Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/1481961
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 f luids 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. 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 17 Whitney Lowe (left) talks with Professor Stuart McGill, a highly anticipated keynote speaker at the FRC 6. Members of the Fascial Net Plastination Project and the Body Worlds team. Back row, left to right: Adrian Woolley, Angelina Whalley, Robert Schleip, Tracey Mellor, Fauna Moore, David Lesondak, Allison Slater, Libby Eason, Jihan Adem, Johannes Freiberg. Front row, left to right: Cíntia Báril, Gary Carter, Lauri Nemetz, Gina Tacconi-Moore, Rachelle Clauson.