Almost three weeks ago after a short jog I felt a sharp pain in my left heel. I kept trying to think back to the run and I couldn't remember when it started. In fact, I never noticed it until I got back home and walked into the door. The next morning after a long sleep, I crawled out of bed and could not bear the pain in my heel. It felt like a severe bruise.
Like most men, I decided to do my own research and self medicate rather than consulting a doctor. Most men are just built that way from birth. Why spend that money for them to guess what is wrong with you even though this pain is common and was easy to diagnose. More information on what I discovered below.
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What I finally concluded was that I had a plantar fascia pain that is caused by a tight fascia band under my heels and arches. My reading on this issue led me to discover more about our bodies and how it performs. The question now is do I have enough information and knowledge to share with you. I'll try!
Within a week of my heel pain I got my latest issue of Men's Health. In this month's issue is a great article on our fascia system and how it works with your muscles.
I grew up on a farm and we raised pigs along with other animals like cows and chickens. In the fall, we always sent some pigs to the market to recoup costs for feed, etc, but we always killed 2 or 3 for our family. If you have ever made sausage or seen it in stores hanging in the market in casings all linked together, this is the best description of how the fascia envelopes our muscles. The fascia is sticky gunk that tightly grips the muscles and binds it to your inner skin.
The interesting part is that it is like a full body sheet and runs from heel to head. It does not just encase one muscle. Until recently, there was little knowledge on its major responsibility for providing flexibility, limberness, and elastic reaction for athletes as well as you and I. After an exercise with weights, I often spend 5-10 minutes stretching. My son usually spends much more time and goes about it with a determined and sometimes pained look on his face. I think I now know why.
The below video is from a Dr Gil Hedley. He tries to treat the topic with some humor but if you get beyond the "fuzz" as he calls the fascia, you can better understand how our bodies operate. For those with weak stomachs in the morning, please beware that Dr Hedley is dealing with a human cadaver and not the pigs we use to butcher on the farm.
Well, I tried several times to embed the video from YouTube but it would never work so I'll just supply the link. If someone who is more knowledgeable than me can look at the embed code and see what needs to be changed, I'll try to edit the diary and embed. Here's the link to Dr Gil Hedley
As we get older, we often lose much of the elastic nature of our fascia. But it can be restored but it takes effort, some pain, and often structural therapy from a professional. How many of us have seen a young baby of 2-4 months lying on their back with a bottle of milk held tightly in their hands. Often their hands tire because the muscles are not strong yet so that react with their feet. They simply lift their feet off the bed and it goes to the bottle and helps support the bottle until they are satisfied. Many babies can actually remove their hand from the bottle and grip it entirely with their feet. A few grown adults like Joseph Pilates may be this limber in their mid-life but the percentage is very very small.
Dr Thomas Myers who is quoted in the Men's Health article says..
"You are fit if you can adapt to the demands of your environment with ease and imagination,"
Isn't that what we all want from our fitness level. To adapt to life's pressures and challenges. Health may be a different issue but fitness is largely limited by fascia and how we have trained or stymed it over the years. Some elite athletes have obviously mastered the training of their fascia to throw a baseball at 100 mph or leave the foul line for a dunk and travel the 15 feet with legs spayed wide and arms outstetched. Look at older films of Michael Jordan or today's Lebron James and watch the hand opposite the ball. As I said, their opposite arms is extended and the fingers are spread wide. Why? Their bodies have learned with practice that they can obtain more height and greater strength for the dunk if they use the full casing of fascia that envelopes our muscles and acts as a rubber band for action if properly trained.
I'll give you one example of the strength of the fascia that is easy to perform. Do a pushup on the floor with your hands clenched or just off the palms of your hand. If you have the "perfect pushup" you are using the palms of your hand. Now do a pushup with your fingers and thumb spread wide and your finger tips actively involved in your support. Use your fingers to push you away from the floor and feel the relief of pressure on your chest. You have activated the full length of the sheath of fascia from your pecs to your finger tips to perform the pushup. No longer is it just your chest heaving you upward.
The thumbs are your strongest digit. Most people who perform texting on a Blackberry use their thumbs. After months of sitting in a chair with your Blackberry texting, these people begin to experience pain in their upper back. Why? Their is a strong link between the thumbs and the muscles in the pecs. This connective fascia has grown stronger and tighter and is now pulling your weaker tissue in your back into a downward and forward strain. Thus you now have back pain. Your posture is out of alignment and you have allowed the "fuzz" or sticky rubbery fascia to bond tightly together and now it restricts your range of motion.
Sit back in your chair right now. Close your eyes and try to shut out all sounds and distractions. Hold your arms out at a 90 degree angle and vigorously move your thumbs in a circular motion. Now concentrate on your pecs and you should feel a slight tinge or tightening in this area. It is not major at all but it is there. They aren't connected by muscles but by your body sheath of fascia.
In some future diary, I may want to talk about some of the pioneers in the study of the fascia or explain how "rolfing" was developed by Dr Ida Rolf as she developed a technique for manipulating the fascia just as the good Doctor Hedley did from inside the cadaver. She developed ways to release the bonding of the fascia and allow a greater range of motion in your life.
The key to this discussion for me is to become more limber and to begin to look at forcing my body to become more than two dimensional in action. I've included a video below that I linked to yesterday after reading a newsletter email from Craig Ballentyne at Turbulence Training.
Many of you here who are adept at Yoga or other limbering type of exercises may know all this already. I hope you will share with us some secrets. I'm still learning about fascia and it has led me to a book out now by Dr James Lyons on The Brown Fat Revolution. I'll explain how they "connect" next week on Monday AM. Thanks for listening and reading. Have a great week!