Many of us don’t think much about our own physical coordination—the ability to move our bodies through space, lift a spoon while eating, or to twist and reach behind to swing a golf club. However, coordination is one of the main linchpins to health and quality of life.   

Even if you are not a ballerina or an athlete, you are still highly coordinated as a human being. The basic actions of rising out of bed, walking down the street, or brushing your teeth require an intricate amount of coordinated muscle contraction, tension, and relaxation to move your bones and joints.    

This muscle orchestration isn’t just about movement from point “A” to point “B.” The muscles also need to maintain correct joint alignment and stability to protect against injuries. Even the simplest movements require finely-tuned control—but what if there’s a problem with this essential control system? How might we correct this issue?     

Wrench in the Works  

Even a small glitch in stability or alignment can result in pain or injury. One important source of problems can be found in a key element of coordination––the tissue called fascia. Inside this fibrous connective tissue are millions of nerve endings for position sense. This position-sense information comes from fascia in the muscles, bones, joints, and other bodily tissues.   

If the information from this fascia becomes confused, painful issues can result. That confusion might be caused by fascia restriction or distortion, which creates a “wrench in the works.” Let’s look at one of my patients as an example of this altered coordination.  

I recently treated an active, athletic young woman (I will refer to her as Mary) for shoulder pain. More than two years prior, Mary had torn her rotator cuff, but it healed, and was pain-free until about one month before she came into my office. The pain resumed when she began a new intensive exercise program that required a lot of shoulder strength.   

An exam showed restrictions in Mary’s fascia at three points around her shoulder joint, as well as the muscles between her shoulder blade and spine. She had weakness in two major stabilizing shoulder muscles, which meant her shoulder joint was not always stable. 

 Fortunately, these muscles became strong immediately after a course of treatment to release the fascia restrictions with gentle hands-on therapy. As a result, reaching above her head or behind her back became much easier and less painful. Ultimately, with further treatment, Mary could resume her activities, entirely pain-free.     

Our Structural Fabric  

Fascia can be thought of as a fabric to cover and connect all tissues. Since it provides constant feedback to the nervous system about the position and motion of all body parts, fascia makes coordinated movement possible. But coordination issues can result when there’s restriction and distortion in this structural fabric. 

If position-sense feedback is distorted or confused, joint alignment and stability could suffer, resulting in shoulder pain, knee arthritis, hip bursitis, or many other problems. Restoring pliability and tension to restricted fascia can improve the fine coordination that makes joint alignment and stability possible. Fascial release therapies can help all kinds of pain in the body with the use of gentle hands-on treatment.     

Dr. Eric Winder has been practicing chiropractic for 28 years. His practice emphasizes relieving pain and restoring alignment and motion with gentle fascia release therapies. For more information, call 941-957-8390 or visit https://gentlebay.com/