A Footballer’s Guide to Fascia Training in 2025
Fascia training is a type of sports training that focuses on improving the main properties of your connective tissue, or fascia, which includes biotensegrity, viscoelasticity, and more. The term “Fascia training” itself is relatively new, especially in the social media fitness and soccer niche, but “fascia training itself” has been around forever.
During my years of studying kinesiology:rehab science in college there was very little to no information on fascia because scientists used to believe it was filler material, which is why there are so many misunderstandings about this training methodology. I had to do a lot of research and experiment with various training camps, traditional and alternative, to learn about the importance and misconceptions about fascia training and some good news is that nowadays there is more research being done on this topic than ever before.
Studies are now showing how important fascia is for athletic movement, energy efficiency, injury prevention, and even cellular health at the mitochondria. This growing evidence is helping change how we approach training, emphasizing the need for dynamic, elastic, and full-body movements that load the fascial lines instead of isolating muscles.
Fascia training is very valuable for soccer players and athletes because it targets the spring-like qualities of the body that are necessary for explosive movements, efficient energy transfer, and overall durability. Unlike traditional strength training that focuses mainly on muscle hypertrophy, fascia-focused exercises aim to restore elasticity, hydration, and responsiveness in the tissue, which can help improve speed, reduce the risk of overuse injuries, and enhance recovery.
What is Fascia Training?
The human body is made up of various systems and each system can be trained in their own unique way.
- Circulatory
- Respiratory
- Integumentary
- Digestive
- Urinary
- Reproductive
- lymphatic
- Nervous
- Endocrine
- Immune
- Skeletal
- Muscular
- Fascial
Think of the fascial system, or the fascial network, as a spider web that holds everything together inside your body, bones, muscles, joints, ligaments, organs, nerves, everything. Fascia is the largest organ in the body and it is also a sensory organ that has 6-10 times more nerve endings than muscles do which is why it plays a huge role in proprioception, interception, and exteroception.
One important misconception to clear up right now is that anytime you are training you are really training all of your systems because nothing is ever working in isolation. We cannot isolate fascia and we cannot isolate muscles.
When we do “fascia-based” training we are still training the muscles, tendons, and ligaments, and more and even when we do “muscle-based” training we are also training the fascia, tendons, and ligaments, and more, but in different ways that gives different results. The main goal of fascia training is to learn how to apply tension throughout your body and improve the main qualities of fascia which will improve your reflexive movements.
Common examples of fascia training include elastic rebound and plyometric exercises like hopping or skipping, dynamic stretching with multidirectional movement, spiral-based movements such as rotational lunges or crawling patterns, and training barefoot to activate the deep stabilizing muscles in the feet. Common examples of muscle-based training include traditional strength exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, bicep curls, and leg extensions—movements that typically follow linear patterns and focus on isolated muscle groups.
As an aspiring soccer player you want healthy, smooth fascia without any adhesions that allows all of the layers to slide along each other properly, which leads to effortless and fluid movement due to better transfer of energy within the body. Check out this video to see the role of fascia in kinetic linking and energy movement throughout the body.
Fascia is what enables energy to travel seamlessly from the ground up, starting with the feet. And while this is a boxing video, the same concepts apply directly to the soccer field when sprinting, changing direction, or striking the soccer ball. Remember: different exercises have different effects on your fascia—some create elasticity, some create stiffness, and others help reorganize the fascial web altogether.
The key is learning how to train it intentionally, so it supports your performance and longevity in the game.
How do you Perform Fascia Training?
This kind of training doesn’t just make you stronger—it helps you move more intelligently, with greater efficiency and less effort. Fascia training emphasizes the quality of your connective tissues, how well you can transfer energy within the body, and treats the body as one whole unit, not as separate muscles that contract individually.
Fascia training will help you awaken dormant receptors in your body, meaning it will help regain sensation in those areas, as well as help you be better able to tension, coordinate, and sequence your muscles, which are surrounded by fascia, at the right time during athletic movements.
The main properties of fascia that are worked during “fascia training” and myofascial release, a form of self-massage, include:
- Viscosity- relating to water and how hydrated or dehydrated the fascia is
- Elasticity- the ability to store and use elastic energy
- Biotensegrity- conceptual model that describes how the body’s biological structures are held together and interact with each other through tensional and compressional forces.
