Foam rolling is a common form of self-myofascial release which is a manual therapy. It is often used by lots of athletes prior to a workout with a view to improving flexibility or after a workout with a view to reducing muscle soreness and promoting quicker recovery.
Pre exercise foam rolling has been found to increase range of movement in the short term.
Post exercise it has been found to help with soreness and fatigue during exercise.
What needs to be expanded on however is finding the optimal duration of foam rolling as there is currently no gold standard foam rolling programme.
For further information on this you can have a look at the below articles.
Ajimsha, M. S., Al-Mudahka, N. R., & Al-Madzhar, J. A. (2015). Effectiveness of myofascial release: Systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Journal of bodywork and movement therapies, 19(1), 102-112.
Andersen, L. L., Jay, K., Andersen, C. H., Jakobsen, M. D., Sundstrup, E., Topp, R., & Behm, D. G. (2013). Acute effects of massage or active exercise in relieving muscle soreness: Randomized controlled trial. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 27(12), 3352-3359.
Category: Uncategorised (Page 3 of 5)
Part of a good recovery is based on rest, due to the fact that it is central to healing-
If sufficient time is taken, the body will recover naturally the majority of the time without the need of any intervention. This would be in a perfect world, however training and matches come thick and fast with not enough time for players to recover naturally. This is where recovery strategies/ aids come into play.
Gains from using recovery procedures such as compression garments are futile, if the basics of training such as hydration, diet etc aren’t adhered to.
The best way to pick a strategy, is to firstly look at the window of time you have. Then look at what action in the game/training had the most detrimental affect.
1. If you are trying to reduce muscle soreness – use Compression garments, neuromuscular stimulation or massage
2. If you are instead trying to limit muscle damage due to inflammation, then using cold water immersion is the recommended recovery strategy
3. Assess warm up and cool down exercises to see if they are specific to the movements in your game.
4. Another example given in the journal, is to try and minimise oxidative damage within the muscle by taking antioxidant supplementations such as Cherry Juice.
As a coach, the article states that there is a balance where there is a positive effect from exercise induced adaptation and anywhere past this positive there needs to be a recovery plan in place to ensure any further stress does not cause a detrimental effect to the performance gains.
So there you go a little look into recovery strategies and how to pick them. For a look at the whole article click the link below http://www.bases.org.uk/The-BASES-Expert-Statement-on-Athletic-Recovery-Strategies
It was a lovely day last Sunday to Massage at Apperley’s quarter marathon.
Couldn’t have asked for a nicer day after Saturday being so wet and windy. Met some familiar faces and some new ones which I look forward to having sessions with over the coming weeks. A well done to all the runners, organisers and marshals for a well ran event.
Few pictures from Sunday
http://5681402.tifmember.com/v/photos/84818bhf/18910075604?ppp=0
Tomorrow I will be with my couch again providing a well earned massage for the competitors of the Newent Triathlon!
Good luck to all people competing tomorrow and all the marshals and organisers for a good race and sunny weather.
Last week I had a client and during the session I said to them ‘these exercises will help improve proprioception’ the client then asked ‘what actually is proprioception!? I’ll do the exercises but I don’t know why!
After I had explained a bit about it all and why it matters, it occurred to me how many times I have actually been asked that question, therefore I’m going to delve a bit deeper into it.
Proprioception in a nut shell is knowing where your body part is. For example where your arm is in relation to your body.
Practical example-
Close your eyes , and now using one hand touch the tip of your nose-
Congratulations, that’s one simple example of proprioception.
Any injury can impair a person’s proprioception at a joint and can be a risk factor for injuries to repeat themselves once muscular strength and range of movement has been restored.
Injury to a joint can cause direct or indirect alterations in regards to sensory information provided by mechanoreceptors.
Direct trauma- this can be from the spraining of a ligament and rupturing nerve fibres as they have less tensile strength than collagen. This reduction in nerve fibres can lead to a loss in proprioception.
