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In this article, you will learn:
What is SMR?
Benefits of SMR
SMR technique
SMR tools
When to perform SMR
How much SMR to perform
In our day to day lives these days, more than movement, a sedentary or "sitting" lifestyle is more prevalent and hence we do experience lot of aches and pains in various areas of our bodies primarily the neck, lower back and knees and it has a lot to do with how much self care are we willing to apply in your stressful routines. The physio session isn't always on our priority list and taking pain killers wreak havoc on our levers.
Hence, one of the best form of self care activities is the "Self Myofascial Release(SMR)".
With SMR, we will be able to alleviate pain, improve movement quality, fix your postural problems if any and be healthier .
What is SMR?
SMR is a form of self-massage done as a part of pre-movement prep or warm-up or as a part of recovery and restoration to release the "tightness" in the muscles. Why is it called self "Myofascial" release is because muscles are packed in the bags of fascia - a semi liquid plasma sheath.
SMR can be performed using wide variety of tools and implements namely foam roller, tennis ball, lacrosse ball, medicine ball, even weights as well.
The logic behind SMR
If a tight muscle is rolled slowly throughout its complete length, there are a few areas within that length where the pain elevates. Those are the "knots" in the muscles or myofascial "trigger points". These knots are developed due to extreme tightness and rigidity of the fascia. These trigger points don't allow the muscle to expand/elongate and contract to the best of its ability and hence the fascia quality degrades and movement quality suffers overtime. When you roll over these trigger points, you tend to release them gradually along with deep breathing and movement until those knots disappear and the muscle can elongate and contract in its original form. Thus, we achieve what we intended in the first place - a better movement quality.
In the technical sense, when you roll over a tennis ball or foam roller, the excruciating pain that is caused by the activity signals the nervous system through the Golgi tendon to stop or inhibit tightness in that area because the nervous system senses a threat. Hence, the area is able to relax and gradually the trigger points fade away.
Benefits of SMR:
Reduced tightness in the muscles
Improves joint function and movement quality(mobility)
Fixes bodily dysfunctions and poor posture
Increases fluidity of the fascia. This is also known as "Thixotrophy"
Improves fascia quality - ability to expand and contract
Improves strength and muscle building potential
Increases recovery and blood flow.
SMR technique
There are minor changes in the way you roll with a foam roller vs if you roll with a tennis ball or a lacrosse ball because of the surface area covered and also the size and type of the tool.
Generally, whichever body part you are rolling has to be rolled slowly with a conscious effort to breathe deep through the pain and relax, almost like a massage in some fancy spa :D. Rolling this way for some time will allow you to identify one or two very tender painful spots which are the knots or trigger points in that muscle. Once you identify that, perform small rolls and hold the position over the trigger point, relax and breathe deep into the pain.
Point to be noted is that as these trigger points or knots are released, these are basically toxins that get released into the blood. Hence, it is recommended to drink a lot of water after SMR so that you can flush out the toxins through urine or sweat.
Tools or implements
Ideally, basic foam rollers are softer and cover a larger surface area, hence beginners should start off with the basic ones, however as you progress and would want to improve your movement quality more, you can progress to a "grid-type" foam roller(shown below) in which the grids or protrusions hit the exact trigger points. You can also gradually progress to a softer tennis ball to a harder grid type ball and lacrosse ball as they have a smaller surface area and can hit the trigger points pretty well.
Rolling sticks and medicine balls(bouncy, hard ones) are also great because with sticks you can actually direct the roller to the tender areas, however, there's a limit to the amount of pressure that you can apply with it compared to a foam roller which is rolled with your weight on it. Medicine balls are also great as they are much bigger in size and you can actually roll in a flow with it as transitioning to one position from another is pretty smooth as compared to a foam roller.
We also use the basic free weights like weight plates, barbells and kettlebells to "smash" them into the muscles and tender areas. They are very good for releasing deep muscles of the hip flexors, abdomen and pec minor. But you can use them for other areas too.
When to roll?
As mentioned earlier, you can perform SMR as a part of your warm-up routine to open up tight areas and pave the way for stretching and activation of the muscles. In a study done over foam rolling, the effect on the mobility was greater when SMR was coupled with stretching of the same area, hence in our general CPPS warmup template, SMR is followed by opening up and stretching the tight areas and finally activating them and prepping them for heavier loads.
There could be a question in your mind that when SMR signals the nervous system to inhibit or "relax" the tight fascia, then how come we could use this as a part of our warm-ups as we want the muscles firing before lifting weights. This is exactly why we use muscle activation, core activation and nervous system activation techniques right before we touch weights. What we are essentially doing is that we first release the tightness with SMR, then open the area up with stretching, increase blood flow into the area with local activation and finally priming the nervous system to take on the world !
Studies have also shown that performing SMR or rolling post exercise also has a recovery enhancing effect on the body with reduction in DOMS(delayed onset muscle soreness) or post exercise muscle soreness and accelerate healing and recovery.
Lastly, you can also use SMR as a separate recovery workout on your off days, giving it more time as compared to when you use them during pre or post exercise. A full recovery workout will relax and prepare your body for heavier training sessions to come the next day.
How much SMR to do?
As a general guideline, for pre and post rolling, you can start with smaller 10 sec rolls on tight, tender areas. Gradually, as you become aware of your body's tightness and dysfunctions, you can be more conscious of the trigger points and can direct the implement to those tender areas only in a flow.
Usually with pre and post training SMR, you can perform SMR for 5-6 minutes and can increase up to 15-20 min on standalone SMR sessions on off days.
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