Fascia and Pilates

Barnes Myofascial Release and Polestar Pilates – a Life Changing Partnership

Guest post by Dr. Carol Davis

In 2013, Brent Anderson and I explored the idea about treating patients with myofascial release at his Polestar Pilates center in Coral Gables across the highway from my office at the University of Miami. I told him I thought that there was a great opportunity for us to collaborate. Manual therapy techniques that offer sustained soft touch and elongation to help release facial restrictions might prove to be a wonderful adjunct for those Pilates patients who can’t seem to smooth out their leg circles or to lie comfortably flat on the reformer bed. And indeed, a wonderful partnership developed over a period of 15 years, where clients and teachers and patients all came together to appreciate and heal in the presence of two powerful therapeutic modalities, Polestar Pilates and JF Barnes Myofascial Release, working in concert for ease and flow and function.

What is myofascial release according to the Barnes sustained soft pressure and elongation approach?

Fascial science has grown exponentially in the last 20 years ever since the emergence of the International Fascia Research Congress in 2007 in Boston, and the premier of Jean-Claude Guimberteau’s groundbreaking video of an endoscopic view of fascia, Strolling Under the Skin,  (https://youtu.be/eW0lvOVKDxE?si=ZuNXZaM7mmZ7mY36)  living fascia that reveals a fascia never before really experienced outside the human body.

Since that time, many have struggled to find words to adequately describe this living vibrating crystalline tissue, found in one continuous web from the top of our heads to the bottom of our feet.  Contiguous, with no beginning and no end.  Many definitions have emerged to try to describe fascia, and each one seems to fall short based on the limitations fostered by the discipline trying to harness this tissue for its own revelations. Anatomists often speak of fascia and layers, but Jean-Claude Guimberteau in his endoscopic view declares there are no layers; fascia exists in us in one continuous web with no spaces and no separations. But try to teach anatomy without identifying layers!  Fascia, all agree, is uniformly made of a mucopolysaccharide Type II gel composed of crystalline water, elastin, collagen, fibroblasts and other cells that are relevant to the area that fascia is supporting.

My own definition of fascia emphasizes the fact that fascia serves as a pathway for the many energetic flows within the body/mind. I maintain that, “Fascia is the living vibrating crystal matrix system within life forms that unites all other systems functionally. This communication flow of information with all systems by way of facial vibration is also known functionally as the mind ; It works to facilitate homeostasis and elevates the importance of fascia to great significance, a hierarchy within heterarchically equal systems of biotensegral energy flowing within and through the architecture of the fascial system.”

Emphasizing the role of energy resonance within and throughout the body connecting every cell, every organ, every system one to another in ongoing communication opens the pathway for consideration of how the energy flowing within us is transmitted through the facial system to our biofield. Fascial vibration offers a hypothetical explanation for how our thoughts and emotions can be transmitted nonverbally to another person. Interesting research is revealing that the intention and attention of the therapist can be energetically, non-verbally received by the interoceptive nervous system of the receiving patient or client.   

Dr. Carol Davis is an author, has been studying with John F. Barnes, PT since 1988, and has been assisting with Myofascial Release Seminars since 1997. To learn more about Fascia from Dr. Davis, please join us this weekend in her 3-hour Online “All Things Fascia” workshop. May 17th, 12-3PM Eastern.