The Fuzz between muscle tissue and fascia
Ok, so what is “the fuzz”? The fuzz is a build up of cottony tissue that forms between sliding surfaces in your body. This stuff forms while you sleep. When you move, it goes away. That impulse to stretch every time you get up from being stagnant helps it pull apart. We are designed to move. When we don’t move it causes problems.
The fuzz is a part of the creeping onset of stiffness over time. If you don’t move and get this stuff broken up it will build up day after day, eventually leading to the tissue being frozen in place and severely limiting mobility. At this point it will take pretty dedicated work, massage, rolfing, etc to get it to free up.
Sarah F. brought in a video from Gil Hedley that discusses the fuzz and goes into detail on what it is. He also has cadaver tissue to show exactly what it is. If you’re squeemish about body tissue then you may opt out on viewing.
So make sure you get moving in the morning. Try to get in the habit of doing a lot of range of motion movements. The more you can break down the fuzz first thing, the better you will move overall.
Oh, and a games update. The final affiliate team competition involved an obstacle course with rope climbs. Bummer, we would have done well at this. I guess we’ll just have to qualify next year.
Here are the final individual workouts:
Event 5
7 rounds for time of:
3 cleans (205/135 lb.)
4 ring handstand push-ups (men)/4 handstand push-ups (women)
12-minute cap
Event 6a
3 rounds for time of:
30 push-ups with hand release
Over the wall
21 overhead squats (95/65 lb.)
7-minute cap
Event 6b
Three rounds for time of:
30 toes-to-bar
21 ground to overhead (95/65)
7-minute cap
Event 6c
3 rounds of:
5 burpee wall jumps
3 20-foot rope climbs (men)/2 20-foot rope climbs (women)
12-minute cap
BTW no one completed all 3 event 6 workouts within the cap times.
Only one person completed the 6a workout within the time alotted and I don’t think anyone completed the 6b workout. Absolutely brutal workouts.
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear….
Until a few months ago, my office was on Washington Square Park in North Beach. Every morning I’d go to work and park across the park from my office. As long as I got there by 9 or so, there were always large groups of predominantly Chinese women doing tai chi in various groups, along with a few elderly fan dancers and occasionally sword dancers.
I’d previously been fairly contemptuous of tai chi, having come from a functional fighting background, but after watching these people enough I realized that tai chai is designed to do exactly what you’re talking about in this post. Their series of movements rotate all the major and most of the minor joints in the body during the sessions, and no doubt get rid of the ‘fuzz’ while doing so, though this is the first time I’ve heard of the ‘fuzz.’
I love the very technical, scientific, terms that Gil uses in his video. “…in the same way that the fuzz melted when I passed my finger through it.” Exactly what is the “fuzz” composed of? What kind of cells make up the “fuzz”? What does “melting the fuzz” mean specifically? does it tear those cells apart? Are they not cells at all? Does running your finger cause an increase of heat that “melts” the fuzz? Here is a link to a descriptive profile of “Dr.” Gil Hedley, Ph.D.:
http://www.advancededucators.com/public/gil-hedley.html
or maybe to continue with my little vein of sarcasm, let’s look at one of the comments on the you-tube video from “AdiYogini”:
“I believe that etheric fuzz clogs our energy fields from lack of efforts to break through to awareness, where we may experience true yoga and union with the Divine. In shamanic circles this is known as “the Veil of Illusion,” and is sensed as a physical barrier to entering the Upper World of spiritual guides.”
Ok.. more seriously now, I think our good Dr. in Theological and Philosophical Ethics has great intentions and made a great video that gets a good point accross, namely that we need to move around, loosen up and stretch in order to stay limber. He may even have the beginnings of a scientific theory about “fuzz” or that material between the “…sliding surfaces of your musculature…”, but I’m not giving him any real scientific wieght until there are some serious studies done on “fuzz”. Of course, it’s hard to run your finger through the “fuzz” of a live person and see if they are more limber, etc. On the other hand, cadavers will hardly ever complain if they feel that damage is being doen to their bodies, so setting up experiments may be a little challenging.
Be careful with youtube and media, guys. Really good sales-people can make almost anything sound like science.
I think the fuzz actually starts post workout when you sit down to relax before you go to sleep. Would explain why it’s painful to “get up” off the couch to go to bed after a Wod. and YES i did/do stretch post WOD..
