5 reasons why you should start doing myofascial release
First things first: WHAT EVEN IS FASCIA?!
Fascia is the connective tissue that surrounds muscles, muscle groups, blood vessels, nerves, bones, and organs. It permeates every structure in the body and helps to keep things in place. Fascia can be thought of as plastic wrap or cling wrap. Cling wrap holds the contents of a sandwich together, just as fascia holds the components of the body together. The physiological composition of fascia varies based on it's location within the body. Read until the end for a free 30 min foot health class!
There are 3 layers of fascia:
Superficial Layer — located under the skin
Deep Layer a.k.a Myofascia — wraps around muscles, nerves, and blood vessels
Visceral (Parietal) Layer — surrounds, protects, and suspends the organs
Self myofascial release (a.k.a. rolling) is an incredible tool in your self-care toolkit to alleviate pain, reduce muscle tension, and improve body awareness. This post outlines the five key benefits of practicing self myofascial release regularly, and the health and wellness boosts you can receive!
1. Improve body awareness (proprioception)
Fascia is the most richly sensory innervated tissue in the entire body. What does this mean? Essentially, fascia has A TON of nerve endings! Boasting approximately 250 million nerve endings in all fascial tissues of the body, and roughly 100 million in the deep fascia alone. For comparison, skin has approximately 200 million nerve endings. We can use fascia to our benefit by providing this highly sensitive tissue with mechanical stimulation (pressure/compression, vibration, touch). The mechanoreceptors (sensory receptors that sense and receive mechanical input) in the fascial tissues will pick up this information and send it up to the brain. This will provide the brain with sensory feedback and proprioceptive information, thus improving body awareness.
2. Reduce Chronic Pain
Increasing proprioceptive (body awareness/sensory) signals drowns out pain signals. Pain signals and proprioceptive signals are always “competing for attention” at the level of the Central Nervous System (brain and spinal cord). Chronic pain can be alleviated by having a conversation with our fascia through self myofascial release (rolling) practices.
3. “Treat” your own knots and tension
That knot in your shoulder blade area that you just can’t release? Or that taut band of tissue in your upper trap (shoulder) area? It’s likely a myofascial trigger point. Myofascial trigger points are essentially, what most people refer to as “knots”. Pictured to the right is the pain referral pattern for a trigger points in the trapezius muscle. Trigger points are defined as: “Tender nodules or taut bands of muscle/fascial tissue that produce predictable pain referral patterns in the body.”
This can mean that the pain or ache you’re experiencing, can be originating from a different area of the body. Trigger points in the muscles of the head/neck/shoulder region are the main cause of tension headaches. Tension headaches are not to be confused with migraines, which have a different etiology. Am active trigger point in the glute med/min (side glute muscles) can even mimic sciatica pain. Luckily, there is a way to “treat” your own trigger points as home through self myofascial release. When you feel, palpate and/or locate a trigger point in your own body, grab a therapy ball and apply compression. This can be lying down on the floor, or using a wall for support. Apply compression to the trigger point for a minimum of 1-2 minutes for the most effective release. It’s normal to experience a slightly muscle twitch response when you first locate the trigger point, or even feel referral pain during the release. When releasing a trigger point on your own, it’s important to not overdo it or push through pain. The experience of self myofascial release for a trigger point might be that of “tolerable discomfort”, but should never feel so painful that you have to clench other areas of the body (such as the jaw) just to “get through” the release. If you are feeling this way, please reduce the amount of compression/pressure, or stop altogether.
4. Improve local blood flow
When practicing self myofascial release, the nature of the compression and release helps to improve local blood flow to the area that is being rolled out. The increase of local blood flow (perfusion) can speed up the tissue healing process! In general, good circulation has been linked to improved metabolism, a quicker immune system response, and increased cognitive performance.
5. Breakdown scar tissue and adhesions
Fibroblasts are a type of cell found in fascia that play an important role in wound healing and scar tissue formation. Fibroblasts are found in higher numbers in areas where the tissue has been stressed or damaged. As we age, fibres of fascia start to wear, stick together and shorten, especially if we are stagnant. Damage can also be caused by injury or chronic inflammation. Scar tissue is then formed to repair the damaged tissue. Scar tissue is defined as thick, fibrotic tissue that replaces healthy tissues when damaged. Fibrotic tissue, scar tissue and adhesions prevent structures from functioning properly, causing pain and dysfunction in the body, especially if not addressed with mobility, massage and rolling. Self myofascial release can help to breakdown scar tissue and release fascial adhesion, thus improving function and reducing pain the in the body.
Check out this 30min practice for foot health! In this video, you’ll learn mobility exercises for the toes and feet — our base of support in standing, walking, and running.
What type of balls should be used?
A rubber ball should be used for self myofascial release practices. The two types of balls that are recommended are either the High-Bounce Pinky Ball that can be found on Amazon HERE, or Tune Up Fitness Balls which are available for purchase from the HealthyHips Prop Shop — see Add To Cart link below.
