When you touch a body, it is irrelevant which manual therapy or technique you use - you are always interacting with the fascial system. From skin to inside bone there will be fascia. Fascia penetrates all structures, and there are a number of very important reasons for this which lead to the same destination: OUR HEALTH, maintaining our integrity. Staying healthy inside, the gravity environment we live in is a tremendous challenge for our engineering. Fascia is the one and only organ capable of making sure that the entire machine (our body) functions in an integrated and well-connected manner every fraction of a second, 24 hours a day.
As reflexologists and manual therapists we need to understand what we are touching. We need to understand that different ways of touching will have different effects on the fascial system. The fascial system is different depending on the depth inside the body, and those depths follow a hierarchy. So, everything we understand about the fascial system gives us information about the best ways to help it when it is impaired and unable function optimally.
The feet and lower legs are particularly important in regulating the fascial web. There is very little litterature on the subject as feet, even in the world of fascia, are usually merely looked at when the achilles tendon is suffering, or when there is plantar fascitiis. But the feet are the ones giving the information to the body about how to distribute the forces! The flexibility and elasticity of the foot ligaments, tendons, and fascial fibres will determine how flexible and elastic our bodies are. The fascial density inside the calcaneous heel bone will modify your weight distribution, hence your gait, with all the consequences this can have. And if the inward or outward rotation of the first metatarsal bone is restricted in any way your propulsion (pushing on the ball of the foot) will be subpar and your spine more rigid as a compensation mechanism. Again with all the ensueing repercussions. FEET AND THE LOWER LEGS ARE EXTREMELY IMPORTANT IN DETERMINING THE CONDITION OF THE FASCIAL WEB and therefore of your health.