This is the best video to visualize some of the effects of fascia training. Look at how springy and effortless these guys jump and look at their physiques. This is more simple to see because they are jumping in place, but during sprints and other athletic movements fascia has a different role since you are moving through space.
To begin training your fascia you have to train the four key areas of the fascia system:
- The tongue
- The feet
- The hands
- The spine
Fascia training starts with having the proper tongue posture which is referred to as mewing. Mewing refers to the proper tongue posture, pressure, and suction on the roof of the mouth and it is required to create and sustain proper cranial pressure as well as help you better engage the fascia system.
Along with improving mewing, and making it a more reflexive effort, fascia training also involves learning how to apply proper fascial tension to the feet, arch, and toes. It is also important to know that the tongue has a myofascial line, the deep frontal line, that connects it directly to your big toes and this line makes your tongue and feet act like a pulley system.
Your feet are your roots, like the roots of a tree, and they are your one and only connection to the ground which is why it is important to have full functioning feet with toes that can retract, a strong arch, an ankle that knows how to act as a spring, and strong fascial connections with the rest of the body. As you begin to train your plantar fascia, the bottom of your foot, you will begin to develop a stronger neurological connection from the feet to the glutes, since the glutes are made up of mostly fascial inserts.
Your hands are your second root and how you grab on to things, which means they have a huge impact, literally, on how you grasp on to life and other objects. The spinal engine theory states how the spine, which has a ton of fascial inserts, is the main driver of motion and there is a natural sway of the spine that has to happen as we move through space.
Fascia Training Exercises
The best way to start a form of fascia training is to get better at mewing and to start becoming more aware of your tongue posture. From there, its important to use fascia exercises for the feet to help you regain full foot function, which means being able to retract the toes, engage the arch, and lock the ankle.
The following exercises look like they are “foot” exercises but they are really supposed to be glute exercises. This means if you do not feel your glutes working at all while trying the following exercises you have a lot of fascial fitness to build up and this means you do not have easy subconscious access to the deeper layers of your fascia.
Overtime, the more you do these exercises, which have to be done correctly, the more you will start to feel your glutes, which means you are waking up the deeper layers of your body. The more you start to feel the glutes during these exercises, the more your fascia is working and overtime the goal is to feel the tension coming from the core as well.
- Self massage your feet with a massage tool, such as a spiky ball, a tennis ball, or PVC Pipe – 3 minutes each side
- Towel retractions – 3 minutes each side
- Toe Curls- 3 minutes each side
- Barefoot Hops / mini bounces – 3 minutes total
- Back Chain Dominance Hold – 3 minutes total
- Spend a lot of time barefoot, go on barefoot walks, and build up tolerance to go on barefoot jogs or runs
- Also wear barefoot shoes as much as possible
These are the most basic exercises to begin developing your fascia. If you are interested in learning more, private training, or getting more exercises and a full guide on how to train your fascia and more please contact me and mention this blog post or fill out the form on our private training page.
Summary
To summarize, fascia training is a new form of training that many people do not really understand yet, but it’s quickly gaining attention for its role in improving movement, injury prevention, and athletic performance. It focuses on training the body as an interconnected system, enhancing the elasticity, hydration, and coordination of your fascia.
For soccer players, this can lead to more fluid movements, quicker recovery, and better energy transfer across the body. As more research and awareness shows up, fascia training is becoming more of an essential part of a modern athlete’s toolkit.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you perform Myo-fascial release to get rid of fascia adhesions?
Fascia adhesions, or knots, develop when your fascia gets dehydrated and sticky. To perform myo-fascial release use a spiky ball or a tennis ball on any tight areas of your body.You can also try other tools such as a golf ball or a massage gun. With myofascial realease you have to spend time working on an area and do it mindfully to get the best results.
How does fascia affect poor posture and athletic performance?
The fascial network plays a huge role in proper posture and athletic performance because fascia surrounds and encases everything in your body from muscles, to tendons, ligaments, nerves, and basically everything else. Having smooth fascia without any adhesions allows the layers of fascia to slide properly and leads to more fluid, effortless movements. If you are looking for an individual training program that offer soccer training, fascia training, and more make sure to reach out!
