A Fascia Fundamentals Workshop with Jill Miller. What I learned...

This month I attended a weekend intensive workshop on Fascia Fundamentals with Jill Miller, a brilliant practitioner, anatomist and teacher of mine. Jill lives in California so when she messaged me that she was coming to New York to teach I enrolled immediately (my son was 4 days old at the time ).  The workshop covered topics including:

• Techniques & strategies for deep self-massage

• Neuromuscular re-education for the neck, shoulders, spine, feet, hips, and lungs

• Current fascia science and debunking myths

  
  

If you work with me or if you’ve been here for a while you know that self-myofascial release is a foundation of The Danaher Method.  Self-Myofascial Release is the practice of using gentle tools, your breath and your bodyweight to perform self massage. 

The practice is game changing for mobility, athleticism and calming the nervous system. In client sessions I teach clients how to perform self-myofascial release to ease tight muscles thus increasing range of motion and in our online library we have a dedicated channel of classes for self-myofascial release.

Here are some key takeaways from the workshop & relevant fascia facts:

1. The study of fascia is relatively new, the first paper on it was published in 1990

2. The latest definition of the fascial system, which is a system just like the digestive system, is defined as “a layered body-wide multiscale network of connective tissue that allows tensional loading and shearing mobility along its interfaces” Source: Towards a Comprehensive Definition of the Human Fascial System The Journal of Anatomy, December 2024.  (We recently wrote a blog on fascia and self-myofascial release which digs deeper into this).

3. You only need 90 seconds for self-myofascial release to have effective tension relief

4. If we don’t move we calcify.  Sounds dramatic but its the science

5. Our breath is one of, if not the most important tool we have to reduce muscle soreness and increase range of motion

And the most important take away, Jill is a brilliant teacher and fun person.  Follow her if you don’t already!! If you’re interested in practicing self-myofascial release, check out our online class library, join a live-stream or studio class or explore working with us 1:1.

*Fascia as defined by the Journal of Anatomy Towards a Comprehensive Definition of the Human Fascial System The Journal of Anatomy, December 2024.