Fascia has become a popular word in health and movement spaces, but what does it actually mean?

In this episode, I explore why definitions matter and why fascia is not a fixed concept. How we define fascia shapes the questions we ask in research, the way clinicians think about the body, and how we explain pain, healing, and recovery to the people we serve.

I walk through the key definitions that have influenced my own thinking, starting with the traditional structural perspective found in Gray’s Anatomy, moving into the widely accepted definition from the Fascia Research Society that reframed fascia as a three-dimensional environment, and then exploring the function-focused definition proposed by John Sharkey and Mark Flannigan.

The heart of the episode focuses on a 2024 update to fascial nomenclature by Bordoni and colleagues, which challenges long-held assumptions by grounding the fascial system in embryology. This work expands the fascial continuum beyond solid connective tissues, emphasizing how tissues that develop together, function together, and communicate together cannot be fully understood when separated conceptually. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.53995

Rather than offering a final answer, this episode highlights fascia as a living, adaptive continuum and invites a wider view based on embryology.

As our science evolves, our language and perspective must evolve with it.

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In this episode, we explore Dr. Patricia Huston’s 2022 paper proposing a new way to understand chronic disease. Huston suggests that unhealthy lifestyle patterns don’t just strain the heart, lungs, or muscles directly. Rather, they change the behavior of interstitial cells, especially macrophages and fibroblasts. These cells orchestrate inflammation, healing, and tissue remodeling throughout the body.

Using a six-level hierarchical network model, Huston shows how environmental pressures, social context, lifestyle habits, and nervous system activity converge on the interstitial microenvironment. When this system becomes overwhelmed, macrophages get stuck in a chronic inflammatory state and fibroblasts begin laying down excessive collagen, leading to fibrosis and organ dysfunction. This stalled healing process provides a unified explanation for why so many chronic diseases progress in similar ways.

We discuss why this theory is groundbreaking for fascia-informed therapists and how it aligns with salutogenesis—a health-focused approach centered on restoring interstitial fluid flow, tissue mobility, movement, and self-regulation. This episode offers a science-backed lens for understanding the transformative potential of fascia-based therapy in supporting long-term health and resilience.

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One option for explaining this simply to clients:

Your daily habits change the environment your cells live in. The fascia is your cells' environment. And cells behave differently depending on that environment.

This means lifestyle does not just affect symptoms. It affects how your cells decide whether to heal or stay inflamed.

In this episode I share a concept about new year resolutions that I address with all my clients. You must meet your body where it is at. Are you ready to jump into a new fitness program or is there are more important place to begin? Join me as a run through the foundations to healthy fascia and finding success with a new fitness goal.

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