The Fascial Network

3.2 Connective tissue as a sensory organ

Intact connective tissue is well supplied with receptors and is able to give constant feedback on all motion, positions, and coordinative processes. People with good body awareness stand erect and don't easily lapse into poor posture such as a round back, for instance, as people with poor proprioceptive abilities do.

3.2.1 Body perception

Proprioception is the basis for the perception of body movements, its position in space, and also the position of individual body parts relative to each other.

Many refer to this as the sixth sense, the often neglected or insufficiently developed body sense.

A quote from Ken Wilber underscores this assertion:

"Some of us have lost our senses, but most of us have lost our body."

Without the ability to perceive our body and filter and transmit sensory information, we become immobilized invalids.

In kinematics, body awareness is referred to by the term "embodiment." It describes the sense of "feeling at home" in your body.

Large numbers of proprioceptors are located in soft tissue structures, muscle sheaths, tendons, ligaments, joint capsules, and the skin's connective tissue. The classic joint receptors, the golgi receptors (see below), which are located near the joint capsule and transmit signals to the brain regarding the joint's position, are significantly less important to the body sense than was previously thought.

More than 80 percent of our free nerve endings are located in the connective tissue's superficial layers, the fascia superficialis. It is an independent information and communication center that supports the nervous system with each motion. In addition to other factors, these sensors determine whether someone appears clumsy and awkward or light-footed and elegant. They provide the inner self-image, or the body image.

Did you know?

People with eating disorders often have a severely impaired self-image, which, among other things, can be traced back to a malfunction in the fascia's sensory system.

Do you know the three Qs for success?

IQ: intelligence quotient

EQ: emotional quotient

PQ: physical quotient

We can effectuate much in the area of physical intelligence through targeted influence and training. Thus it is not strictly about movement but about the experience of movement, or the perception.

The fascial network is the body's largest and most comprehensive sensory organ.

Proprioceptors are the corresponding sensors that are responsible for

• mechanoreception and

• nociception.

Mechanoreceptors transmit information about the position in space or the motion, while nociceptors send pain signals. These types of cells are adaptable or inhibit each other.

Here is a simple model to illustrate this process:

Fig. 12: WDR (wide dynamic range) neuron

Some nerves are also known as WDR neurons (wide dynamic range) and work like a switch according to the either-or principle. They are not specialized nerve cells that can either confirm pain or movement.

Thus movement has the ability to block out pain. By implication, with the absence of a movement impulse and with the proprioceptive stimulus, they can make a mountain out of a molehill (little pain).

Did you know?

Fibromyalgia, often referred to as soft tissue rheumatism, is an illness involving a decreased pain threshold of the nociceptors and many painful pressure points (tender points). Up to 4 percent of Germans are afflicted with this, and the majority of those (approximately 90 percent) are women.

First, let's take a closer look at the mechanoreceptors. Mechanoreceptors respond to very different types of mechanical stimulation.

It can be tensile, pressure, or vibration stimuli of very different intensities that encourage a nerve to transmit information.

3.2.2 Types of receptors

Four different types of mechanoreceptors are known:

• Golgi receptors

• Pacini receptors

• Ruffini receptors

• Free nerve endings

a) Golgi receptors

Fig. 13: Golgi receptor
Illustration modified as per Schleip (2004) German Osteopathic Journal

They are located at the

• muscle-tendon junctions,

• partly in the epimysium (muscle sheath),

• in the aponeuroses,

• in the ligaments of peripheral joints, and

• in the joint capsules.

The golgi receptors respond to active contractions in the terminal range of a joint's movement. When stretching to the maximum elastic limit, they react with activity. During involuntary movements-through external forces, for instance-they reflexively protect the body from an avulsion fracture by stimulating the respective muscle to contract, causing the tendon to relax.

The activation of golgi sensors without an emergency situation causes decreased tonus in the respective musculature. Some therapeutic methods utilize this mechanism by applying tensile stress to the structure, allow muscular counter-tension to build up, then melt into relaxation.

Did you know?

This approach is also applied in the Tighten-Relax-Stretch method. The body gets into a maximum stretch position, counter-tension is generated in the maximum range of motion, resulting in and followed by an increased motion ratio (see Chapter 4.4).

Example of a Tighten-Relax-Stretch exercise:

In a supine position, the leg is extended up until it reaches its maximum stretch position.

In maximum stretch position, a gradually increasing manual resistance, muscular counter-tension, is applied.

A stretch that exceeds the previous limit is possible during the subsequent relaxation.

This is how it's done!

Innervation of golgi receptors requires intensive stretching. It is sought by gradually increasing force at the end of the range of motion (maximum range of motion).

With respect to the sensory feedback we receive from connective tissue, there are far more exciting types of receptors than the golgi tendon organs.

b) Pacinian receptors

Fig. 14: Pacinian receptor
Illustration modified as per Schleip (2004) German Osteopathic Journal

Robert Schleip gives a vivid description of pacinian receptors as the adolescent, "wild" types in the group of mechanoreceptors. Their characteristic is a constant need for new stimuli. They are "bored" by repetition and predictability. There is no measurable activity after just a short time of monotonous stimulation.

They are located

• at myotendonous junctions (muscle-tendon junctions),

• in the deep layers of the joint capsule,

• in the spinal ligaments, and

• in the muscle fascia.

Pacini receptors react to sudden changes in pressure, vibrations, rocking, or quick, jerky movements. They constantly need new stimuli and react within the first 2 seconds of a new stimulus. After that, their action potential returns to base level.

Keeping these receptors "awake" requires many different movement patterns. New movements are constantly deposited into the working memory and thereby made extractable.

This is how it's done!

Partner activity:

Partner 1 is in a relaxed, supine position with his legs extended.

Partner 2 loosely grasps one of the supine partner's ankles with both hands.

A Partner 2 gently pulls at the reclining partner's leg. The pulling motion takes place in sync with the breathing movement of the reclining person: The pull takes place with exhalation and the gentle release comes with inhalation.

• 5-10 repetitions

• Re-feel it

• Second leg

B Partner 2 lifts the reclining partner's leg two inches off the floor. Partner 2 causes the leg to vibrate by gently shaking it. Good fascial resonance is apparent when the small vibrations can also be seen and felt on the abdominal wall or possibly in the shoulder girdle while all muscles are relaxed.

• Approximately 1 minute

• Re-feel it

• Second leg

Partner 2 loosely grasps one of the reclining partner's wrists with both hands.

C Exercises A and B are now repeated on each arm.

Partner 1 is in a prone position.

Partner 2 places one hand flat on the junction between the lumbar spine and pelvis (sacroiliac joint).

D The flat resting hand gently causes the partner who is lying down to sway. The hand moves side to side, meaning the body "rocks" from one side to the other.

• Approx. 1 minute

• Re-feel it

Partner 1 (lying down) has a passive role during these exercises. The exercise is successful when Partner 2 can feel Partner 1 completely relax (with no counter-movement or counter-tension).

c) Ruffini receptors

Fig. 15: Ruffini receptors
Illustration modified as per Schleip (2004) German Osteopathic Journal

Ruffini receptors are the "quiet" representatives of the mechanoreceptor group. They react to slow stimuli and have...