Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/1476304
And it's not just the iliotibial band; all your fascia is responsive to load. Over time, your fascia becomes a kind of physical record of your movement patterns, which can be observed based on where and how the fascia is organized. If you think about it, this shouldn't be a big surprise, since we are all used to being able to tell who works out based on the shape and tone of their muscles. Fascia is similar—just a little harder to see and slower to train or untrain. "Dissection and plastination as art involves many levels of narrative; however, we can never see everything. The story of fascia presented in FR:EIA involves only the ideas of the leading thinkers right now . . . FR:EIA reflects our current concepts and definitions of fascia. Our concept of human anatomy will continue to evolve." —Lauri Nemetz, Ossining, New York: Team FR:EIA dissector, adjunct professor at Pace University, visiting associate professor at Rush Medical, clinical movement therapist WHAT STILL REMAINS UNSEEN With all aspirational endeavors, it is important to acknowledge the limitations and challenges that arise. One note to consider while observing FR:EIA is that the very process of plastination is a bit at odds with the molecular makeup of fascia. Plastination, as mentioned previously, works by replacing the water from the tissue with a plastic polymer. This process inherently highlights fascia's fibrous components while masking its watery and gel-like nature. The positioning of FR:EIA had unique challenges precisely because of this fact. Without the naturally occurring water within, FR:EIA's fascia acted almost like shrink wrap, making it much more challenging than expected to move her joints and limbs into the desired positions. But this, in itself, was another lesson about fascia for us. With the suppleness reduced, the strength of the fascia became even more L i s te n to T h e A B M P Po d c a s t a t a b m p.co m /p o d c a s t s o r w h e reve r yo u a cce s s yo u r favo r i te p o d c a s t s 37 The FR:EIA Team • FR:EIA's Scientific and Academic Advisors: Vladimir Chereminskiy, Gil Hedley, Tom Myers, Robert Schleip, John Sharkey, Carla Stecco, Jaap van der Wal, and Angelina Whalley. • FR:EIA's Fascia Research Society Dissection Team: Jihan Adem, Gary Carter, Tjasa Cerovsek Landes, Rachelle Clauson, Johannes Freiberg, Beverly Johnson, Elizabeth Larkam, Tracey Mellor, Fauna Moore, Lauri Nemetz, Bruce Schonfeld, Gina Tacconi- Moore, Joel Talsma, Stefan Westerback, and Adrian Woolley. • FR:EIA's Plastinarium Dissection and Positioning Team: Ismael Perales Aledo, Wang Chao, Vladimir Chereminskiy, Mateusz Liczbinski, Alexandro Navarro Valdivia, Danilo Reich, Alicia Poveda Sánchez, Reno Steglich, Rurik von Hagans, Angelina Whalley, and Judith Zinnow. evident, which really drove the point home about the strength of our fascial bodies. Additionally, in order to reveal anything inside the human body, something has to be removed. Though every effort was made to show fascia's story truthfully in FR:EIA, choices of what to cut away and what to leave were inf luenced by what we currently know and understand about fascia as a living architecture. As we learn more, our ideas about fascia will continue to develop, which may lead to other ways to illustrate its organization and relationships. Even though FR:EIA is real anatomy, she is still only a model for the living, breathing person you meet in your practice. Plastination can help you see more than you've likely seen before of the fascial system, but it is still just one view of many. Photography, illustration, MRI, ultrasound, 3D computer rendering, and other methods each give us a slightly different perspective. With any luck, the more we study and put them all together, the closer we will get to reality in our mind's eye, continuously disassembling and reassembling our mental constructs as we grow in understanding. "Those of us who do manual medicine now have a better understanding of what it truly is we are experiencing when we place our hands on our patients. But those who will gain the most of this profound knowledge will be our patients; and that is the remarkable gift gleaned from this FNPP adventure." —Adrian L. Woolley, Des Moines, Iowa: Team FR:EIA dissector, director of Osteopathic Principles and Practice Education at Des Moines University, College of Osteopathic Medicine IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE In FR:EIA, we have a new view of the body's true anatomical continuity with the fascial system front and center. The insights gained will be far reaching as she expresses fascia's nuanced relationships that aid in our bodies' capacity to coordinate and