Our guest is Paul Thornley, a certified STOTT PILATES® Lead Instructor Trainer and Advanced Neuromuscular Therapist, with over 20 years of experience. Based in Dubai, Paul is an international presenter specializing in Fascial Movement and Living Tensegrity in Motion, known for a teaching style that is both precise and clinical, yet full of humor and humanity.
We discuss the groundbreaking science of fascia, why it’s not “connective tissue” but the intelligent, living fabric that shapes, protects, and communicates throughout your body. Paul shares how fascia influences movement, pain, trauma, and resilience, and why it’s actually the fastest communication system in the body, outpacing even the central nervous system. He explains the myth of “tight” muscles, why stretching doesn’t work the way we think it does, and how micro-movements rehydrate and heal the body.
Together, we explore how fascia carries memory, emotion, and experience, revealing hidden links between trauma and the body, and how a deeper understanding of this tissue can transform the way we move, feel, and heal.
HIGHLIGHTS:
Fascia decoded: not “connective tissue,” but the living spiderweb that sets tone and communicates across the whole body. (1:14)
Harvard’s first Fascia Congress in 2007, where naturopathic and allopathic medicine finally came together to ask: what is fascia? (5:51)
There are no joints in the body, there are areas that fold. (8:10)
Fascia as soil: nourishing growth, guarding survival, and proving we are more emotional than mechanical. (8:26)
The body’s fastest messenger: fascia’s neural network bypasses the brain, moving you instinctively before thought. (12:03)
Your brain isn’t just in your head, it’s in your gut, skin, hands, and feet. Embryology explains why we feel the truth before we think it. (13:12)
The skeleton myth: the most misleading teaching tool in medicine. (14:32)
Why stiffness is systemic, not local: neck or back pain is the victim of whole-body movement patterns. (17:24)
Humans were not designed to exercise. (20:16)
No two bodies share the same anatomy. After 400 years of being told otherwise, fascia reveals our uniqueness. (22:52)
Muscles don’t contract, they tension fascia to fold and shape the body. If biomechanics worked, you couldn’t even sign your name. (24:13)
The stretch myth: living tissue resists stretching, creating defense instead of freedom. (25:45)
The four F’s: fight, flight, freeze, fawn and how they relate to fascia. (30:24)
Tightness as dehydration: fascia dries out not from lack of water, but from dysfunctional movement. (31:13)
Healing through micro-movement: real change comes from the smallest, subtlest shifts. (36:28)
Paul demonstrates the micro-movement of the shoulder; how small cues create big change. (37:58)
From pelvis to toe: your big toe grows from the sacrum, proving ankle and pelvis dysfunction are one story. (39:09)
Trauma lives in fascia. Paul shares his own release from claustrophobia. (44:01)
RESOURCES:
Follow @Paul.S.Thornley
Follow @Myofacial_Magic
Paul’s course Myofascial Magic In Action
Clinical Anatomist John Sharkey
International Fascial Research Congress
Follow @JoanneAvison
Book: Myofascial Magic In Action by Dr. Joanne Avison
Please enjoy!
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