Answers

Some nights I'm full of questions, and other nights I'm full of answers. Since tonight is one of the latter, I'll give you the question:

How come I can playfight or play contact sports, but yet hurt so bad when someone pinches or slaps me?

Now I realize that I could have asked a much more abstract question. I have lots of those, we'll save them for a more coherent evening.

Growing up with two older brothers may have been a different childhood than some of my friends may have experienced. Throw in my nature, my involvement with hockey, and my love for muscles and you are left with someone who thinks punching someone is a sign of affection! Punching appears to be quite diverse. It can be used to joke around and provoke someones playful nature, to let someone know you are serious, or when verbal communication has failed. Sounds like a great tool to me!

Eventually I realized that there are some serious social boundaries when it comes to any kind of physical force. To this day, I can't say that I'm on board with the theory... but I am responsible and do my best to function in social settings. (At least I hope my friends can attest to the fact that I don't hit everyone I love!)

So as you can tell... I'm quite fond of a punch. It's not offensive to me in any way, and sometimes its a lot easier to get my on the same page as you by resorting to good old physical abuse ;)

I can't believe I just disgressed so far from the point of this! Anyway, I'll leave it as is and continue on with my answer.

Some people joke around by smacking people, pinching them, jabbing at them (especially a bad idea to do this to my love handles!). Funnily enough, if you punch me in a nice way, I'll smile at you. If you pinch me or slap me, I'll quickly lose my temper because the sting on my body is unbearable. I thought at first, maybe punching hurts less because the force is spread out over a greater area... nope.

The answer to my lifelong hate for these actions is FASCIA - the soft tissue component of the connective tissue system that permeates the human body. It interpenetrates and surrounds muscles, bones, organs, nerves, blood vessels and other structures. Fascia is an uninterrupted, three-dimensional web of tissue that extends from head to toe, from front to back, from interior to exterior. It is responsible for maintaining structural integrity; for providing support and protection; and acts as a shock absorber.

Thank you to wikipedia for the definition and to my massage therapist for putting an end to my mystery (and misery)! As you read, Fascia is a 3d web of tissue that goes from head to toe, front to back. So if anyone has ever grabbed your love handles, and you were trying to figure out "how is it possible for fat to hurt?", it's your fascia that hurts.

The more active you are, the tighter your fascial layers become. Instead of the 3 parts acting as seperate entities, they get stuck together and their ability to absorb shock lessens. So instead of the superficial layer absorbing the sting of a slap, the sting radiates through all three layers which connects your entire body. Bad bad. Also, if you're fascial layers are tight, when they get worked on or irritated (like a slap), the toxins release and you get a blotchy red look, kind of like a welt. Awful. lol.

Anyways, this has been random, but let's recap the main points:

1) Please don't ever be offended if a punch you in a happy way - it means I'm fond of you ;)

2) Slapping, Pinching and Jabbing are no laughing matters!

3) My massage therapist rocks - she is doing a good job at keeping the fascia healthy so as to lessen the sting of all my athletic endeavors.

This entry stemmed from a dream I had last night. It was all about fascia, as I demonstrated to someone in an educational matter, how my body will welt up when the fascia is irritated. Luckily it didn't hurt as much in the dream as it does in real life, but it was an educational time for me. I'm just about to enter my other world, it accounts for about 33-40% of the time in my life. I'm glad I learn new things while sleeping. lol

Goodnight Team :)

ps Dancing friends, I thought of you tonight, and hope you had a wonderful time. I look forward to pictures and reviews :)