Here is the unabridged version of Tom Crick’s article on Myofascial Stretching seen in the 20 November 2008 (63-47) edition of Athletics Weekly. Photos courtesy of Beth Bischoff.

When you think about stretching you probably envisage sitting on the floor in a hurdling position (static stretching) or performing leg swings against a wall (dynamic stretching). When you think about stretching you probably think about muscles, those things that move under the skin and cause so much pain and discomfort when they become stiff after a hard session. To help reduce this tension athletes have traditionally used techniques such as PNF (proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation) stretching, which takes advantage of the way the nervous system controls muscle action to encourage the muscle into a more relaxed state.



These neuromuscular “tricks” can significantly improve range of motion and help restore muscle function in patients suffering from debilitating diseases such as polio. However, sometimes no amount of ballistic, dynamic, static or PNF stretching seems to help. You have tried every trick in the book and still the restriction remains. It is at this point that you should start to ask, “if nothing that is supposed to stretch muscles is working, is it really the muscles that I need to be stretching in the first place?”

The notion that muscles are the only thing that needs to be stretched has blinded many athletes and medical professionals from exploring if other structures can also benefit from stretching. Fortunately it did not stop Guy Voyer, a brilliant French Osteopath, who for over 20 years has been studying not muscles but what surrounds them and everything else in the body – fascia.

Fascia (pronounced “FA-shee-ah”) is the biological fabric that forms an uninterrupted, three-dimensional web of tissue that extends from head to toe. This fascial fabric organises our cells, gives us shape, and provides a support structure that prevents us from just being a mound of slime and water on the floor! For many years fascia was almost completely ignored by anatomist who would cut it away to make drawings of the “more important” organs and muscles held within. As a result it is barely covered in modern medical text books and so is poorly understood by the majority of the medical community. However, what was initially ignored by medical practitioners has turned out to be extremely important especially when it comes to resolving muscular skeletal problems and complaints.

Fascia and muscles share an important relationship because it is the fascia that forms the covering for the muscles and separates them into layers. While muscle and fascia are two separate types of tissue and look different under a microscope for all practical purposes they work harmoniously together. Because they are so closely linked they are often described as a single unit using the term myofascia, or muscle (myo) fascia.



Healthy fascia is like a sheet of freshly ironed cloth but when it is repeatedly stressed it develops kinks and creases, which are tiny contractions in the fascia. Because of these creases the strands of cloth lose their full length, which means the fascia is like a jacket that is too tight, compressing the muscle so it cannot fully contract and impinging nerves so they cannot send as strong signals. Tight fascia also presses on sensory receptors, which decreases proprioception; kind of important if you are jumping over a bar or releasing a throwing implement! When fascia is restricted and proprioception is diminished athletes are also more prone to non contact injuries because the body is less able to co-ordinate landing for example. In essence if fascia is restricted it will decrease performance and increase the chance of injury.

Since fascia acts as a matrix in which everything else is “suspended” it also provides a physical bridge between muscles that do not directly touch each other. Through these bridges muscles on the base of the foot have a direct connection to those on the forehead via a fascial “loop” that runs up the calves and hamstrings, across the buttocks, up the entire back to the neck and then over the head to the brow ridge. This fascial loop is put in tension when you bend over to touch your toes, so the tightness you feel could be coming from anywhere up its entire length. Other loops also exist and crisscross the entire body connecting seemingly unrelated muscles to one another, so the tissue responsible for a restriction can often be found some way from the area of pain.

Guy Voyer’s understanding of this complex interconnecting fascial network has allowed him to develop stretches that work not on the muscles themselves but the fascia that surrounds them. By placing the different fascial loops in tension he has been able to isolate the “leathery sleeve” that surrounds and runs through individual muscles. By targeting and stretching these tissues he has been able to resolve many seemingly untreatable “muscular problems”.

Despite the fact that some of Guy’s myofascial stretches mildly resemble traditional muscular stretches, stretching fascia is completely different to stretching muscle.

