In September, the 6th International Fascia Research Congress (FRC) was held in Montreal, Quebec. The fascia community was ecstatic to be back together after COVID-19, and this year’s event did not disappoint. Here are some highlights from our Massage & Bodywork friends.
Whitney Lowe, educator, author, and owner of Academy of Clinical Massage
Whitney Lowe says several things made a strong impression on him at the FRC this year, but maybe most striking was the shift in thinking how fascia can be manipulated.
“There seems to be a movement away from some of the former narratives that were quite popular in our field about what happens as we attempt to affect fascia with soft-tissue manipulation. Formerly, we were focusing a lot more attention on the idea that we were specifically manipulating and elongating fascia with our work. However, recent research has not supported that idea very strongly. Right now, there seems to be a lot more emphasis on the role that fascia plays in fluid mechanics and keeping adjacent tissues sliding appropriately in relation to each other.
“Also, we’re now learning a lot more about the extensive sensory innervation of fascial tissues. Consequently, some of the primary physiological effects of fascial work may be a lot more about how we are affecting sensory input into the nervous system than about mechanically lengthening tissue. This has some interesting ramifications for how we may see the evolution of treatment approaches with soft-tissue manipulation.”
Lowe’s hope for the next FRC, scheduled for 2025 in New Orleans, is to create even greater dialogue about clinical relevance for the cutting-edge fascia research findings being presented.
Til Luchau, author of Advanced Myofascial Techniques and member of Advanced-Trainings.com faculty
For Til Luchau, all the FRC events over the years have been incredible learning experiences, and this year was no exception. “Where else do practitioners get to hear directly from some of the key researchers in our field about their latest work, the questions they’re asking, and the evolution of our collective thinking?” Luchau says the topics covered under the umbrella of “fascial research” have broadened tremendously over the years, and this one included relevant work in oncology, inflammation, lymph, hormone research, as well as anatomy, rehabilitation, and psychosocial aspects of fascia’s role in health and therapy.
“My own mental highlighter was out of my pocket the whole meeting, but especially during Robert Schleip’s sharing of research showing changes in tissue elasticity in people with higher depressive scores (it’s somewhat intuitive to assume that bodily stiffness has an emotional side too, but this study was unusual in correlating these two qualities); Peter Friedl’s striking pictures of cellular motility within connective tissues; and Tina Wang’s puzzling findings about Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a connective tissue disorder usually characterized by overly flexible joints and myofascial pain for up to 90 percent of people who have the disorder. Wang found these patients to have less tissue gliding when more would be expected. Whitney Lowe and I have plans to interview Drs. Friedl and Wang on upcoming episodes of the Thinking Practitioner podcast about these intriguing findings.”
Rachelle Clauson, author, educator, and director of creative affairs for the Fascial Net Plastination Project
“The long-awaited FRC 6 held special meaning for me as it marked the completion of the five-year journey I have taken with my colleagues in the Fascial Net Plastination Project to bring FR:EIA into full view!” says Rachelle Clauson. “In early 2018, we made the very first fascia plastinates with the vision in our minds that we were heading toward the creation of the world’s first whole-body plastinate highlighting the fascial system. After almost five years of travel, dissection, planning, documenting, and designing to the final creation of the exhibit, finally, we completed the journey and FR:EIA has taken her place in history as the first whole-body, fascial-focused plastinate.
“For most of the delegates at the congress, it was the first time they had seen all the intricacies of the fascial system in three dimensions in a real human specimen, standing before them at eye level, as if in mid-rise step of an elegant dance . . . we observed quite a few visitors who were moved to tears.”
Clauson says FR:EIA does more than just teach anatomy: “She holds in her tissues answers to long-held questions of what lies beneath our skin, what holds us together, and what allows us to move with ease. FR:EIA shows us what has so often been omitted from our anatomy training. Seeing her in person is a feeling that is hard to describe; it is like seeing a part of yourself you have never met before, but recognize instantly, like a long-lost relative. The relationships of tissues shown in FR:EIA give us a clearer understanding of what all the research presented at the congress is about. She bridges a gap between the words that we know and the tissues we feel and touch.”
Tom Myers, author of Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual & Movement Therapists and director of Anatomy Trains
The FRC represented an opportunity for reconnection for Tom Myers. “It was emotionally so satisfying to be back together in person this year, after two years of cancellations. Perhaps the biggest takeaway for me was seeing all my friends in the fascial community—both researchers and practitioners like myself.”
Myers says the reliable stars (Carla Stecco, Helene Langevin, Stu McGill) did not disappoint “as we delve more and more into the cells, gels, and interstitium to marry the mechanics of fascia with the physiology of immunity—a really exciting intersection relating to cancer, autoimmune conditions, and somatic ‘alienation’.”
“The overall takeaway—and this is a bit tongue in cheek, as I am in my 70s—was that in the previous congress in Berlin [FRC 5], the general message (echoed in several studies) was, to put it in the vernacular, ‘You don’t get old and stop moving, you stop moving and get old.’ The predominance of the research in Berlin was saying, ‘If you keep moving and loading them, fat will not invade your muscles, fibrosis will stay away from your fascia, and fluids will keep getting distributed evenly.’ This conference—again, not universally, but in several directions of research—gave practitioners the exact opposite message . . . something like, ‘Well, there is this thing about getting older that is inevitable, and that is the loss of pliability.’ Pliability was definitely this year’s buzz word, as glide has been for the last couple of conferences. Tom Brady is the most pliable 45-year-old they’ve ever seen. I look forward to practices we can develop to make my old fascia feel pliable.”
Karrie Osborn is senior editor at Massage & Bodywork.