetrated by fascia.  If all of these structures were removed we would see a 3 dimensional fascial outline of the body.  When a muscle is stretched it is mostly the fascia around and within the muscle that resists the stretch.
 
This all encompassing structure due to trauma, poor posture, and weakness often becomes tightened and stuck, no longer allowing smooth bodily movements.  Conditions affecting the whole body such as tennis elbow, plantar fasciitis, spinal, hip and knee problems remain chronic until someone who understands the connections of the fascia is able to treat it. 
 
Restricted fascia on the lower right side might be responsible for pain in the opposite left shoulder and chest.  The fascia in our body is totally interconnected and the source of the pain is often distant from the area of complaint.–Dr. Warren Hammer

After Dr. Hammer explained this to me, it made me also think about how acupuncture is also about hitting a certain point in our body to help or heal another point in the body. EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED. In order to tone one part of the body, such as our legs, we must also work on another part of the body, our abs. It is important to think about balance and alignment when doing our exercises. If anything is painful, stop and think about what you can do to correct this. Most of the time, we can stop our back pain during an exercise by engaging our core, bringing the belly to the spine while exhaling. Remember that you can’t just focus on one exercise to get fit. You must CONNECT to every part of the body to get an overall workout. We don’t want our FASCIA to get tightened or stuck. We must practice good posture and keep strengthening our bodies through exercise and lifestyle choices.

Liz Samuel
 

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