How can MAP help ATHLETES improve Sport Performance ? - PART 1

How can you use MAP Movement to maximize not just your ability to feel good in your body but also your sport performance? 

So we have established that the word fascia is kind of like connective tissue but it is not just a glorified body stocking. The superficial fascia yes, it is a seamless piece of tissue that wraps your entire body underneath your skin. BUT it’s important to understand fascia is a richly multidimensional tissue that forms your internal soft tissue architecture. From the superficial body onezee/stocking fascia dives deep and forms the fascicles that create your internal musculature like a honeycomb from the inside out….just like when you bite into a wedge of an orange. Fascia is everywhere.

1.  Fascia is a Tensional Fluid system 

So its difficult to understand how a support structure could be a fluid structure because we’re not building bridges out of jelly.

But if you think of a sponge…when it dries out, it becomes hard and brittle. It can easily be broken with only a little force because it has become so crispy and dry. Like when you sit at the office or a school bench all day and then want to go cycle or run or play golf or tennis. BUT when a sponge becomes wet and well hydrated it gets springy and resilient. You can crush it into a small ball, squash it and it bounces right back. While it's wet you can wring it and twist it and it won’t break.

 If we understand that we’re like that on the inside, keeping our fascia hydrated takes on more importance. Our mobility, integrity and resilience are determined in large part by how well our fascia is hydrated.  Staying hydrated via drinking water continues to be important and stretching too but if you have dehydrated fascia it’s more like you have kinks in your hosepipe and so all the water you drink can’t actually reach the dehydrated tissues and all the stretching is often just twisting those kinks more into a knot.

In order to get that fluid to all the necessary nooks and crannies you first need to get better irrigated and to do this, you’ve got to work on your soft tissue while breathing diaphragmatically to untangle those gluey bits. This is where MAP Movement is the perfect movement therapy and tool to help you! In MAP we work on hydrating the fascia by working on the soft tissues. Regularly hydrating your fascia helps keep you in tip top shape and performance. The best part... you learn how to do it yourself in your own time by coming to weekly classes.