Several months ago I attended a four-day course (“Fascial Anatomy of the Lower Extremity”) at the University of Toronto. The lecturer was Guy Voyer,MD,DO, from Marseilles, France. He was a student and eventual colleague of I.A.
Kapandji (whose text many of us studied in college). He is a natural anatomist who has studied the fascial system for years and lectures worldwide on fascial analysis and treatment. He recently lectured to French surgeons in Paris to help them avoid dysfunctional postoperative fascial adhesions.
Dr. Voyer is probably the most knowledgeable person I have encountered on the fascial system (internal and external), having dissected and treated the fascia for many years. The following are some tidbits about the fascial system from his course that you might find interesting: The fascia is that band or sheet of aereolar or fibro-elastic tissue which envelopes the body beneath the skin (superficial fascia), which forms the covering (deep fascia) for the muscles and the other organs, separates the muscles into layers, and surrounds the structures known as nerves, blood vessels and lymphatics.
Specialized fascia such as plantar, iliotibial, gluteal, thoracolumbar, cervical and cranial aponeurosis stabilize and maintain standing posture. Dr. Voyer refers to these as “postural fascia,” and they serve a special function, being the first to display changes with postural faults. I have found that releasing these particular fascial planes and other areas often improves chronic cases of those faults. Changes in tension due to postural imbalance, the pull of gravity, trauma or inflammation are basic factors involved in physiological changes and relate to original causes which must be taken into consideration in the etiology of disease.
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