The Secret Life of Fascia is a 3 Part Documentary Series:

Logline – Part 1 – What is Fascia and Why Is It Important?
Fascia has been historically marginalized and misunderstood in medical and anatomical texts. The Secret Life of Fascia shines an evidence-informed spotlight on the missing link this connective tissue plays in sports, medicine, health, and wellness.

Synopsis
Join Scientist Robert Schleip and a team of experts on a fascinating journey exploring the missing link fascia plays in sports, health, and wellness. The Secret Life of Fascia shines an evidence-informed spotlight on underlying mechanisms related to medicine, rehabilitation, and body-based optimization. Dense with science and relevant information for athletic training and activities of daily life, this celebration of the global body features professional, Olympic, and amateur athletes from a myriad of sports.

The Secret Life of Fascia re-considers the human body’s underlying architecture and design. It queries the concepts of underutilization, domestication, and mismatch in modern humans. It contemplates the predicament of a soft matter body living in a hard matter world.

Part 1 – Cast
(In Order Of Appearance) Robert Schleip, Carla Stecco, Antonio Stecco, Peter Friedl, Neil Theise, Michael Shacklock, Helene Langevin, Stuart McNish, Gil Hedley, Jaap van der Wal, Jan Sultan, Sacha Loiseau, Bruce Schonfeld, Ricky Williams, Ida P. Rolf, René Assink, Diane Lee, Donald E. Ingber, Wilbour Kelsick, John Sharkey, Stephen M. Levin, Tom Myers, Jean-Claude Guimberteau, Lucy Cooke, and #boxtape featuring Jeremy Gordaneer & Peter Trosztmer.

Logline – Part 2 – Underlying Mechanisms
(Coming in 2024)

Logline – Part 3 – Fascia in Sports and Movement
The docuseries continues the journey this time highlighting how fascia, myofascial relationships, and neurodynamics all play important parts in athletics, exercise, training, and activities of daily life. Part 3 looks at how the body moves in a myriad of ways through the lens of fascia.

Synopsis
Once again, Robert Schleip’s fascinating ‘fascia science’ lecture serves as the spine of the story as he leads another international multidisciplinary group of scientists, researchers, clinicians, therapists, and athletes on an educational and entertaining fact finding mission about fascia. The docuseries is a unique window into diverse sub-cultures of science and research intersecting with sports medicine, touch therapy, rehabilitation, orthopedics, fascia science, biotensegrity, health, wellness, and holistic healthcare.

The b-story subject of head injuries that was initially discussed in Part 1, The Ricky Williams Concussion Pilot Study, is further researched and developed by Ricky Williams and Gail Wetzler. Deepening the conversation between concussions and touch therapy, Dr. Wetzler presents a non-invasive manual therapy treatment approach and option to working with people who’ve had head injuries, hard knocks, and/or concussions.

While Americans alone spend billions of dollars annually on Complementary Alternative Medicine strangely CAM is still largely misunderstood. Attempting to build a bridge between western and non-western medicine, the documentary series shows the body in therapy on both sides of the healthcare divide. Part 3 features the body itself as protagonist on a journey of output, performance, rest, repair, recovery, rehabilitation, repeat. It seeks to prioritize the healthy body, sustainability, and finding balance.

Part 3 is loaded with experts discussing a spectrum of topics including rock climbing, running, baseball, football, concussions, yoga, pilates, dance, and of course fascia science and research. Manual and touch therapy remains a strong theme this time related to biomechanics, biotensegrity, neurodynamics, orthopedics, osteopathic manual therapy, visceral manipulation, craniosacral therapy, and rolfing structural integration.

Part 3 – Cast
(In Order Of Appearance) Ricky Williams, Robert Schleip, Devin Taylor, Russell Stolzoff, Sue Falsone, John Frazier, Jan Wilke, Michael Shacklock, Wilbour Kelsick, Paul Grilley, Stuart McNish, Helene Langevin, Bruce Schonfeld, Graham Scarr, Jan Sultan, Elizabeth Larkam, Eric Franklin, Gail Wetzler, and #boxtape featuring Jeremy Gordaneer & Peter Trosztmer

Chapters:
1. touch
2. when fascia fails
3. strength and conditioning
4. kinetic linking
5. plyometrics: friend or foe?
6. how to train your fascia
7. the science of stretch
8. rat yoga
9. domestication and deterioration
10. finding the right challenging zone
11. running
12. dampening fascia
13. biotensegrity: rock climbing
14. yoga, pilates, dance
15. am I overtraining?
16. perception
17. touching concussions
18. the mindful gardener