All About Visceral Mobilization
Hello friends!
If you have been keeping up with our blog series, you may have read our pelvic floor 101 guide. In that article, we talked about what the pelvic floor is, what it consists of, and how it functions. With this article, we’re going to dive deeper into one more component that is crucial to pelvic floor health: fascia.
So, what is fascia exactly?
In short, fascia is connective tissue that is found underneath the skin and surrounds every structure (e.g. blood vessels, nerves, organs, muscles, etc.). If you have ever prepared chicken, it’s that thin, translucent sheath that encompasses the meat. Imagine, this sheath of connective tissue is like a 3D web that is continuous throughout the whole body. It offers structural support, and it helps transmit forces throughout the body. Every time we breathe, our organs have to move, and our fascia helps these structures glide and slide along each other.
What is visceral fascia?
Now that we know what fascia is, visceral fascia is the fascia that surrounds your viscera (i.e. organs). Visceral fascia starts at the cranium, and it extends all the way down to the pelvic floor. Visceral fascia helps organs glide and slide along each other, and we need it to do so in certain scenarios. For example, when we breathe in, our liver descends about 3 centimeters, and we need our liver to move with each breath to allow the diaphragm to contract downwards. Also, when we rotate our torso, our liver also needs to move to allow for full, comfortable rotation. In turn, if our fascia is restricted around our visceral organs, it can translate into a functional movement problem or even pain.
What is Visceral Mobilization and how does it help pelvic dysfunction?
As discussed, organs need to move with function (like the bladder expanding into the abdominal cavity as it fills) and with movement (like the intestines moving over the bladder when we bend forward). At times, the fascia becomes restricted, limiting natural movement of the organs. Depending on which organ it is, the fascia around the viscera can become dense due to certain reflexes in our body. The best way I know how to explain it is if you were able to have a heart attack for a really long time, say 3+ months, this would change the density of the fascia in its referred regions (e.g. the shoulder).
Now let’s put this in a pelvic dysfunction scenario. Imagine if you were suffering from interstitial cystitis. This can potentially change the density of the fascial structures surrounding your abdominal and pelvic organs (e.g. bladder, kidneys) creating difficulty for these organs to move naturally. In turn, this can contribute to urinary discomfort and pain. Further, visceral mobilization is not limited to the urinary system. It is also utilized in the reproductive system and GI system. Therefore, you can imagine all the things it can help with in the pelvic health world!
Visceral fascia mobilization is a manual therapy technique that mobilizes the fascia surrounding the organs. Therefore, if the tissues become dense, your practitioner will then mobilize the fascia around these structures. Now, this is the magic of this. It’s not necessarily the practitioner's hands that are “loosening up the tissues.” What is thought to happen is that this manual therapy technique communicates with your nervous system to help it “let go.” In fact, many people feel a strong kick in their parasympathetic nervous system after a visceral mobilization session.
In all, you can see that visceral mobilization is a crucial part to our treatment protocol, and this helps with pelvic dysfunction in nature. We hope you learned a lot from this, and if you have questions on how this can help you call us at (323) 403-0234 or click here for a free 15-minute digital consultation.
