According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 50 million adults in the United States are living with chronic pain, which it defines as pain lasting equal to or more than three months. And over 17 million experience high-impact chronic pain, which results in the substantial restriction of daily activities. To make matters worse, some research shows that ongoing physical pain can bring a host of mental and emotional concerns, including increased anxiety and depression.
Interested in learning more? Check out Fascia Micro-Movements to Rewire Pain Patterns.
Our modern, more sedentary lifestyle — in which slumping over screens is the norm — isn’t helpful, either. According to leading sports physiotherapist and DailyOM course creator Erin Fitzgerald, it just might be the leading cause of chronic pain, which can manifest as tightness, tenderness, tension, or soreness due to past injuries or issues with alignment in the feet, low back, shoulder, hips, forearms and hands, jaw, and more. “The chronic strain we experience on a daily basis weakens the body’s fascial supports and stresses the whole system, including the nerves, muscles, and joints,” says Fitzgerald.
Moreover, because the brain-body connection plays a vital role in avoiding pain, she says that stress, depression, and anxiety can cause physical symptoms, especially when your body’s connective tissues (fascia), nerves, and muscles become tight. In essence, it’s a double-edged sword: Pain may cause emotional distress and vice versa.
When you learn how to work with the fascia — the body’s interconnected web of connective tissue — directly and effectively through an intentional practice called fascia stretching, not only can you alleviate chronic physical pain, but also rewire your relationship with pain. Read on to learn more.
An Australia-based sports physical therapist with more than two decades in the field, Erin Fitzgerald loves getting people to a state where they are functioning at their maximal capacity and able to achieve their fitness goals. Her “strength before skills” approach is education first, helping others understand and get in touch with their bodies, as opposed to just doing the exercises.
“I have worked with some of the world’s best athletes — Cirque du Soleil, Olympians, X Games athletes, Red Bull cliff divers — but I particularly love working with ‘ordinary’ people and taking them from the worst moments, in terms of pain and immobility, to achieving their goals without pain,” Fitzgerald says. “Injury prevention is my absolute passion because the majority of overuse injuries can be prevented.”
Fascia is a supportive tissue that surrounds your muscles, tendons, ligaments, organs, tissues, joints, and bones, according to the Cleveland Clinic. In its healthy state, fascia is stretchy and flexible; however, tightness in this tissue can restrict movement and lead to painful health issues.
It’s surprisingly overlooked when it comes to chronic pain, Fitzgerald tells us. “Fascia covers, separates, and connects every part of your body, and forms an immense, interconnected web,” she says. “It allows for padding, separation of structures, anchoring of tissue, and distribution of load throughout the body.” Chronic pain may arise if it’s not attended to on a regular basis.
To release tightness, it’s important to address the fascia through a variety of methods, including mobilizing stretches, nerve glides, self-massage, and rolling. “And we stop fascia from getting tight in the first place by activating stabilizing muscles, correcting imbalances, and improving posture,” she says.
Getting the brain involved is also a key part of the process. “Pain is complex, but can easily be altered at the tissue level and at the brain level,” she says. “We can ‘hack’ the brain, so to speak, in order to reboot and rewire the output of pain.”
Like Fitzgerald mentions, the fascia is a crucial, often-overlooked part of the equation when it comes to interrupting patterns of chronic pain. This is because the fascia is directly connected to our body’s entire system, including the nervous system. “It is imperative to consider the mobility, strength, and integrity of this structure in order to live a pain-free life,” she says.
Per Fitzgerald, physical pain relates to the brain: “Pain is not just experienced in the affected limb, but in the brain, too, where the sensation is processed, along with thoughts, past experiences, and emotions. The output is the pain you feel,” she explains. “Chronic pain is so taxing not just physically, but mentally and emotionally, and can therefore create a feedback loop where the pain grows as your resilience to the pain diminishes.”
She adds that it’s imperative to treat tightness and pain holistically, taking into account the entire body and mind — and the fascia simply cannot be ignored in that approach.
Building a consistent fascial-release practice can not only help soothe tension and tightness in the body, but also help reframe your relationship to pain by building awareness of and presence with sensation, per Fitzgerald. Here are some ways in which working with fascia can contribute to a more pain-free life, physically and emotionally.
Not to restate the obvious, but “pain relief is probably the most welcome benefit of stretching fascia,” Fitzgerald tells us. “It occurs through resuming normal movement, restoring correct posture, improving nerve mobility, and altering pain pathways.”
One research review suggests that fascia stretching may not only help to relieve chronic pain symptoms on a physical level, but enhance mental health to boot.
In addition, remote fascia stretching — which involves applying mechanical force, pressure, or movement to one body part to ease tension or boost flexibility elsewhere — may offer benefits. A small, randomized clinical trial with 32 participants found that when patients performed this technique alongside lower-body stretching, it could help improve both neck pain and range of motion.
A major benefit of fascia stretching is improved mobility, Fitzgerald shares. One small, recent study of 40 participants confirmed the efficacy of fascial stretching when it comes to increasing range of motion.
Fitzgerald adds, “Interestingly, once you recognize where your fascia tightness exists in your body and release it, it can have far-reaching impacts beyond the location of tightness.”
For example, your tight hips might be related to TMJ tenderness in your jaw or neck. When you address one of these issues with fascia stretching, you might simultaneously address the other in some ways — because fascia is interconnected.
A study linked headaches to neck tension — and the authors found that noninvasive treatment options that target neck pain could be highly effective for relieving headaches.
“Fascial release can have mood-boosting and stress-relieving benefits, which, in turn, will assist in calming down pain pathways,” Fitzgerald explains.
Indeed, the Cleveland Clinic notes that myofascial release therapy, an approach related to fascia stretching, may help with stress management by relieving tension throughout the body, as well as the reduction or elimination of the felt experience of chronic pain.
“The link between brain and pain is absolute, and can be accelerated with the wrong postures and movements — or be calmed down with fascial micromovements,” adds Fitzgerald.
Another key benefit of fascial stretching is the increased circulation it delivers, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
“Blood flow is heightened with fascial stretching and aids oxygen delivery and waste removal,” explains Fitzgerald. “It is critical in restoring normal tissue mobility as well as repair and reconstruction.” In other words, boosting circulation through a regular fascia stretching practice may directly and positively impact the health of all of your body’s tissues.
As you work with the fascia, Fitzgerald says a natural effect is improved proprioception — which is the ability to know where you are in space, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
“In stretching fascia and restoring posture, mobility, and nerve function, you have improved position reception, which aids in balance, stability, and injury prevention,” says Fitgerald. And this, especially with regard to longevity and vitality, is essential to aging gracefully and feeling well at any stage of life.
If tension and tightness are affecting you, and it feels like there isn’t a solution for your chronic pain, you’re not alone. But working with your fascia might just be the key to finding relief on physical and emotional levels.
Fascia stretching is a simple yet highly effective tool that delivers noticeable benefits for chronic pain management — no matter where it resides in the body — and helps to rewire your experience of pain altogether. If you’re curious about improving your flexibility, mobility, circulation, mood, and more, and want to decrease your pain overall, remember: It’s never too late to start. You deserve to make time to care for your body and feel like your beautiful, vibrant self again.
