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August 16, 2012

Roll it Out!

Foam Rolling is the next best thing to a daily massage that you can give yourself.  If you’re like me and lacking the ability to pay for deep tissue work each day, spend some time familiarizing yourself with foam rolling or other forms of self-myofascial release.  Muscle tension isn’t something that you just have to cope with.  You can do something to change it.  Myofascial release helps the fascial system return to it’s optimal position, thus allowing the muscles to relax more.  Below, I’ll offer simple descriptions and photos to help you identify areas that you might want to target in your own body.

You’ll want to align yourself appropriately for each target muscle or muscle group.  Start at one end of the muscle and push pressure into the roller, moving slowly along the length of muscle until you find a knot.  When you do, hold as much pressure as you can tolerate for at least 20-30 seconds before releasing and moving further along the muscle.  Have you purchased a foam roller yet?  You might want both the half and full diameters, but likely only need the shorter, 12 inch length for each.

Calves

Sit with your legs out in front of you, the target leg on the roller and the opposite crossed over.  The crossed leg adds more weight (pressure) to the targeted leg.  If you find that is more than you can handle, simply let the opposite leg sit off of the roller.  Start close to your ankle with your toe pointing upward.  Gently move your body forward, so that the roller will move closer to your knee.  When you feel a tender spot, put as much weight into it as you can, relax, then roll slowly to the next spot.

Hamstrings

It’s important in this exercise that your back remains straight.  If you find that it’s hard to straighten your leg and sit upright, then sitting close to something you can press your elbows into for support is helpful.  Sit with your legs out in front of you, the target leg on the roller and the opposite leg crossed over.  If that adds too much pressure or imbalance, then place the opposite leg out to the side.  Start with the roller close to your knee and your toe pointing upward.  Gently move your body forward, so that the roller will move closer to your hip.  When you feel a tender spot, put as much weight into it as you can, relax, then roll slowly to the next spot.

Piriformis

The piriformis is a lateral (sideways) muscle that runs across the top of your hip.  For this exercise you want to sit on the upper part of your hip (you’ll feel slightly tilted backward), with the roller in the center of your butt.  Slowly roll your body from looking directly ahead, to pointing more to the side of the hip you are rolling at the time.  When you feel a tender spot, put as much weight into it as you can, relax, then roll slowly to the next spot.

IT (Iliotibial) Band/ TFL (Tensor Fascia Latae)

Lie in a “side plank” with your elbow directly beneath your shoulder and the roll under the top of your hip (the iliac crest).  You may support your body with your front arm if you feel that you need help balancing.  Move slowly toward your elbow, the roller moving further down the side of your leg until you find a tender spot.  Put pressure into it until it relaxes and then slowly roll to the next spot.

Quadriceps

Lie on your stomach with the roll just below the top of your hip bone.  Support yourself on your elbows, in a plank position and slowly “walk” forward, letting the roll move toward your knee.  When you feel a tender spot, put as much weight into it as you can, relax, then roll slowly to the next spot.

Adductors (Inner thigh)

Lie in a plank position on your stomach, with the roller diagonally run beneath the top of your inner thigh.  To roll in this position you will “walk” diagonally so that the roller starts to move toward your inner knee.  When you feel a tender spot, put as much weight into it as you can, relax, then roll slowly to the next spot.

Lats (Latissimus Dorsi)

Lie on your side with the roller pointing diagonally, just under your armpit.  Slowly roll your body from your side to your back.  When you feel a tender spot, put as much weight into it as you can, relax, then roll slowly to the next spot.

Thoracic Erector Spinae

Lie supine, with the roller (or a towel/ fluffy rolled pillow, if the roller is too dense) in the lower part of your middle back.  Rest softly with your back stretching around the roller.  Keep your knees bent so that your low back is supported.  When that area is relaxed, roll to your side to move off the roller and slide it into a position higher up your back.  Repeat as you move up along the middle back.

Chest Opener

Lie supine, with the roller vertically placed along your spine.  Make sure that your head is supported at one end and consider bending your knees/keeping your feet flat if your lower back feels unsupported.  Open your arms up into a “goal post” position and rest them as close to the ground as possible.  You should feel your chest and the front of your shoulders stretching.

Neck

Choose a roller’s diameter (cut flat on one side, or whole cylinder) depending on the length of your neck.  I have a very long neck, so I require the full.  For you, it might be the half (pictured beside me).  When focusing on tension in your neck, lie over the roller, so that it fits between the top of your shoulders and base of your skull.  If using the full roller has you propped, more like you’re on a pillow, then choose the half roller.  Lying with your hands at your sides, palms facing up, and body rested as much as possible, will be all that you need to do to target this area.  You might spend more time in one position so that your neck fully relaxes.  Most of us are hyper-tight in the neck and upper shoulders.  Roll to your side to get out of this position and slowly sit up.

