How To Relieve Muscle Tightness & Soreness: SMR Techniques
Welcome,
What if I told you you could be pain free in less than 10 minutes a day? Is that enough to convince you it’s time to pick up a foam roller or lacrosse ball and get to work? And by work I mean laying down on the ground, scrolling through instagram while you make the most ugliest faces you would never post a selfie of.
For a video explanation, if you don’t have the time or patience to read, watch this:
For those of you with time to read, enjoy :)
Of the many things that could prevent you from working out, you don’t want it to come from something you can control. Muscle tightness and soreness can derail any type of motivation you built up. I find that once you start moving, it’s hard to stop. We’re trying to create momentum for doing something that’s going to lead to a great workout. The potential to have a great workout is higher when you can increase the mobility and flexibility of your muscles, decrease soreness and recovery time as well as decrease the likelihood that you’ll injure yourself.
SMR or Self Myofascial Release, is a therapy technique that relaxes a tense muscle in order to make it more mobile & flexible. Think about it like this, when you wake up first thing most mornings, you most likely roll around in bed a little bit before you start your day. That’s the same idea with SMR, we’re preparing our muscles for the day. What happens when you’re no longer tense? Your body moves with less restriction and your mood elevates because all of the discomfort your body was signaling to your brain, is reduced or eliminated.
Another benefit to using SMR is the ability of your muscles to lift heavier weight. More range of motion = more muscles being stressed by weight which begins the cycle of stress > recovery > adaptation. Unless you work the full range of motion, you’re not working the full muscle. If you don’t use the appropriate amount of stress, how can you grow? I don’t want you to waste years in the gym thinking you're almost at your potential when you’re only 65% of the way there.
In this video (here), for bigger muscles, use a foam roller or the stick, for smaller muscles, use a lacrosse ball or acumobility ball.
Find the “sweet spot” of where your muscle is most tense then stay there for 30 seconds to a minute.
Repeat this for every part of your body that needs TLC.
Bonus:
Here’s a video by Eric Cressey of Cressey Sports Performance demonstrating his foam roller series before working out (here)
