This article was provided by Training-Conditioning

Foam rolling is one of the easiest and most effective ways to increase flexibility and aid recovery. Simply rolling over each muscle can be beneficial, but in order to get the most of this technique, it’s important to develop a routine that targets the specific needs of your athletes. This will save time in the long run and provide your athletes with a variety of benefits.

An article on TheAthleticBuild.com describes how to develop an effective foam rolling routine. To start, it’s important to understand why this practice can be so valuable. Not only will it aid in recovery, but it can also help improve athletic performance.

Essentially, foam rolling helps break down knots and trigger points in the muscles, which can easily build up in athletes from training and competing, causing tightness, pain, and reduced flexibility. By rolling out these points of tension, athletes can increase flexibility, lengthen and strengthen shortened muscles, and increase mobility for specific sport or training-related activities. In addition, it can also help athletes warm up their muscles before working out and stretch out their muscles afterwards, which will improve recovery times.

In order to build the right routine, you will need to identify the areas where you athletes should put the most focus. Movement screening tests can be very helpful in making these decisions. But just as important is knowing the demands of the sport and recognizing where athletes are likely to be experiencing tightness, soreness, and lack of mobility.

Here are some suggestions from TheAthleticBuild.com on how to develop these routines:

Ankles and Hips

These are common places to find tightness and mobility issues. If an athlete fails a screening for hip mobility, have them roll out their glutes and hip flexors. In addition, they should try to stretch out their hips by doing lunges.

Squats

An effective screening test is to have athletes hold themselves in a squat position. If their heels come off the ground or their back is rounded, they should probably foam roll their hips and calves and work on increasing ankle mobility. The rounded back may also be a sign that they need to strengthen their core.

Sciatica

If an athlete is experiencing pain in the lower back or buttocks, it might be because of pressure being put on the sciatic nerve. This can sometimes be managed by foam rolling the hip flexors and piriformis.

Shoulders

There are many variations of foam rolling. One of the best ways for an athlete to work out shoulder knots is by putting a lacrosse ball or tennis ball in a sock and then slinging it over their shoulder and leaning against a wall. This way, athletes can control the height of the ball and the pressure placed on the knots. Athletes can do the same thing on the ground with a ball or a foam roller to cover a wider area.

Do’s and Don’ts

• Athletes should identify the target muscles and start by rolling over them slowly. When they reach a knot or trigger point, they should hold the foam roller there for around 30 seconds or until the pain/discomfort starts to subside. Then, keep rolling over these areas until the tension in the muscles starts to lessen.

• Don’t let athletes use a foam roller on their lower back. Also, tell them to avoid rolling over any bones but to focus on the muscles instead.

• There is not a limit on how much athletes should foam roll. But the most important times to do it is before and after working out.

• Pick a foam roller that meets the needs of your athletes. There are a variety of different sizes and shapes of rollers, so think about how they will be used beforehand.

This article was provided by Training and Conditioning.

By Nicole Nelson, MS, LMT

Performing self myofascial release (SMR) with foam rollers and tennis balls is a convenient and inexpensive way to manage your athletes’ overly-toned muscle and sticky fascia. Here are five tips to optimize their time on the roller.
Tip #1: SMR takes time, pick one or two areas per workout. 
Most myofascial therapists will tell you that it can take several minutes of attention to a specific area to create the sought after “melt” of fascial layers. The same holds true with SMR. Let’s say you devote 10 minutes of session time to foam rolling. Your athletes will get much better results if they don’t try to cover the entire body, rather have them pick two areas and work them thoroughly.

When selecting which areas to work for the day, you may want to consider two things: what the movement demands of the workout will be, and where their body needs some freeing up. For example, if I know my clients are going to be doing a lot of upper body pulling, and they have been sitting at their desk all day, I would have them spend 10 minutes mobilizing their T-spine and performing SMR on their pecs.

Tip #2: Fascia exists in a series of layers; separate them like a peanut butter sandwich.
Fascia exists in layers throughout the body, and for one reason or another, binding may occur between its layers that should otherwise be able to glide along each other. Although you will get some benefit from sustained perpendicular compression on a fascial sticky spot, it is generally more effective to create “shear” or lateral movement between the interconnected layers of fascia.

I liken this to separating a peanut butter sandwich, you must slide and twist the bread slowly to separate it. If you can manage to trap the adhered tissue and drag it an inch or two, you can un-glue the structures that need to glide along each other.

I find this to be a very successful approach when working with the IT band. The reality is that the IT band could probably pull the load equivalent of a large truck, so it is unlikely we are affecting this strong sheath of fascia by pressing straight down on it (in some areas, collagen can withstand 2,000 lbs of pressure/sq. in.). Your athletes will be far more effective if their focus is on un-gluing the IT band from the underlying lateral quadricep and hamstring muscles.

