Use a Foam Roller for Better Recovery
What is that mysterious foam cylinder at the gym that people lie on and pull funny faces? What is it used for? And is it useful? Today we are going to run over the benefits of Self-Myofascial Release (SMR) and how you can significantly improve recovery by adding this one simple piece of equipment into your program.
Self-myofascial release or foam rolling is quite simply, a self massage technique used to help release tight muscles through the use of pressure. By applying pressure to areas of tightness (knots or trigger points) we are able to help breakdown the buildup to help restore normal blood flow in turn increasing recovery capacity. The faster we recover the harder we can push next session.
Besides helping with recovery, SMR is also a beneficial corrective technique helping with postural imbalances and movement disfunction. Sometimes simply stretching is not enough to restore proper flexibility. Think of your muscles as rubber bands, if that rubber band gets a knot in it simply stretching the 2 anchor points away from each other will not do anything for the knot, as with our muscles if we have these trigger points that issue needs to be addressed to return to normal functioning capacity. The controlled pressure of SMR allows us to relax these over tight areas.
How do you use it? You can target specific areas that relate to your individual structure by applying the pressure onto the foam roller with your own bodyweight. Then slowly roll over the targeted muscle group pausing on areas that are tight or painful for 2-3 seconds then continue your away along that muscle, repeat this process 3 times on the targeted area and you should feel the muscle release a little more each time.
Take Away: Add self-myofascial release into your program, and watch your range of movement increase, your recovery time decrease and your training results go through the roof!
Get rolling guys!
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