Indirect- An example of this could be joint swelling, this would cause incorrect information to be relayed to the brain due to the change in pressure stimulating the receptors.
Proprioception exercises help your body regain control of the injured or impaired joint by helping control it. It helps to develop control at a subconscious level which is important in everyday activities as well as the sporting environment.
The most common piece of equipment would be the wobble board- This helps improve ankle and knee proprioception after an ankle sprain.
So there you go, a little bit more information on proprioception!!
References:
Cole, J., & Montero, B. (2007). Affective proprioception. Janus Head, 9(2), 299-317.
Laskowski, E. R., Newcomer-Aney, K., & Smith, J. (1997). Refining rehabilitation with proprioception training: expediting return to play. The physician and sportsmedicine, 25(10), 89-102.
Intense exercise can cause muscle damage, nervous system fatigue and also inflammation of muscles. This in turn reduces a persons performance by making the muscles sore and reducing the muscles ability to function.
It is no uncommon for athletes to experience elevated muscle soreness and reductions in muscle function of up to 20% for several days after intense exercise.
Cold water immersion is said to help reduce the recovery time needed. It is claimed that the decreased recovery time is due to temperature and pressure changes during cold water immersion.
One mechanism of cold water immersion is that it is said to reduce blood flow to the muscles. The blood flow reduction is said to reduce cell inflammation which is closely linked to the sensation of pain as it reduces the osmotic pressure in the area.
The other proposed mechanism is due to a reduction in tissue temperature. This decrease is said to reduce enzyme activity and also reduce secondary cell death of the cells surrounding the damaged muscle.
It is important to mention that body composition has found to affect tissue cooling time. The more adipose (fat) tissue around the area that is trying to be cooled, the longer it takes.
Cold water Immersion has been found to alleviate DOMs at at 24,48,72 & 96 hours after post exercise. The immersion was found to help with DOMS after high intensity exercise for both 24 hours and 48 hours after high intensity exercise. It was also established that it helped improve the recovery of muscular power but not strength.
The important parts to take from the above are that:
• Having an ice cold bath will not stop DOM’s after strenuous exercise. It will however reduce the severity of it.
• The exact mechanism has not been pin pointed, the tissue temp and pressure changes are just hypothesises.
So there you go- If you have had a tough training session or workout. Don’t go and have a hot bath, run the cold tap, chuck some ice cubes in the frame and jump on in!
Leeder, J., Gissane, C., van Someren, K., Gregson, W., & Howatson, G. (2011). Cold water immersion and recovery from strenuous exercise: a meta-analysis. British journal of sports medicine, bjsports-2011.
What does this mean for you!?
Well if you are currently a member of Wyefit then you get 20% off all of my treatments
If you aren’t a member, if you book just three sessions with me then you get half price gym membership.
What’s not to like!?
Now a month or two ago I did a blog post on getting the right amount of sleep, and how too little and too much can affect you in your daily life.
This blog post aims to make you aware of how sleep loss can affect your sporting performance, training and competition plans as well as your daily life
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1. If your sleep quality is reduced it could result in an autonomic nervous system imbalance, simulating symptoms of the over training syndrome (decreases performance)
2. You are at 1.7 times greater risk of getting injured when you get less than 8 hours sleep
3. The perceptual and motor learning processes continue throughout sleep after a training session, therefore when you don’t get enough this can’t happen
4. Sleep loss can cause your immune system to dysfunction leaving you open to more illnesses
5. Growth hormone, which is needed for tissue regeneration and as the name states growth is released during your phases of deep sleep. This can’t happen as much when you are on less than 8 hours sleep
So there you have it, even more reason to get a good kip!
REMEMBER- ALL MY SESSIONS ARE HALF PRICE FOR JUNE!
For a deeper look into sleep and performance visit http://www.aspetar.com/journal/viewarticle.aspx?id=178#.VXiSZ0bUcZw