To finish up IT band work, have your athletes shift their attention to applying perpendicular compression onto the gluteus maximus and tensor fascia lata. Have them take their time and slowly sink into the foam roller or tennis ball.

Tip #3: Work with the tissue, not on the tissue. 
When I first became a massage therapist, this point took me a long time to fully appreciate. I would sadistically impose my will on my athlete’s tissue, trying to force things to happen. This approach did nothing other than leave my clients bruised and feeling beaten up.

Effective soft tissue release must stay under the body’s protective guarding threshold. In other words, if your clients are wincing and holding their breath during their SMR work, they are not accomplishing very much–and they are probably cursing you for making them do it. Now don’t get me wrong, SMR may be uncomfortable, but it should never painful.

Allow me to take a few steps back and explain one of the theories behind SMR. Pressure to both muscle and fascial tissue excites sensory receptors which are known to illicit a relaxation. There is a point, however, where too much pressure that is applied too quickly will illicit a guarding, self protecting response. This effect is quite similar to stretching: if the client’s nervous system senses a threat, their body will not be very receptive to any type of release. The sensory system plays a large roll in the success of SMR, so have your athletes be patient and work with their tissue, superficial to deep.

Tip #4: Make sure your athletes are well hydrated. 
Fascia is primarily comprised of collagen, elastin, colloidal gels and water within what has been labeled the Extracellular Matrix (ECM). Dependant on the quantities of these components within the ECM, fascia can assume varying viscosity, from thick and sticky (gel like state) to fluid and slippery (sol like state) (Myers, 2011). The gel state has a lower hydration level in which the fascia often becomes adhered to surrounding layers of tissue.

It is important to note that when we move or stretch, collagen fibers don’t really lengthen. Rather, the consistency of the ECM will permit gliding of fibers along other structures (Sbriccoli et al., 2005). In other words, the amount of water within the ECM helps dictate the elasticity of the fascia. It is this elastic quality that allows us to land a little softer, and gets us a good return on stored energy in our more explosive movements such as a kettlebell snatch.

I always assume that after someone sits at a desk, or in classes, for 8-10 hours, their fascia resembles hard, crusted molasses. If they haven’t adequately hydrated throughout the day, it will be worse. Research by Schleip suggests the stretch of myofascial therapy induces a temporary decrease in tissue water content, which, after a brief recovery, is followed up by a super-compensation of matrix hydration of the tissue (Shleip R, et. al., 2012). Simply stated, manipulating fascia (i.e., SMR) creates a sponge-like wringing out of water, which is followed by a refilling in the ECM.

Tip #5: Fascia is continuous; restriction can have far-reaching effects. 
Many of us have been trained to view the body within a muscular context, meaning forces are only transmitted from distal insertion to proximal insertion. This is not entirely wrong, but it certainly leaves you with an incomplete impression as to how movement takes place and how fascia unites seemingly distant areas of the body.

Fascia blends with, and is anatomically continuous with, adjacent fascia (Juhan, 1987). Fascia surrounds muscles, bones, organs and joints with no interruption. The functional significance of this must be studied further, but it seems that mechanical tensions do extend through fascial connections.

Research by Vleeming demonstrated that traction to the gluteus maximus muscle transferred across the thoracoloumbar fascia and the contralateral latissimus dorsi muscle (Vleeming et al., 1995). Vleeming also discovered the strain transmission during a straight leg raise was much greater on the IT band and lumbar fascia vs. the hamstring.

The lateral force transmissions seen in Vleeming’s research demonstrates the multi-directional nature of fascia, and illustrates that our mobility and SMR work must consider more than just linear muscular attachments. For example, let’s say you have an athlete who, despite constantly rolling her hamstring, still feels extremely tight. “Tight hamstrings” could be an expression of many things, but within the context of fascial continuity, you might consider the tugging and strain patterns distant from the hamstring, and have her explore the calf or plantar fascia for possible restriction.

If you decide to take anything away from this article, read Thomas Myers insightful book, Anatomy Trains. It will change the way you assess movement and will quite likely change the way you train your athletes.

To sum up, SMR is a fantastic method our athletes can use to maintain their soft tissue quality. If we can teach them to be more effective with their soft tissue work,
we can maximize their training potential and limit the number of aches and pains they experience along the way.

Nicole Nelson, MS, LMT, is a massage therapist and personal trainer based in Jacksonville, Fla.

References

Ingber, D., 1998. “The Architecture of Life.” Scientific American, 278, 48-57.

