Do you feel tense? Maybe you feel tight across the upper back between
the shoulder blades, or perhaps it's more of a stiff lower back, hips
and legs.
Tight
muscles create numerous problems throughout the
body from aches and pain to reduced oxygen and blood flow to the tight
area.
Soft tissue is an area I have been studying for a very long time.
Today
I will share some of my experience and offer you my top solutions to
help you reduce the amount of tension you may have in your body, we will
discuss something called FASCIA.
My opinion - after working with
soft tissue all these years is there is ONE big trend and commonality
amongst the people who come to see me to get their deep tissue massage,
who are not involved with sport...
THEY ALL WORK AT A DESK FOR LONG PERIODS
I call these people "desk jockeys" as they are in a jockey like position when staring at the screen to do their work.
The trouble with being a desk jockey is the amount of time you spend seated
Modern
humans apparently evolved from chimps and over time learned to stand up
straight and walk. The next big change in our evolution (if you ask me)
was when we started to sit down for over 80-90% of our time!
It's happened in the last couple of generations with the popularity of computers, TV and the internet.
Think
of it like this, you get up in the morning and drive to work, then you
sit down at your desk all day, get back in the car, get home and you
guessed it - sit down some more to watch TV or use the computer.
If you counted how many hours you are awake and how many hours you spend seated, you may find the figure well over 90%.
From
a soft tissue point of view, being in the seated position does lots of
negative things to your posture and the bio mechanics of your body.
Firstly
when you sit down your abdominal
muscles switch off and secondly as
your chin drops, your shoulders round forward, leaving you sat in a "C"
shaped position, as oppose to nice and upright.
In addition to
this the nature of the work on a computer is repetitive and promotes the
same
muscles(the tiny ones) to do lots of work and the bigger
muscles
switch off, and do no work.
Without getting into it too much, this
little scenario causes the buttocks (hip flexors) and the shoulders
(rotator cuff and chest) areas of the body to tighten up and become
stiff, more specifically your muscles and fascial tissue tighten up.
Causing big problems such as:
Muscle Pain
Muscle and Joint Stiffness
Loss of movement
Tension Headaches
Poor circulation
Lower back pain
Neck and shoulder pain
Your poorly functioning fascial tissue may be severely holding you back in life!
What is Fascia?
Fascia
(or Myofascia) is a structure of connective tissue that surrounds most
of the important parts of our body. It covers muscles, blood vessels and
nerves. It's strong, slippery and wet. Fascia helps to bind some
structures together whilst also allowing other structures to slide
smoothly over each other.
There are several different types of
fascia; superficial fascia which lies closer to the surface, deep fascia
and visceral fascia. Fascia are flexible structures which are able to
resist great unidirectional tension forces until the wavy pattern of
fibres has been straightened out by the pulling forces.
Fascia is
similar to ligaments and tendons due to the fact they are all made of
collagen. It protects every single muscle in your body so you can see
how important it is.
Myofascial
For clarity, the term
myofascial refers collectively to the fascia tissue and the muscle.
Together, the muscle and fascia form the myofascial system. When I say
fascia I will mean myofascial system.
Poor Fascia Limits Normal Function!
If
your fascial tissue is tight it can really negatively affect your body
and the way it functions. Your flexibility and even your ability to move
freely will suffer and simple tasks will seem difficult. You will feel
week, stiff, in pain and your range of motion will be severely limited.
You will feel old before your time.
Many Office Workers Have Stiff Bodies
The
sad fact is that so many of the British population suffer from poorly
functioning fascial tissue due to their seated lifestyle. There are so
many jobs out there which literally mean you sit down for 40 hours+ a
week, this is no good what so ever for your bodies.
These
restrictions of the fascia caused by lack of movement cause the body to
be pulled out of alignment which leads to bad posture.
This means a biomechanically inefficient body which uses loads of energy for just the simplest of tasks.
This
means that these people will have limited energy for other activities
which means when they get home after sitting down for 8 hours they will
only have the energy to sit down again! A very vicious cycle which can
be hard to get out of.
For those people who do manage to drag
themselves to the gym can experience constant pain because their body
isn't able to function well enough to exercise at a high intensity. So
exercising could actually make it worse on some occasions.
A study
by Schleip (2007) found that pain felt in specific areas of the body
can often be related back to having adhesions in the fascial tissue.
Knots, Adhesion's & Trigger Points
Adhesions
can also be often referred to as knots and knots can also be referred
to as "trigger points". Trigger points can be active or inactive, like
volcanoes, active ones cause more trouble. Don't worry about these
different terms for now.
Knots are basically areas of the body
which get regular stress or micro trauma (for example using a mouse all
day every day for years). Micro trauma causes small amounts of scar
tissue to be created and over time it causes adhesions or knots to form
on or between the muscle fibers.
(*imagination time*) When I explain this to clients I usually do it like this.
Think
of fascia like this... Imagine a towel, spread out flat, then imagine
pinching the middle of the towel with your thumb and forefinger and
twisting it. It would create a twist in the middle of the towel and
ridges and diagonal lines which radiate outwards. That is what your
fascia is like with a knot or trigger point in it. The towel is the
fascia and the twist is the knot.
Now stay with me here...
If
you were to use the same analogy with the twisted towel. Then SMR or
sports massage would "rub" or take the twist out of the towel and make
it nice and flat, smooth and even again. SMR is like ironing out the
creases in your body.
