Benefits of Foam Rolling

You’ve probably seen it. Those people at the gym, rolling around on the floor with a giant cylinder thing, and wonder “what the heck are they doing?” Well, it’s time for you to jump on the bandwagon too, because foam rolling really can change your life. And if not your life, it can at least change your workout.

Foam rolling, or self-myofascial release, as it’s technically called, is basically like a deep tissue massage for your muscles. It’s a type of soft-tissue therapy that focuses on connective tissue called fascia. Fascia is tissue that connects with your muscles, bones, and ligaments to provide support throughout your entire body. (1)

When it works properly, fascia is elastic and can stretch and move as one with the rest of your body. However, many times, due to intense workouts, poor posture or movement patterns, stress, and lifestyle factors, fascia can tighten and become stiff, restricting movement and even causing pain.

Unfortunately, conventional stretching on its own doesn’t always release tight fascia. Direct pressure from a massage therapist, or a tool like a foam roller, or even a lacrosse ball, is needed to release those tight muscles and tissue. It’s important to have muscles and fascia supple and elastic for proper muscle movement and function.

1. Improves Range of Motion & Performance

Exercise, injury, and lifestyle can cause your fascia to tighten and cause trigger points, or “knots”. These knots are what restrict both mobility and performance. Foam rolling can break up those knots and return muscles and soft tissue back to normal, increasing range of motion. With an increased range of motion, you can perform better in your workouts by engaging muscles fully to increase strength and power. (2)

2. Relieves Muscle Soreness and Aids in Recovery

Fascia provide your muscles with support and protection. Overuse, injury, and even inactivity can cause fascia to tighten, causing inflammation and irritation. Foam rolling breaks up those knots which can actually help increase circulation to your muscles and connective tissues. With better circulation and more oxygen, your muscles can recover faster and you’ll experience less muscle soreness. (3)

3. Relaxes Muscles

Just with deep tissue massage, foam rolling applies direct pressure on tight muscles and knots which helps them relax and release tension. “Rolling” over your muscles and trigger points creates a similar effect that a massage therapist uses when kneading your muscles. (4)

4. Lengthens Muscles & Prevents Injury

Just as it increases range of motion, foam rolling allows you to stretch your muscles more efficiently as well. Foam rolling lengthens muscles and breaks down scar tissues that can prevent you from reaching your deepest stretch. It allows muscles to return to their normal length, which in turn allows for proper muscle function. When your muscles are efficiently stretched and function properly there is far less risk of injury.

5. Correct Muscle Imbalances

Because foam rolling can relax tight muscles, improve range of motion, and lengthen muscles, it allows your body to perform better. It helps correct muscle imbalances by relaxing the overactive, tight muscles, and allowing for proper movement to strengthen the weak, underactive muscles.

6. Can Boost your Immune System

A healthy myofascial system directly correlates with a healthy immune system. Your lymphatic system detoxifies your system and keeps it healthy. Lymph, or lymphatic fluid, runs along the facial plane of your body. When the fascia in your body are tight, it restricts the movement of lymph. Foam rolling will release tight fascia, allowing for proper detoxification and immune function. (5)

Fair Warning: Foam Rolling won’t feel that great…

For some, foam rolling seems as if it can’t possibly help if it is so painful while actually doing it. But again, think of it as a deep tissue massage. Most people understand and know that deep tissue massage can be uncomfortable and even painful. Foam rollers are really just a tool used as a substitute for the hands, elbows and forearms of the massage therapist.

When foam rolling, it is important to choose the right type of roller to start with to minimize the amount of discomfort in the beginning (sometimes the pain the first time can be enough to scare people off forever!). Foam rollers come in different densities, or “hardnesses”. The harder to roller, the more painful it will be if you have extremely tight muscles and fascia. When starting a foam rolling program, choose a softer roller (usually colored white or light blue) and start there.

As soon as you move off of the foam roller, the muscles you were working on should stop hurting and actually feel relieved and more relaxed. As the discomfort starts to go away when foam rolling, this means that you have been able to work out those knots.

