“Fascia 1” — day 1
Topic: Introduction to fascia: history, anatomy, layers and assessment
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What the lesson covers
- The origins of osteopathy: Andrew Taylor Still's approach and the first school of osteopathy, which he opened in 1892.
- How the view of fascia has changed: from a tissue cut away and discarded as “packing material” in classical anatomy to a single collagen network that envelops the whole body.
- The international fascia research congresses and the modern literature on fascia.
- Embryology: the germ layers, the development of the somites (dermatome, myotome, sclerotome), the neural tube and neural crest, the migration of the organs and the formation of their ligaments.
- The structure of connective tissue: collagen, elastic and reticular fibres, ground substance, fibroblasts, and the myofibroblasts that acquire the ability to contract under chronic loading (example: “frozen shoulder”).
- The layers of fascia: superficial fascia, the aponeurotic (for example the fascia lata and the thoracolumbar fascia) and epimysial types of deep fascia, fascial compartments and retinacula; the muscle sheaths (epimysium, perimysium, endomysium).
- Fascia as a sensory organ: the Golgi, Pacini and Ruffini mechanoreceptors, the role of free nerve endings and the concept of interoception.
- The tensegrity model: the body not as a column but as a balance of tension and compression elements.
- Treatment approaches: direct and indirect techniques, holding the tissue at its point of balance.
- Practical part: observation of the patient, postural assessment, the body's right–left compensation pattern (the Zink model), global tests, and an introduction to the assessment of the face and cranial region.