Pluueezzzeeee! Pshaw! Are you kidding me with this video? First of all, the infamous fuzz (or is it fuss?!) you are seeing there is probably from decay on that poor person’s cadaver for Christ’s sake. This video wouldn’t have had the same uncaptive audience, had it not been for that quirky weirdo moving around pretending he knows what he is talking about. I will actually show this video to some of our general surgeons and get back to you, but I’m with Andreas on this one. A skeptic at best! To be continued…Ohh yeahh and one more thing…does anybody really know who that dude is? Please say it aint so Pllluuueezzzeee…
Notice that right after 49 secs. in the video El De Barge himself had to try to keep a straight face and not throw up after running his fingers through the fuzz….bahhaahhhh
Ok so here is the final fuss over the “fuzz”. I talked to one of our surgeons this morning and he said this guy is a “quack”. The proper term for what you saw is called CT or Connective Tissue. As the name implies, connective tissue serves a “connecting” function. In vertebrates, the most common type of connective tissue is loose connective tissue. It holds organs in place and attaches epithelial tissue to other underlying tissues. It has nothing to do with why someone might be sore and it most certainly has nothing to do with lack of flexibility. These are not my words now, I am merely putting into words some of my early musings over coffee with one of our most respected surgeons here at the Surgery Center, Dr. Daniel Solomon.
Yeah…, that makes more sense. Like I metioned, it would be really hard to make an objective “Fuzz” experiment with high standards. Maybe our revered Dr. of Theological studies himself could volunteer to have his “fuzz/connective tissue” manually broken down and then we can see how well he moves. Carlos, thank you for doing some research and thank you to Dr. Solomon for his time.
This I feel is a great post and really talks about some of the stuff I work on with all my athletes on a day to day basis. Yes
“fuzz” is a less technical word but what he is referring to is the fascia.
I happened to attend the first Fascia Research clinic in 2007 at Harvard. In summary what we learned is the fascia sits ontop of muscles, they group muscles together, and even organs. It is believed the fascia is more important that orginially thought. One reason why fascia hasn’t recieved adequate scientific attention in the past decade is that this tissue is so pervasive and interconnected that it easily frustarted researchers to divided it into a discrete number of subunits which can be classified and separated into individual cells and etc.
Since 2007, a cadaver has been cut accordinally to view the fascia planes that run through the body. This is how today it’s believed injuries bounce back and forth from one body area to the next. Example: the right shoulder hurts, and the left hip is tight. Well, when you look at it, the spiral fascia plane connects those two body parts though the core. You can look more of this stuff up on http://www.fasciacongress.org and google- Anatomy Trains to see what I’m talking about. It all favors the functional movements that we do in Cross Fit.
Now for a little Histology of “The fuzz”
When a muscle, tendon or ligament is torn the healing process involves the creation of scar tissue (fibrinogen). This is necessary to connect and bind the torn tissue of the muscle, tendon or ligament. Unfortunately, the healing scar tissue often sticks to surrounding structures like the fasica (think of it as glue) entrapping nerves, limiting motion, strength, speed, and over-working healthy tissue. Scar tissue can also result from overuse. Overuse causes the tissues to increase in tension; this decreases the blood supply and releases free radicals. Free radicals attract the cells that produce scar tissue. This means that poor posture, athletic pursuits, and repeated use can all result in scar tissue.
Now, yes you can feel scar tissue build up. That’s why Active Release Technique and other Myofascial protocols and Graston Technique have been around for years. Imagine speed bumps when you slide your hand against muscle. The muscle should be smooth and not contracting, more often than not you can feel these bumps your self with foam rolling. That’s the fascia not gliding over the muscle creating a snag and imbalance.
As for healing, the connective tissue is clearly observed when tissues are destroyed by inflammation or traumatic injury. In these cases, the spaced left after injury to tissues whose cells do not divide (cardiac muscle) are filled by connective tissue which forms scar. The main cell type involved in repair is the fibroblast.
When the fibroblast is adequately stimulated, such as during would healing, the fibrocytes revert to fibroblasts and starts the healing process. (ref: Dr. Junqueire- Histologist)
All in all, I believe the word fuzz is more friendly that the word fascia.. Sometimes you throw a medical word at a patient and you see their eyes glaze over. So I’m all for information that attracts people to keep on moving.. Rest makes Rusty.
Now we all could do a little experiment considering I have massive blisters on my hands from the uneven bars and look at the gross scar tissue forming on my hand under a microscope.
Yeah Sara! you tell those naysayers. and Carlos i was not referring to soarness post workout. I was referring to “stiffness”… and I’m usually fine in the A.M. Soarness happens 24 hours later - for me anyway.
Thank you for that input, Sara. I appreciate the good explanations. That clarifies things a bit.