As you progress through a foam rolling program and the pain starts to decrease, you gain flexibility and increase range of motion, and then move up to the next level of hardness in rollers (usually a black roller). Eventually, you will become accustomed to the uncomfortable feeling and even start to enjoy it. You may eventually even want a roller that is lined with a PVC pipe in the middle to really dig into those muscles.

Tips for Foam Rolling

• • Roll each muscle group for 1-2 minutes and roll very SLOWLY. When you hit a tight spot that is painful or uncomfortable, HOLD on that spot for 30-45 seconds. You should feel the tension release slowly.

• • Make sure to keep breathing, even when it’s painful. Holding your breath won’t allow the muscles to release and relax.

• • Be sure to RELAX the muscle as best you can. If you are flexing or tensing the muscle group you are trying to roll out, you won’t feel the trigger points you need to release.

• • Drink plenty of water for the next 24 hours. Your body needs to rid itself of the lactic acid released after rolling.

• • The next day your muscles may be a bit sore. That’s normal, they should feel slightly fatigued and possibly a tiny bit tender. Wait 24-48 hours to foam roll again if you’re sore.

• • Never roll on a joint or bone and DO NOT roll your lower back. Also, when rolling your upper back be careful not to roll directly on your spine, instead always roll one side of your back at a time by slightly leaning to that side. There are small knobs on your vertebrae, called facets, that could get injured when rolling directly on your spine.

• • If an area is too painful to apply direct pressure, shift the roller and apply pressure on the surrounding area and gradually work to loosen the entire area.

This a full body foam rolling routine for you to get started with. Some muscle groups may be more sensitive than others, THOSE are the ones that you need to focus on! You will eventually be able to feel which muscle groups tend to always be tight for you personally. If you work at a desk (like most people) some areas to pay special attention to are the chest (and fronts of shoulders), lats, hip flexors, and IT-band.

1. Chest

Lay facedown with the bottom of the foam roller angled away from you, and your arm extended out to the side over it. (The foam roller should rest in the crease of the front of your shoulder.) Lift your stomach and hips off the floor to press your weight into the foam roller. Roll forward and backwards a few inches over your chest and your front shoulder muscles. Repeat on the other side.

2. Lats

Lie on your RIGHT side with the foam roller just under your armpit and your RIGHT arm extended over the roller. Bring your LEFT leg over and place your foot on the ground for support. Press all of your weight into the foam roller and roll along the RIGHT side of your torso from your underarm to the bottom of your rib cage, and then roll back up. Repeat on the other side.

3. Thoracic Spine

Lay with the foam roller in the middle of your back across your shoulder blades. Clasp your hands behind your head for support, but don’t pull on your neck. Shift slightly to your RIGHT side and lift your hips off the ground to put as much weight as possible up your upper right back. Roll from your shoulder blades down to the bottom of your rib cage and back up. Do NOT roll directly on your spine. Repeat on the other side.

4. Glutes/Piriformis

Sit on top of the foam roller with your RIGHT ankle crossed over your LEFT knee. Shift your weight to the RIGHT slightly to apply pressure onto your right glute. Roll forward and back slightly to release, then switch sides.

5. Hip Flexors

This can sometimes be a tricky muscle group to reach. The best way to hit it is to angle the upper part of the foam roller away from you so that the bottom part of it lines up with the crease of your pelvis and hips. Roll back and forth a few inches to release the hip flexors and shift your weight slightly from side to side to hit those muscles a little differently. Repeat on the other side.

6. Quads

Lay facedown, almost in a plank position on your elbows, with the foam roller just under your hips on your quads. Shift as much weight as possible onto the foam roller and slowly roll down your legs to just above the knee and roll back up. Also, try externally rotating your legs to hit the inside quad muscles, and internally rotate your legs to hit the outside quad muscles.

7. IT-Band

Lay on your side, with the bottom RIGHT leg placed onto a foam roller between the hip and the knee. Cross your LEFT leg over and place the foot on the floor. Place as much weight as possible into the bottom leg and roll from the hip to just above the knee and back up. Repeat on the other leg.

