Project Description

WORKSHOP 11:

Fascia-informed approaches for Low Back and Pelvic Girdle Dysfunction & Pain: From research to practice

Speakers: Andrezij Pilat & John Sharkey

Short description

This hands-on workshop integrates fascia-focused, dissection-derived clinical anatomy with practical assessment and manual exploration, supporting safe, appropriate, and clinically reasoned intervention for low back and pelvic girdle pain.

 

Full description

This full-day, hands-on workshop explores low back and pelvic girdle pain through an integrated model that combines fascia-focused clinical anatomy with contemporary pain science. Rather than locating pain within isolated structures, the lumbopelvic region is approached as a continuous, load-sharing field in which tissue behaviour, sensory processing, and adaptive strategies interact to shape pain experience.

Drawing on their interdisciplinary collaboration through the Fascia Research Society Congress, Andrzej Pilat and John Sharkey will guide participants through dissection-informed anatomical perspectives alongside experiential hands-on practice. Fascia is presented as a dynamic continuum, where changes in tone, hydration, and mechanotransduction influence nociceptive input, movement variability, and protective guarding.

Dissection-derived visuals and clinical reasoning frameworks will be used to reframe common lumbopelvic pain presentations, emphasising continuity, tensegrity, and neuromyofascial integration. A major focus of the day is hands-on exploration, where participants will develop palpatory and assessment skills that attend to tissue responsiveness rather than structural fault. Manual interventions will emphasise how working with perceptible fascial laminae can modulate afferent input, support movement confidence, and facilitate adaptive reorganisation.

This workshop is designed for clinicians seeking to integrate modern pain science with anatomically informed, hands-on practice that is responsive, safe, and clinically meaningful.

 

Format and agenda

  • 09:30–12:30 | Theoretical Session
    • Illustrated presentation (PowerPoint) with anatomical images from unembalmed cadavers dissection-derived, continuity-informed
    • Key principles of fascial anatomy and its role in motor function
    • Mechanisms of dysfunction: fascial densification, movement, and pain
    • Essential processes: tissue gliding, stimulus detection, and cellular adaptation through mechanotransduction and neuromodulation
  • 12:30–13:30 | Lunch Break (1 hour)
  • 13:30–16:30 | Practical Demonstrations and Applications
    • Strategies for manual assessment and treatment of fascial dysfunctions
    • Therapeutic exercise as the foundation of the healing process
    • Therapeutic proposals and clinical applications

Note:
Fascia is not just structural support; it is an active tissue that communicates, integrates, and responds to stimuli, influencing functional recovery and emotional wellbeing.