The miracle I'm talking about is not the Queen song, it's your body!
I love Queen btw. For the fans, here's the link to The Miracle.
Have you ever tried to roll a tennis ball under your feet? It can be more painful than you’d expect. My first experience with this was during a Pilates class last year. Since then I’ve become more familiar with the word ‘fascia’.
Fascia is a thin casing of connective tissue that surrounds and holds every organ, blood vessel, bone, nerve fiber, and muscle in place.
Here's one miraculous experiment: Stand up straight, lean over, and try to touch your toes without bending your knees. See how far down you can go. Now take a tennis ball, and roll it under each foot for a couple of minutes. Try to touch your feet again. This time you should be able to bend over more comfortably.
Fascia is what keeps our body together. You can think of it as a women’s stocking covering every muscle, organ, bone, nerve, and artery and stretching all over the body from head to toe without interruption.
Fascia needs to stay hydrated to keep its stretchiness. One thing to keep in mind is that motion is lotion. Staying in the same position for more than 15 minutes will cause the fascia to tighten. This is especially important to keep in mind now, as we’re all sitting at our desks for hours on end. It’s a good idea to change positions (sitting to standing) and to take breaks every 15-20 minutes. Put those Bluetooth headsets to good use!
Healthy eating also contributes to a healthy fascia. If you eat something sticky—like refined sugar—the fascia will become sticky. Gluten will be like glue for the fascia. Fat, on the other hand, will make it smooth and lubricated. Yet another reason to add healthy fats to our diet!
Injury to the fascia in one area can present itself as stiffness in another area, as the fascia stretches all over the body. Getting back to the tennis ball: rolling your feet on the ball for a minute will help you release the fascia in your feet which in turn will help release tension elsewhere in your body. ⇒ This is how you can bend over with more ease after massaging your feet! Pretty amazing, isn't it?
Stay healthy and stay happy!