8. Calves

Sit on the floor and place the foam roller under your RIGHT lower leg, between the base of your calves and your Achilles. Cross your LEFT leg over your right. Press into your hands and lift your hips off the ground to apply pressure onto the roller. Slowly walk your hands towards the foam roller to roll it up your leg. Stop just below the knee and roll back down. The most sensitive spot will mostly likely be at the base of your calf muscles. Repeat on the other leg.

Article originally appeared on http://blog.paleohacks.com/foam-rolling/ written by Deanna Dorma.

Are Trigger Points Affecting Your Athletic Performance?

Trigger points cause real problems for athletes.

Not only are trigger points exquisitely painful, but they also affect movement. Trigger points inhibit range of motion by keeping muscles short and stiff. They also weaken muscles, causing them to tire quickly and recover slowly. They produce excessive muscle contraction that can partially disarticulate joints or cause nerve entrapment.

That’s the bad news: Trigger points can seriously inhibit athletic performance. The good news? Acupuncture can help. So can self-care (see tips at the end of this article!).

How does a trigger point form?

A trigger point is a hyper-irritable muscle band with a predictable pattern of pain referral. It forms when the process of muscle contraction and release goes awry.

Muscle overload or trauma causes the muscle band to contract too strongly. Such excessive contracture increases metabolic demand and also squeezes shut the network of capillaries supplying the nutrition and oxygen to the region.

This results in a local energy crisis, perpetuating the cycle of contracture. The muscle band cannot release and a trigger point forms.

Can stretching relieve trigger points?

A muscle harboring a trigger point will be too painful to stretch fully. The pain (and subsequent inhibitory reflex) will prevent you from sufficiently lengthening the muscle band.

What’s more, forcing a stretch will often result in injury (muscle strain) and do nothing to resolve the trigger point.

Think of a trigger point like a knot in a rubber band. Stretching the band will cause it to snap, but it will not release the knot. To restore full stretch to that rubber band, you first need to unwind the knot.

Acupuncture is the most effective way to release trigger points

The acupuncture needle provides a mechanical disruption to the trigger point. It halts the vicious cycle of energy crisis in the muscle. Restored to its full length, the muscle recovers its normal blood supply and metabolism, and it can function fully.

You might be wondering, does having acupuncture on trigger points hurt?

Many release techniques require direct pressure to the trigger point, which is by definition painful. Often a trigger point is too irritable to tolerate much additional mechanical stimulation. But a needle can reach the depth of the trigger point without irritating the hyper-sensitive tissues above or around it. There is simply no other technique that can boast such precision.

And acupuncture achieves immediate results. A single well-placed needle into a trigger point will elicit a twitch followed by reduced muscular tension and increased range of motion. Such immediate feedback is immensely satisfying for someone who has been dealing with pain and dysfunction in that muscle for weeks, months, or even years.

3 self-care tips for preventing trigger points

Increase training loads slowly

Trigger points form due to persistent muscular contraction, strain, or overuse. To prevent their formation, don’t do too much too soon—and make sure you have adequate recovery between workouts. Get enough quality sleep to ensure your body can repair itself efficiently.

Maintain range of motion and muscle balance

This requires some work. Regularly take your body through the opposite range of motion you use in your sport. A good rule of thumb is to lengthen the agonist, and strengthen the antagonist.

For cyclists who spend hours in the saddle with forward shoulder posture, this means increasing range of motion in your pectorals, and strengthening the rhomboids and other muscles of the upper back. Runners typically benefit from lengthening the hip flexors (psoas and quadriceps) and strengthening the hip extensors (glutes and hamstrings).

Break up adhesions

You need to be doing something on a regular basis to normalize tight, overworked muscle tissue.

Supple, flexible muscles don’t get injured. Using a lacrosse ball, a foam roller, or even your fingers, apply direct pressure to a tight muscle band for 8-12 seconds. Taking the muscle through its range of motion while compressing it will break up adhesions before a trigger point forms.

This article originally appeared on Acutake and was written by Ginna Ellis.