Solutions to Poorly Functioning Fascial Tissue
A
very effective way of
healing and improving the function of your
fascial tissue is through something called Self Myofascial Release, also
known as SMR.
Self Myofascial Release is the process of massaging
yourself. There are several SMR techniques that you can use to great
effect including foam rolling, acupressure balls, medicine ball work,
yoga and self massage.
How Does SMR Work?
The SMR tools I
use the most is a foam roller and acupressure balls. I either integrate
it into the start or end of my training sessions or I will do it on a
rest day.
I find this is great on a rest day as you feel like you've done something but still get a good rest from exercise.
Foam rollers come in different types, sizes and densities.
Performing
SMR on a rest day is also great for your recovery and will get your
body and mind ready for your next exercise session.
The foam
roller effectively does the work that a massage therapist does. A foam
roller is a cylindrical (can also get 1/2 rollers) exercise tool which
is easy to carry around and use.
I have found that acupressure balls are effective too. They are little balls that are pretty cheap to buy.
Rolling
these on your hands, feet and other problem areas of the body helps to
increase circulation, flexibility, lymph drainage and helping to relieve
muscle stiffness and fatigue.
In order for your muscles to work
at peak efficiency then your fascial tissue needs to be functioning
correctly. SMR techniques help to smooth out all of the dysfunctions in
your fascial tissue which dramatically improves muscle performance.
How Should It Feel?
Find
the spot where the knot or trigger point is and stay on that area and
work very little circles or back and forth motion, right on the sore
spot. Sometimes you may feel referred pain (pain in an area you're not
working), for example when working the hip flexor you may get referred
pain down the leg when you hit a certain spot, this may be an "active"
trigger point, it's a good idea to give it some attention to try to
"deactivate" it.
If you don't improve the performance of your fascial tissue then you will be seriously held back.
It'll
be like walking around all day with a heavy rucksack on, every single
task you do will be more difficult than it should be, eventually leading
to pain in the entire body.
This will give a lot of people the excuse to do less and live an inactive lifestyle which is no good for your
health.
Neglecting SMR will mean that you aren't able to function as well as you could.
If
you Can't be bothered to do it yourself? Just get a sports massage,
they will do it all for you. Get a well qualified sports massage
therapist with experience in trigger point massage and myofascial
release.
Benefits of SMR
One benefit of SMR is you don't need to pay for a sports massage session so often!
Using
SMR techniques with a foam roller and acupressure balls can do a lot of
the work that would be done in a sports massage session. You could book
in for a sports massage session every now and then when you need a bit
more intricate, deep work.
So £10-20 is a good investment in a foam roller and a set of acupressure balls.
Another
major benefit of SMR is you can do it in the comfort of your own home.
It can be incredibly relaxing to have a hot bath, dim the lights, put on
some relaxing music and spend 20-30 minutes of SMR (stretching, yoga,
deep breathing and foam rolling is what I do).
You will feel great
after it. I've found since doing this that my concentration as well as
my energy levels have improved so much.
It has training benefits
as well. SMR techniques can help to heal old injuries, strengthen your
body to resist potential new injuries and improve your body's ability to
run, jump, lift, throw, pretty much everything!
SMR will help to
fix all of your current fascial tissue problems, heal the old adhesion
(knots) and problem areas, correct muscle imbalances, improve joint
range of motion and help to create an environment in which your body can
operate at its best.
It will allow you to train to your full potential and recover quicker.
I've
suffered with injuries, aches and pains in the past and since I've been
doing this all of the little niggles have gone away and I've been given
a new lease of life with my training, it's seriously great and I have
recommended it to all of my clients and now you too as well can benefit.
My
strength has improved, flexibility has massively increased and I've
noticed that yard of pace I thought I'd lost has come back!
Like
I've said, as well as physical benefits it has mental benefits too. It
helps to energise my mind as well as my body. My concentration levels
have improved which has helped to improve my business and I'm able to
think much clearer and think of great new business ideas and use my time
much better.
Who else is SMR good for?
The people who would benefit from SMR the most are:
Desk
jockeys (people who sit behind a computer all day e.g. office workers) -
Chest, shoulders, neck and back problems are often associated with
office workers. SMR will be extremely effective at loosening these tight
muscles and improving posture.
Runners and endurance athletes -
SMR is good for runners to keep their structural integrity intact. SMR
will help to reduce any inflammation caused by the constant wear and
tear associated with running. Spending 5-10 minutes before and after a
run is good.
Sports people/athletes - SMR is beneficial for sports
people and athletes for similar reasons mentioned for runners and
endurance athletes. Sports people put their body through a lot so SMR
will be great for recovery and to allow the body to cope with all of the
work. I mentioned earlier that properly functioning fascia results in
the person being able to run faster, lift more, throw harder and jump
higher, these are essential in all sports.
These discoveries and
research in the field of fascia are relatively new. It is only in the
past 6-7 years have people began taking note of how poor functioning
fascia can negatively affect people's lives. It is likely that the
majority of people who suffer from pain in their bodies are suffering
from poor fascial tissue functioning, but because not many people know
about it then it is blamed on other things.
So please take on
board what I have said today and utilise the solutions I have suggested,
especially if you fall into the category of office workers or someone
who trains lots. It will make a huge difference to how your body
functions and it will literally feel like a whole weight has been lifted
off your shoulders.
Thanks for reading,