Massage Ball

Massage balls come in several sizes and styles.  I order mine here.  I will use the 8cm size you see in the photographs for more finite work.  The 10cm size resembles the density of the foam roller with individual massage points.  I utilize the spiky balls to help work into knots in smaller, more bunched muscles.  If the spikes feel too hard, you can wrap a cloth around them, or use a tennis ball.  This lessens the pressure.

When working with a massage ball I will lie supine and work the ball up along my spine, one piece at a time.  I start just above my hips and slowly move it up until I get between my shoulder blades.  Because of my particular needs, I will spend a lot of time finding each position of tension around my shoulders and into my neck on the right side.  I’ll then repeat the process on the opposite side of my spine.

Flipping over to my stomach, I will utilize the ball in my upper pec and pec minor muscles, from the top of my chest to just below the collar bone.  For me, this area can become a significant problem.  Another area that I will work on is the side of my ribcage, from about my armpit to the center of my chest.  I’ll also occasionally use the ball on my piriformis muscle, sitting on it directly, if the foam roller doesn’t seem to complete the job.

How about yourself?  Are you already rolling?  Tell me more about how it helps you!
Filed Under: Flexibility Tagged: , , ,
August 15, 2012

Myofascial Release

Myofascial release in its most generalized use refers to anything that applies a constant, steady pressure on restricted fascia tissue.  Fascia is a type of connective tissue that can surround many structures in the body, binding some together, while allowing others to move smoothly over each other.  Muscle fascia refers to the dense layers of connective tissue that offer a system of support and protection.  It bundles multiple muscle fibers, keeping them resilient and working in communion, dividing specific muscles or groups of muscles.

Our lifestyles, posture, and repetitious motions imperfect as they are cause dysfunction in the connective tissue.  This results in a trauma to the body (perceived or real) that sets off inflammation.  Inflammation is the body’s response to pain, which causes the body to feel protective of itself.  Such a protective reaction incites muscles spasms, working overtime to keep the injured area from being moved or impacted.

Spasms lead to adhesions when the muscle tissue knots up, first in the spasming muscle then the surrounding muscles that are being pulled into the motion of the initial spasms.  Because of the altered movement happening in the body as muscles are spasming, we actually gain new neuromuscular responses:  compensation patterns.  Our bodies are incredible at finding new paths of motion that will leave the injured area alone.  But that, in turn leads to imbalances because our natural biomechanical movements are altered.

I’m describing what is called the Cumulative Injury Cycle, something I’m sure that you have experienced before.  You probably remember the last time your neck and shoulders or your back or a leg muscle seized up on you, whether you remember the precipitating movement or not.  The pain that you feel in response, as well as the days of finding a million different ways to sit, stand, sleep or walk are indicators that your body is seeking another, easier way to deal.  A release.

Specifically, we’re going to talk about self myofascial release done with a foam roller or a massage ball.  These instruments are used, much like a massage therapists hands, to apply enough force to the knotted areas of your muscle tissue to help realign fascia and point muscles back into their optimal arrangements.

If you’ve worked with me long, I’m sure I’ve asked you to use a foam roller or to find time to lie on top of a ball.  These tools have been paramount to my own healing and daily function.  Muscles spasms result from so many of our daily activities, whether working out, sitting or sleeping in one position for too long.  The reasons are unlimited.  For this reason, I will often advocate as much or even more significance to self-myofascial release than training itself.  I think it is also important to have an incredible massage therapist that you are comfortable working with (we can all only do so much for our own bodies).  It may be important to work with a more specialized occupational therapist (or other professional) whose main area of interest is myofascial release.

What are you looking for when you use a foam roller or massage ball?  Just like getting a deep tissue massage, you want to find tender areas—knots—where your muscle tissue is overactive.  This hypertonicity is what is pulling your body out of its natural alignment and causing you pain or discomfort.  In each area that you focus on, you will align your body to target specific muscles or muscle groups.  You’ll rest on the roller or ball, using proper postural alignment and taking care to keep your core engaged appropriately (you want maintain spinal alignment while you are decreasing muscle knots and increasing mobility…not doing so could injure your spinal alignment).

In each area that you target, spend at least 20-30 seconds putting as much pressure as you can tolerate into a tender area.  This will gradually increase the signal that the area can relax, decrease the tension in the knotted muscle and help the fascia to realign.  In every muscle group that is targeted you will find multiple adhesions (knots) and you want to take the time that you can to slowly work along the line of that muscle and find other areas of tension.

I, myself, might work on a foam roller or ball anywhere from a minute or two working on a very specific knot if I’m in a crunch during the day.  Or I might take an hour to hour-and-a-half to concentrate throughout my body.  The more injuries that we incur, the older that we get, the longer that we spend time in one position, the more fatigued we are—all of these things cause us to need more time spent caring for our physical need of myofascial release.

In the following post I’ll show you many ways that you can target major areas of the body that will be longing for your attention!

Filed Under: Flexibility Tagged: , , , ,