If you’re feeling tired, cramped, or stiff this season, my best advice is to hydrate your tissue. It’s natural for our tissue to feel more taught now. We tend to scrunch our bodies tight while walking in the bitter cold. Dry winter air and heated homes sucks the moisture out of our system. We may find ourselves feeling parched when we wake up in the morning. If we’re thirsty, so are our tissues.
On fascia’s role in the body:
Once we understand that our fascia is pretty similar to a sponge, keeping our fascia hydrated takes on more importance. Our mobility, structural integrity, and resilience are determined in large part by how well hydrated our fascia is. In fact, what we call “stretching a muscle” is actually the fibers of the connective tissue gliding along one another. These layers of connective tissue can glue together when water is absent, rather than easily skate and slide upon each other when hydrated. If we get “dried out” we are more brittle and are at much greater risk for injury.
So, just drink more water, right? While staying hydrated is without a doubt necessary, dehydrated fascia can relate to little kinks in our “hoses,” which means all that water we drink can’t actually reach the dehydrated tissue. To allow the fluid to flow to more dense areas, we need to be better irrigated. And to do that, we’ve got to get to work on mobilizing our soft tissue, untangling the gluey bits and getting the kinks out.
Staying mobile and warm, especially during these dry less active months, will help prevent fascial restrictions from building up. Take a hot shower before moving about, stretch before and after exercise, and try to move with more awareness. Are you crunching your neck and shoulders right now? Pause and do a few shoulder rolls.
2022 update: I highly recommend using a humidifier in the winter, especially while sleeping. My sleep has improved greatly, as I used to wake up feeling like a fish out of water! Clearer passages equal fuller breaths which equals deeper sleep! I have the Levoit, which is quiet and has a sleep feature for zero light pollution.
The other effortless and effective at-home winter therapy, that I wrap around myself and whoever is next to me on the couch, are hot packs that can be placed on the neck, low back, or belly. I incorporate hot packs and other heat therapy into my bodywork sessions, too. Wrap one on your neck while you’re working from home! I highly recommend these millet filled hot packs you can warm in a crock pot or microwave from Seedsentials, as they are beautifully made, ideally sized, and stay warm for awhile. Or if you sew, make your own and fill with millet, buckwheat, rice or corn. Dried lavender is lovely too. BTW, the only benefit I receive from sharing these products with you is the hope that you receive some relief and stay warm this winter.
If you’re interested in seeing the fascia up close, check out Gil Hedley’s “Fuzz Speech.” It shows us how stretching and movement literally hydrates our muscles and connective tissues, allowing us to move more freely. “Fuzz” is filmy fascia that dries out due to immobility. *video is of actual fascia under the skin so may not be for all eyes.
So…
Move mindfully, take an epsom salt baths, hold some nice long stretches (Yin yoga), and if you’re still feeling stuck, book a massage (or at least ask a loved one for a shoulder rub).
Emily Luhrs Massage & Cranial Sacral Therapy 