The importance of connective tissue on our health cannot be overstated. These crucial tissues – essential for movement and overall well-being – often receive very little attention despite being continuously impacted by our daily habits and lifestyle choices.
Learn more about what connective tissue is, how to reshape and improve the health of these key tissues, and when you can expect to see changes with consistent daily workouts below.
What is Connective Tissue?
Connective tissue is a collection of tissues that help provide support, protection and structure to many areas within our body. It forms our largest uninterrupted system, integrating and interlacing every square inch of us from head to toe. In fact, without this internal scaffolding, we would be reduced to a big pile of mush. Connective tissues are truly the glue that holds it all together and take a front and center role in both how we look and feel.
Fascia, the connective tissue that surrounds our muscles, is one of the most important forms of connective tissue to consider in relation to movement and exercise. Muscle activity and fascia are inseparable – they move in harmony. When our muscles feel tight and our range of motion is limited, the likely cause is fascia that is also tight.
In a less-than-optimal state, fascia becomes brittle and inflexible, making it ground zero for some of the aches and pains we often chalk up to “getting old”. When we don’t move, fascia forms adhesions that restrict and obstruct the sliding of fascia’s layers, making us feel tight, tense and in pain, slowly inhibiting our ability to move freely and greatly impacting our posture, alignment and overall health. Connective tissue and fascia crave movement!
What Leads to Unhealthy Fascia & Connective Tissue?
Our connective tissues take the shape of the lives we create for ourselves, reflecting our overall health. A sedentary lifestyle, repetitive movement patterns that create muscular imbalances, injury, inflammation, sitting for long periods, hormonal changes and surgeries are just a few things that impact the health of our connective tissues. These tissues hold a significant amount of our past health history, and much like dust on an old bookshelf, if we don’t take the time to “dust ourselves off” and restore their health, they will drastically affect the trajectory of our health to come.
But there’s good news! Just as connective tissue can be negatively impacted by our lifestyle, it can also be equally changed, remolded and unlocked through healthy patterns of movement! Fascia is flexible and adaptable, capable of restructuring and regenerating. The body may carry years of imbalances, but it’s remarkable how quickly these tissues start to transform and improve. While lasting changes require time, consistency and commitment, we can often feel a shift in our tissues – even after our very first Essentrics class!
Just as our connective tissues form an incredible, integrated system within us, their health impacts almost every aspect of our well-being. When our connective tissues are restored to health, a cascade of positive effects ripples throughout our body:
– The overall shape of our body can change, influencing how we stand and maintain our posture throughout the day
– Joints realign to alleviate pain and pressure
– Movement in our daily lives becomes smooth and effortless
– Our nervous system calms down, providing us with more of the “good” energy we need throughout the day
– Digestion improves
– Quality of sleep improves drastically
– We start to better engage with those around us with a sense of ease and confidence
Read Through Each Milestone to See a Timeline to Results ⬇
TIMELINE TO RESULTS
Every day you practice Essentrics, you’re nourishing the fascia and reversing the layers of stickiness that have built up over the years. Just as brushing your teeth is a daily ritual, so is the maintenance of your body’s connective tissue framework. If we decided to care for these tissues with a daily dose of Essentrics, here is how you could expect to feel over time.
DAY 1: Freedom & Intrigue
After experiencing your very first Essentrics class, the slow, deliberate movements that contract and elongate the muscles have already begun to help hydrate the fascia so the tissues can slide and glide like a well-oiled machine. You immediately feel a sense of freedom in your body… an after-workout sensation that you’ve perhaps never experienced before.
“When I did the first workout, my body felt so different than from any other kind of exercise I ever did. It awakened muscles I didn’t know were there, and I knew it had made my muscles more balanced! And rather than feel tired afterward, I felt energized!” – Carol
WEEK 1: Melting the Past Away
Now you might be starting to wonder why you feel so good and energized after an Essentrics class. That’s your fascia saying, “Thank you!” Science has caught up with what we have intuitively known all along: gentle full-body quality movement in all planes of motion will engage, stretch, and hydrate the fascia. With each class, you are starting to release years of tension in minutes. Your body and cells are thankful.
“I had been suffering from chronic pain syndrome for some years and felt helpless to overcome my condition. My heart told me that this might be an answer for me… The first few times I did the workout, I cried because I knew this was my answer…. and over time it definitely proved to be.” – Charlotte
DAY 14: Pain-Free & More Motivated Than Ever
Inflammation can sometimes be a factor in unhealthy muscle and fascia. Muscles and fascia that have been chronically stiff or contracted for years are often major sources of pain and inflammation in our tissues. After two weeks of Essentrics, many of the aches and pains that we’ve come to accept as normal have noticeably improved. Walking and daily routines start to feel easier, and the energy you’ve been missing returns. You’ve already begun to understand and experience what it means to restore balance in your tissues.
“Not ‘less stiffness and pain’… it’s NO stiffness and pain. I’m also more limber now than I was 20 years ago and have FAR less problems with leg cramps (which started plaguing me when I hit my 40s!)” – Martha
MONTH 1: My Body Feels Aligned
As you wrap up your first month with Essentrics, your increased strength and flexibility allow you to work deeper – kickstarting even greater benefits for the months to come. You might have noticed that your posture and movement are in better alignment, and you have the capacity to stay active with a variety of different activities as your connective tissues stay loose and healthy. You’re also experiencing the healing benefits of Essentrics as you continuously hydrate your fascia and rebalance your muscles.
“Every time I feel strong and flexible doing ordinary things throughout my day, every time I feel my fascia ripple as I bend/reach/stretch, I will always be grateful to you and your fitness program that easily fits my lifestyle and my personality!” – Debra
MONTH 3: Connective Tissue Transformation
Now your fascia really starts to change. It takes time and patience to unlock connective tissue – but it is life-changing for how you look and feel. From the three-month point onwards, you’ll notice the effects of consistently working your connective tissue, muscle strength and flexibility. Effortless posture, better sleep, comfort throughout your days and confidence in how you move are your new normal.
“I find Essentrics is that missing piece. I spend a lot of time hunched over a desk and I usually have a lot of hip, lower back and shoulder pain. With this program I notice I have a tighter core, better overall posture, and hips that love me better.” – Bethany
YEAR 1: Connective Tissue Evolution
You’re not just working out – you’re evolving. By the time you reach the one-year mark with Essentrics, you have completely remolded your connective tissue and fascia. It might feel as if for the first time you are wearing a body that fits the life you want for yourself. You feel like you’ve had a complete reset in your body’s balance, strength and flexibility. You find yourself moving in ways you never thought possible, enjoying activities that once caused you discomfort and inspired to plan new experiences for the future. You feel like a new person. With every stretching and strengthening exercise, you rediscover parts of your body you thought were lost to time.
“I can move much more freely. I feel like I have my old self back, only better… I feel alive again.” – Patricia
Written by Amanda Cyr, Essentrics Master Trainer, with contributing writer Lisa Mozo-Gleason
