Fascia forms a biomechanical and communicative medium throughout the kinetic chain. Imagine the skeleton. Ligaments provide connections between the bones of the skeleton to form joints, and tendons join muscles to the bones to form levers.
Joints are encased by tough connective tissue called joint capsules. Bones are wrapped in a fascial sheath. This sheath is continuous with the capsules, ligaments, and tendons, which are continuous with muscle tissue – which is again wrapped in a fascial sheath. The entire fascial organ exists as a single web of connective tissue, and forms a set of fascial planes throughout the body where our organs and viscera hang – just like a basket.
Fascia’s existence allows the primal rotational pattern to function because it unifies all the structures within a complex set of length-tension relationships. These relationships allow the entire web to change shape when we move in any direction, and are also responsible for allowing us to return to a base level ground state.
In order for the movement of the primal rotational pattern to take place, fascia has to be able to slide upon itself when our muscles contract, and expand or stretch when our muscles lengthen. The quality of this function is based on the level of trauma we have in the fascial web. The higher the trauma, the lesser the function.
This biomechanical trauma has real-world implications for our well-being. When the web is damaged, movement cannot occur. When movement does not occur, we get stuck, and it is biomechanical, metaphysical, and psychological.