Let’s start with the fact that our body is made of a vast amount of water. Our water content depends greatly on our age. The older we are, the lower the water content. However, regardless of our age, we believe that drinking water is good enough for hydration. Unfortunately, there is much more to optimal hydration than drinking water.

If I had to share just one sentence with you, it would be this: The number one component of Fascia is water, and Fascia as a tissue connects everything underneath your skin. 

That’s why keeping your fascia well-hydrated is essential for our well-being. 

Dr. Jean-Claude Guimberteau has recently discovered that Fascia is the hidden hydration system, an electrical system conducted by water that sends cell-to-cell communication. 

Based on that, I feel the Fascia is the authority system allowing healthy communication between different cells, organs, connective, and soft tissue issues, where hydration is required for a healthy existence.

“ The concentration quotients of salts (NaCl, KCI, CaCl2) in interstitial fluid and in the water of an ocean are nearly identical. Our cells are, in a manner of speaking, swimming gel-like structures in an ocean of interstitial fluids, and we are carrying that ocean around with us.  “ – Guido F. Meert

When it comes to hydrating fascia for optimal health and performance, it is important to note that It is not how much water we drink but how much water our cells can absorb that keeps us hydrated. And that involves precise nutritional and physical daily care.

How To Hydrate Fascia Through Nutrition

As mentioned above, the key is how much water our cells absorb to keep us hydrated.          

For that, essential nutritional steps must be addressed daily and even more intentionally in athletics for the fascia to stay elastic, function effectively, and support connective tissue resilience and muscle function. 

Have you ever wondered why bodybuilders and professional boxers for examples are more likely to feel “off” and get injured right before or after a competition? It’s because cutting weight usually involves drinking way less water. Since it’s water that provides the cell communication, strength, and resilience of our connective tissues, dehydration makes our body more brittle and prone to injury.

Water has a massive impact on our performance. Study after study shows that to reach our potential, we have to be more hydrated. 

When there is fluid flow, effortless, invisible to the human eye movement takes place underneath the skin. That flow allows nutrient delivery and other critical physiological functions to take place and allows for optimal hydration. 

Here are some fundamental steps we must take to hydrate fascia nutritionally. 

1. Drink Water—The most obvious way to hydrate your fascia is to drink enough water. Of course, this is very individual to each of us, depending on our daily activity level and also exposure to sun.  However, a good rule of thumb is to aim for at least eight glasses a day more if you’re physically active or live in a hot climate and spend your day outside. However, drinking water is the first but, unfortunately, insufficient step to hydrate your fascia. 

2. Electrolytes – We want to ensure our cells are hydrated inside, not just outside, and for that, we need electrolyte balance. That’s where frequently our health challenges come from and where our athletic recovery suffers. Sodium, chloride, and potassium are the three most common — and probably the most important for hydration — but bicarbonate, magnesium, calcium, and phosphate are also essential, especially for soft tissues hydration. However, most hydration beverages lack those electrolytes, and drinking them puts us further into imbalances. You can learn more in the PDF.

3. Hydrating Foods—Whole vegetables and fruits, especially those that contain fiber, are very important for your fascia hydration. I invite anyone to eat a diet rich in water-dense fruits and vegetables, such as starfruit, watermelon, strawberries, cucumbers, celery, and radishes to mention just a few. These foods help to hydrate your body from the inside out.

As we can imagine, it does not stop here. 

For those who wish to get to the bottom of how to hydrate fascia through nutrition, I invite you to get the PDF “3 Steps To Hydrate Fascia Nutritionally” in more detail with images, recipes, and products I know to keep your fascia healthy. 

How To Hydrate Fascia Through Movement

Movement, like nutrition, is critical for fascia hydration. However, not every motion, like not every food, hydrates the body equally. Variety of motion is key for fascia hydration to reach all our cells and tissues. 

When we stop moving or train our body one way, our fascia adapts become dry and sticky, and the surrounding tissues, like tendons and ligaments, become prone to injury.

Having healthy fluid flow throughout our body, and between different systems, is the most critical aspect of healthy living and athletic performance. A dear friend of mine, Lisa Upledger taught me how the craniosacral system is interconnected with the fascial system that we know surrounds the brain and spinal cord. And when there is a blockage of fluid flow, there is tension within the systems, and that impacts the nervous system and vice versa.

Like with any training modalities, there are principles for training and also hydrating fascia through movement. Yes, any movement is beneficial to us, but if we want elasticity and allow fascia and muscles to glide between each other to maximize our health and athletic performance, then we must focus on specific loading patterns, pre-stretches, and the critical sequence of the exercises that focus on elasticity and hydration.  

In Resync Your Body fascia training, 30 routines were specifically designed to focus on fascia elasticity and hydration. These are the same routines I created for professional athletes to improve their warm-ups and expedite the recovery process. 

