Fascia and Pain

Role of fascial connective tissue in muscle soreness and back pain

When treating pain, medicine typically focuses on structures such as ligaments, tendons, intervertebral discs and muscles. In contrast, it is less common to focus on the fascia. However, the sheaths of the musculature, which consist of connective tissue, have three times as many free nerve endings as muscles and are significantly more sensitive to pain, even when subjected to specific experimental irritation.

Against this background, we are investigating whether and what role fasciae play in musculoskeletal complaints. This applies in particular to back pain, in which the fascia can be easily visualized and examined thanks to new ultrasound technologies. However, the high pain sensitivity of the fascia is not only relevant for us in the area of classic complaints. We were able to show that the fascia appears to play a central role in muscle soreness, as both hardening and thickening occur here. Interestingly, these changes correlate with the complaints of people with muscle soreness. We therefore propose the term fascia soreness and investigate whether fascia-specific exercises and therapies can better prevent and treat “muscle soreness”.