Fascia over 40 - Shoulder Stiffness & Tension
Mornings when you get out of bed you feel shoulder stiffness. As you go on with your day you begin to feel the tension build up and by evening here comes the achiness.
If you’re like me age 40+, this may sound way too familiar. Why is this happening you’re asking? Why??… Lets explore WTF is going on, shall we?
In our body we have connective tissue under our skin and throughout our body that surrounds our muscles, joints, tendons and organs. This connective tissue is called fascia. Fascia is made up of water and needs hydration to keep its elasticity. No water = dried frayed out fascia = stiffness, achiness and tension in or muscles, joints and our entire body. Squeak…squeak can you hear and feel that?
MOVEMENT hydrates fascia the best. Not moving because of a sedentary lifestyle or work life means no hydration to the connective tissue and loss of elasticity. This leads to your shoulder aches, stiffness and pain. Moving your body allows water to get to the tissues (fascia) around the muscles and joints to create the slide/glide movement that increases your range of motion and a decrease of your PAIN.
Doing the same movements only hydrates the same isolated tissues. Varying your movements such as different yoga movements AND doing self-myofascial release techniques like flushing, pinning and shearing with foam rollers, recovery rounds and other SMR tools will also rehydrate tissues that cannot be done by moving alone.