The initial fascia training (fascia-preparatory moves) routines focus on the ankles, wrists (the retinaculum areas where we have the most hyaluronan – critical for the glide of fascial layers), hips, and shoulders. In healthy fascia, hyaluronan keeps everything gliding. 

“The most abundant hyaluronan (HA) amount was not surprisingly located in synovial joints. In the fascia associated with mobile joints, such as in the retinaculum of the ankle where greater degrees of sliding between fascial layers must occur…” Stecco at el, 2018

Then, we transition from lying down ( face up and on the sides) to hydrating different layers of our deep core myofascial (muscles and fascia) connections while kneeling and sitting. These routines also focus on the vagus nerve, as in many years of coaching practice, I saw incredible results while combining these systems (nervous and fascial) into one short fascia-focused movement routine. Finally, the fascia training ends in standing, that’s where my clients shared they could recognize how lighter they are on their feet and dynamically balanced.  

Using small fascia-hydrating tools, like soft myofascial release balls also supports the flow of fluids through the sponge principle. When you use small myofascial balls, they have the ability to create a local release & rehydrate the area deeply so you can create a better global dynamic movement across the entire myofascial (muscle and fascia) chain. When people use foam rollers, they frequently “slide” without rehydrating the deeper fascia layers. 

It is very beneficial to keep your fascia hydrated from the ground up that will also support blood flow to move back up towards the heart.

The Importance Of Hydrating Fascia 

1. Improved Flexibility and Mobility—when our fascia is hydrated, it is more elastic and flexible, allowing us to maximize our range of motion. On the other side, when fascia is dehydrated, it becomes stiff and unmovable, restricting movement from the ground up making it more difficult to perform daily activities and achieve our athletic goals.

2. Experience Relief and Comfort—when our fascia is hydrated, the muscles and fascia glide, maintaining their collagenous, moisture texture, preventing the formation of painful knots and allowing muscles to function without restriction.

3. Enhanced Athletic Performance & Recovery – for any professional or elite athlete hydrating fascia prior to any competition or training and rehydrating it post game, travel or training, is essential for peak performance. It reduces the risk of connective tissue injury. Proper hydration enhances tissue repair and regeneration. 

4. Better Posture – when our fascia is hydrated, our soft and hard skeleton keeps us aligned. When fascia is dehydrated, it can lead to many postural compensations, higher hip or shoulder, contributing to back pain and other musculoskeletal issues.

5. Enhanced Circulation—when our fascia is hydrated, it positively impacts our nervous and circulatory systems. Hydrated fascia ensures that blood and lymphatic fluids can circulate effectively throughout the body. This helps many physiological processes, like nutrient delivery to cells and removal of waste products, promoting overall cellular health and vitality.

Hydrated Mindset- Growth Mindset

For the 1% of pro athletes, greatness begins with a fluid mindset focusing on mindful self-care. Let’s remember we only have one mind-body. Listening vs. judging our needs is essential to staying on top of our game and life journey.

The above fascia hydration techniques focus on our fluid flow – improving blood, lymphatic flow, and oxygenation to all connective and soft tissues, reducing lactic acid, soreness, discomfort, inflammation, and metabolite buildup in the muscles and fascia, lowering cortisol (crucial for fascia hydration and effective recovery), and supporting a healthier fluid state of mind.

Fascia hydration is a critical component of our overall well-being, whether we are athletes or not.

Embracing fascia hydration is more than just a short-term solution. It is a long-term investment in our body’s resilience and vitality. Addressing fascia hydration leads to greater well-being and a higher quality of life.

In the realm of athletic performance, healthy, hydrated fascia supports the intricate dynamic balance and coordination required for peak performance, enabling athletes to push their limits safely and effectively. Moreover, the more hydrated fascia, the faster recovery, leading to less downtime and more consistent training, which is essential for progress and greatness in any sport.

Well-hydrated fascia can be the difference between an average performance, a missed game, or an outstanding performance in the last quarter or entire game and winning a championship.

Whether you’re an athlete aiming for excellence or someone seeking to improve daily comfort and function, focusing on fascia hydration can unlock new levels of physical potential and overall wellness. Invest in your fascia health today and experience the transformative impact of a well-hydrated, dynamically resilient body.

As a certified performance coach, I believe when mindful self-care and coaching come together, breakthroughs follow. Active recovery is part of pro athletes’ mindful self-care protocol.

I know lying down with your feet against the wall will not help expedite your recovery and prepare the myofascial (muscles and fascia), neurovascular, and cardiovascular systems for the next workout, practice, or game.

So what do the best 1% of pro athletes do to prevent burnout and stay on top of their game?

In my journey through athletic performance, I’ve realized that your physical game is as good as your mental preparation, and pushing yourself to the limits is the first step to overtraining, an under-recovered body, and injury—the opposite of a path to consistent performance and success.

However, through personal and professional experience and extensive research, I’ve learned that active recovery is a healthier approach to enhancing your performance and greatness.

