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84 m a s s a g e & b o d y w o r k m a y / j u n e 2 0 1 4 STORY 1 A DETOUR DOWN THE MEAT AISLE Connective tissue may be omnipresent, but it can still be diffi cult to visualize. To clear up matters, there's nothing better than a detour down the meat aisle. Several domesticated vertebrates model some of the very same fascial tissues you are made of. With a choice of chicken, pork, or beef, we'll go with the fowl. Let's say that you bought a small fryer from your local butcher. You bring it home, unwrap it, and set it on the counter (Image 1). You may not realize it, but the effects of the tensile fascial network are immediately evident. The fact that the chicken didn't collapse like a blob of warm pudding is testament to the enmeshing and supportive nature of the connective tissues. Even in death, it holds its shape. Grasp the skin and attempt to pull it away from the bird. It may shift a little, but it doesn't lift off like a loose shirt because the fascia holds it in place. Using a sharp knife, carefully make a small incision in the leg. Working your fi nger under the skin, try to pull it away (Image 2) and note how the white webbing of the superfi cial fascia resists your tug. Continue to trim back the skin to explore the muscles below. A thin, shiny layer of the fascia profunda will coat the muscle bellies. Gently grasp them and feel how they afford little movement. Even the individual muscle bellies, although visually distinct, are virtually inseparable. A small fryer. Cut into the muscle and discover deeper fascia. The skin is held on with connective tissue. After the fascia is melted by baking, the muscle/meat falls off the bone. Using your knife, delicately separate the muscle bellies and then cut crosswise into one of them for a closer look at the fascicles (bundles of fi bers) (Image 3). If you were expecting loose fi bers to tumble out, you'd be disappointed. The fascial network permeates into every single microscopic fi ber of the muscles. Nothing escapes its encasement. Now, explore the ends of the muscle bellies and see where all of those intermuscular fascial layers bundle together to form a tendon. We could continue to dissect other regions and discover how the fascia links to the ligaments, periosteum, bones, and organs (if your chicken still had them). You name it: the fascia would be there. Finally, set your chicken in a pan and bake at 350˚ for two hours. When the timer dings, let it cool. If you cut into it, you'd be able to extract a bone with little additional tissue, an impossibility before the oven (Image 4). The tendons and ligaments are still in place, but the skin slides right off and the meat (muscle) falls off the bone. What happened to those thin fascial tissues? They melted away, only to collect at the bottom of the pan as juice and fat. Collect this "stock," set it in the fridge and observe how the collagen fi ber-infused broth thickens as a gel beneath the fat. Even when dead and cooked, that wondrous protein —collagen—still holds a pose. 1 2 3 4