Most importantly, unlike muscle which is elastic, fascia is plastic in nature. Plasticity is not the same as elasticity. When you stretch a plastic material and hold it briefly it retains its new length when you let it go, whereas the elastic material snaps back to its original shape. It is like the difference between plasticine and an elastic band. So if you are able to isolate and grab the fascia from both ends and stretch it, the new length is permanently retained until repeated loading causes it to develop kinks and shrink once again.

In theory stretching fascia should be pretty simple; in practice however it is a complex process because in order to stretch the fascia surrounding one area of the body you first have to put the entire fascial loop it belongs to in tension. Muscles are fairly easy to stretch because they usually only ever cross one or two joints. However, since fascial loops often run from one side of the body to the other they may cross several joints along the journey. For example, the loop that runs from the soles of the feet to the ridge just above the eyebrows crosses the toe joints, the ankle joint, the knee joint, the hip joint and each of the spinal vertebra in the back and the neck! All these joints must be placed in the correct orientation to exert maximal tension on this fascial loop. If you get everything right except for where the fascia crosses the toes you’ll have an inefficient stretch that targets muscle more than fascia and you will not get the outcome you were looking for. Therefore, when performing fascial stretching an athlete must be constantly corrected to make sure every part of the chain is in tension.

As you are probably gathering, performing these stretches is not easy. The first hurdle is to learn to control your body enough to be able to assume the correct positions because it is difficult to concentrate on maintaining one position with one part of the body while holding another at the opposite end. The discomfort is also challenging because the stretches require you to contract multiple muscles simultaneously which brings with it all the fatiguing elements of exercise. Indeed when first starting on the stretches most athletes complain about the feeling because they are so restricted through areas such as the back and shoulders that receive relatively little attention in most athletic events.

When stretching fascia, it is important to hold the stretches long enough to reshape it, which is typically around 60 seconds. Initially the discomfort makes this impossible so it is wise to start at forty five, thirty or even fifteen seconds and then gradually work your way up to the full minute. Initially it might feel like your entire body is vibrating as you struggle to hold the positions but when performed correctly on tight fascia the relief is immediate and refreshing.

As well as myofascial stretches that target the well known muscles of the legs and arms, Guy Voyer applied his ideas to treating the spine. LOADS (longitudinal osteo-articular de-coaptation stretching) is a system of exercises that works on the muscles and fascia of the spine at every intervertebral level. Through years of research using medical imaging techniques Guy was able to show that his stretches could increase the space between spinal segments allowing increased absorption of fluid by the disks and improving blood flow and muscle tone within the areas they target. As well as people who suffer from back pain LOADS are extremely useful for athletes who are involved in exercises that compress the spine like heavy squats and jumping.

Because fascial stretches and LOADS make use of the entire body to stretch individual areas they could be mistaken for yoga poses.





In the photos illustrating a few of the more common myofascial stretches you will notice that the hands and feet are often pulled back and rotated and the jaw drawn back to give the appearance of a double chin. This is done to “lock” the fascia that crosses the head, wrists and ankles in place creating a base from which to being to remodel it by holding the positions.

Although Guy developed these techniques over two decades ago, until recently he delivered his courses only in French, limiting exposure of his methods to an English speaking audience. However, having begun to work in collaboration with therapists in North America and Canada his ideas have been taken on board by a number of top therapists and sports coaches. Ming Chew, a physiotherapist from New York became famous for using these methods to treat several key players for the New York Nets basketball team in 2004 and his recent book “The Permanent Pain Cure” is the first widely available text to describe myofascial stretching. Not only does Ming’s book bring the idea of fascial stretching to a wider audience but his stretches simplify many of Voyer’s original ideas making them more accessible to athletes and sports coaches.

Running, jumping, throwing and weight training are all essential aspects of modern athletics training for every kind of athlete but each have an inevitable shortening effect on the involved fascia and unless this issue is countered by specific soft tissue work it will gradually develop into restrictions that can decrease performance and increase the risk of injury. While soft tissue therapies are essential to the maintenance of healthy fascia they can be expensive and it is not always easy to access a trained and experienced therapist. Although initially difficult to learn fascial stretching represents an excellent self help strategy that can combat the inevitable consequences of suitably intense and efficient training. As the fascial revolution continues and more and more people become aware and trained in its application myofascial stretching will go a long way to keeping athletes on an injury free path to a successful and long career.

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