Before I explain what’s unique about active recovery, I want to share that I am a big believer that recovery protocols need to be tailored to the individual athlete’s needs, training load, and sports demands. Performance and sports medicine professionals trained in the myofascial, neurovascular, neuromuscular, and cardiovascular systems must oversee a comprehensive recovery plan to prevent injury and keep the body at its optimal performance level.

Active recovery involves engaging in low-intensity mindful movement to facilitate the body’s recovery process. It’s a very well-structured approach that focuses on promoting rehydration of the fascia system, circulation and improving oxygenation and nutrient delivery to every tissue to reduce muscle and fascia soreness. 

Active recovery focuses on rejuvenating and nourishing every layer of your body: the fascia, tendons, ligaments, muscles, cartilage, bones, and the mind. It is both emotional and physical.

Here Are Some Examples Of Active Recovery Protocols That 1% Of Pro Athletes Apply:

• The localized self-myofascial release must start with the feet but not end there. The purpose is to release tension and rehydrate the fascia and surrounding tissues. For example, the myofascial balls that are part of the core boot can be used on every part of the body to release tension and increase blood flow and oxygenation to every organ and surrounding tissue. However, the benefit of core boot goes beyond blood flow & oxygen support. 

• One of my favorite ways to start rejuvenating the neurovascular system is by using Resync Your Body’s low vibroacoustic chair. Athletes can use it for meditation, visualization, or recovery breathing while performing gentle self-neurovascular releases for the upper body, focusing on the vagus nerve along the way. I am a big believer that to get the full picture of myofascial (muscle and fascia) fatigue and weakness, it’s critical to focus on the Central Nervous System (CNS), which includes the brain and spinal cord, and the Peripheral Nervous Systems (PNS).

• Fascia Hydration through hands-on therapy or movement—a restorative, slow-paced movement routines that focus on the sponge principle that addresses every layer of the fascia to enhance connective tissues and muscle recovery.

• Cranial therapy is an essential part of fluid and emotional recovery.

• When it comes to nutrition, food comes first. A balanced diet rich in lean proteins, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats supports every layer of the body, not just muscles. When it comes to liquid replenishment. Drinking water is not enough to rehydrate your body – the fascial system is the key to effective rehydration and needs more than water. You need the right balance between sodium and potassium and other electrolytes and minerals. Another critical point is collagen protein intake, not just whey, to refuel all amino acids for muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia, cartilage, and bones. If you just take whey protein, your tendons and ligaments will suffer. That’s why I created Resync, which addresses the recovery of every tissue in the body. Also, allow me to say this: if drinking coffee after extensive training is one of your habits, you may want to stop, as coffee has catabolic effects and can result in a decline in the testosterone: cortisol ratio. That’s lesson number one, my first strength coach, Charles Poliquin, taught me back in 2009.

• Cranial therapy is an essential part of fluid and emotional recovery.

• I am also a big fan of medical hyperbaric oxygen chambers (HBO). The oxygen level is way higher than in sleeping bags, and that matters when you are dealing with brain recovery, going through injury or surgery, and want to decrease your recovery time. I initially experienced hyperbaric chambers back in 2011. I did 20 dives myself before I suggested hyperbaric therapy to NFL and PGA Tour Players to recover faster.

• Fundamental cold and heat therapy or cryotherapy can be beneficial in reducing chronic inflammation.

Of course, there are other tools and modalities, like compression boots or percussive therapy guns, that athletes like to use. However, I am a big believer that low vibration is best for fascia recovery, fluid flow, and oxygen delivery to the tissues, and slow and gentle touch gets the best results for our nervous system.

Recovery is crucial for every high-performing professional, not just the 1% of pro athletes, to perform at their best and prolong their careers. Applying the above strategies will improve cognitive health, energy production, and sleep patterns.

Let’s remember that we do not improve sleep by taking melatonin or sleeping pills. We get peaceful sleep for 7-9 hours when we address our neurovascular system to create resilience within us.

As an executive, I view myself as a pro athlete. My mind-body must be sharp every day so I can connect with my needs, stay resilient at times of challenge, and enjoy growing my business. Good examples of what helps executives keep their minds peaceful and resilient are the “awareness walks” – a self-care and self-growth tool I created to help busy professionals like myself focus on stress release, clarity, courage, energy, productivity, and presence. They are a mix of mindfulness and performance coaching.

The Active Recovery Mindset- Growth Mindset.

For the 1% of pro athletes, active recovery begins with adopting a mindset of self-care and self-compassion. It is an act of grace for our mind and body. In my coaching sessions, I often would say, “Give yourself some grace.”

Let’s remember we only have one body. Listening vs. judging our needs is essential to stay on top of our game. The above active recovery techniques focus on improving blood, lymphatic flow, and oxygenation to all tissues, reducing lactic acid and metabolite buildup in the muscles and fascia, lowering cortisol (crucial for effective recovery), and supporting a healthier state of mind.

The best of the best will tell you their performance is as good as their active recovery.