Juhan, D., 1987. “Job’s Body.” A handbook for bodywork. New York: Station Hill Press.

Myers T., 2011. Fascial Fitness: Training in the Neuromyofascial Web. Idea Fitness Journal Vol. 8 (4) 36-42.

Schleip R., Duerselen, L., Vleeming A., Naylor I., Lehmann-Horn F., Zorn A., Jaeger H., Klinger W., 2012. Strain hardening of fascia: Static stretching of dense fibrous connective tissues can induce a temporary stiffness increase accompanied by enhanced matrix hydration. Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies, 19, 94-100.

Sbriccoli, P., Solomonow M., Zhou B., Lu Y., Stellards R., 2005. Neuromuscular response to cyclic loading of the anterior cruciate ligament. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 33(4), 543-51.

Vleeming, A., Pool-Goudzwaard, A. L., Stoeckart, R., van Wingerden, J.P., Snijders, C. J., 1995. The posterior layer of the thoracolumbar fascia. Its function in load transfer from spine to legs. Spine, 20(7), 753-758.

This article was provided by Training and Conditioning

By Cass Barrett
Cass Barrett, BA, CFSC, CPT, FMS, FRCmS, began his coaching journey teaching body position and breathing as a U.S. Marine Corps Primary Marksmanship Instructor (P.M.I.), and for the last 17 years has coached everyone from the weekend warrior to professional & international level competitors. Most recently, Cass was a corrective exercise technician in a physical therapy clinic, and the assistant strength and conditioning coach for the 2016 PRO-Rugby North America Champion Denver Stampede. He now owns and operates his own private training studio.
As strength and conditioning coaches and performance enhancement specialists, we have cornered the market on high threshold programming. We know full well how to rev our athletes up. But amidst all the 1RM testing, vertical jumps, 40-yard sprints, and other tests of intensity, have we forgotten a variable?

That variable can be loosely referred to as “recovery,” and is perhaps more appropriately called “resilience or rejuvenation training.” Without it, there is no fitness, no performance, and ultimately, no reason to train.

The goal of dedicated resilience training is to merge activities that promote down-throttling of the central nervous system (CNS) and facilitate long-term habit development. This means using modalities that are not too complicated and that don’t invoke a negative emotional response.

A good example of this type of practice is approximately two to three minutes of foam rolling before (or after) lifting. Although it is often times a point of conjecture, the value of checking the body for inordinately sore or tight muscles is hard to argue against. And while we understand that the effect on physical structure of the tissue is minimal, the other valuable aspects of foam rolling, such as dampening neural tone and aiding the flow of blood into the tissue, create reason enough to devote a few minutes to this practice.

Breathing drills offer another low level, high impact ritual for resilience and rejuvenation. Breath training is becoming a much more mainstream practice in elite level strength and conditioning as more and more coaches are educated on its impact on performance. Take legendary NFL strength coach Joe Kenn, for instance. One of the first activities on his Block Zero programming itinerary is breathing drills.

The relevance of this practice is easy to recognize once we start to consider the impact of a more efficient oxygen exchange in the lungs. An easy way to move forward with breath training is to have your athletes begin with simple nasal inhalation and emphasize the inflation of the stomach. Of course, the air isn’t actually filling the stomach, but the lower portion of the lungs, and this is where the alveolar concentration is located.

Additionally, breath work is another route to down-throttle the CNS in order that stiff muscles might be more compliant, presenting a window of opportunity for mobility and dynamic warm-up exercises to have the greatest impact. Finally, breathing drills allow for a moment to declutter the brain before undertaking a very challenging order of work, and it’s fair to assume that all coaches would like just a little more focus in training.

Quite often, timing is everything when it comes to performance based outcomes, and in an ideal world, we would be able to schedule separate sessions dedicated to resilience training. Olympic track coach Charlie Francis always reserved training days specifically for resilience and recovery. However, in the real world, this might be a challenge, depending upon timing of classes or sessions, the mix of athletes, and their competitive schedules. Instead, it might be more effective to integrate this practice directly into the daily routine.

Intuitively, many would schedule this for the end of the workout, but that is also the easiest place for it to fall off the schedule. Therefore, I prefer using many of these methods specifically during the warm-up. Then, if time allows, I return to them to close the workout. I simply start with a two- or three-minute window of exploratory foam rolling followed by another two minutes of “crocodile breathing” (flat on stomach with forehead resting on forearms) where deep nasal breaths are the focus.

With everything a strength and conditioning coach needs to focus on, devoting time to resilience and recovery can be a challenge. But this component can be the key to the success of all of the other hard work you and your athletes do.