If you’re looking for an edge in your performance, recovery, and overall physical well-being, there’s a simple, powerful tool that delivers noticeable results: self-myofascial release (SMR).
More colloquially known as foam rolling, SMR refers to a broader self-massage technique using rollers, massage balls, or massage guns to apply pressure to your muscles and fascia (the connective tissue surrounding them). While the idea isn’t new, recent research highlights just how effective it is at creating real physiological changes.
Dedicating just eight minutes a day to this practice can calm your nervous system, help you sleep, increase power output, and improve your range of motion.
Calm Your Nervous System
Demanding jobs, intense workouts, and daily stressors can push our sympathetic nervous system into overdrive. When this system is constantly active, it can lead to increased muscle tension, elevated heart rate, and a general feeling of being “wired.”
SMR provides a direct way to counteract this by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, often called the “rest and digest” system. Applying sustained pressure to muscle tissue sends signals to the brain that encourage relaxation. This shift helps to lower your heart rate, reduce stress hormones, and calm both your mind and body. Incorporating SMR before bed or after a stressful day can be particularly effective for down-regulating your system and improving sleep quality.
Instantly Improve Your Range of Motion
SMR can provide an almost immediate improvement in your range of motion.
When you use a foam roller or massage ball, you help reduce the viscosity, or thickness of the fluid within your fascia. This makes the tissue more pliable and allows muscle layers to slide more freely against one another. The pressure also helps to release adhesions and trigger points (those tender “knots” you feel) that can restrict movement.
Spending just a minute or two rolling out key areas before you exercise can help you move more freely and efficiently during your workout. It also allows you to perform exercises through a fuller, safer range of motion.
Gain a Temporary Performance Edge
While SMR is often associated with recovery, research shows it can also provide a temporary boost in athletic performance. Studies have shown that a brief SMR session can lead to short-term improvements in force production and power output. When your muscles are pliable and moving freely, they are better able to contract forcefully. This means you might be able to jump a little higher, sprint a little faster, or lift with more power immediately following a targeted SMR routine.
It’s important to keep the pre-workout session short and dynamic. Overly long or intense static rolling right before activity can sometimes have a temporary dampening effect. Focus on a few key muscle groups relevant to your workout to prime your body for performance.
Speed Up Recovery and Reduce Muscle Soreness
Perhaps the most well-known benefit of SMR is its role in reducing delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS). That familiar ache that sets in 24 to 48 hours after a tough workout is a result of microscopic damage to muscle fibers.
Using SMR after your workout can lessen this soreness and accelerate your recovery. The pressure helps to increase blood flow to the targeted muscles, delivering more oxygen and nutrients needed for repair. By reducing soreness and restoring muscle function faster, you can return to your training sooner and with greater intensity.
How to Start Your 8-Minute SMR Habit
Here’s a simple way to integrate an 8-minute SMR routine into your day.
Grab a foam roller and spend approximately one minute on each of the following five areas on both sides of your body:
- Gluteals: Place a foam roller on the floor and position your affected buttock on the roller. Using your arms, move your buttock forwards and backwards over the roller. You can vary the amount of pressure through your gluteal region by changing the amount of weight you place through your arms. When you find a particularly tender area, hold this position, increasing the pressure through the roller.
- Calves: Sit on the floor with the roller under one calf. Use your hands to support your weight and slowly roll from your ankle to just below your knee.
- Hamstrings: In the same seated position, place the roller under your hamstrings and roll from the back of your knee to the base of your glutes.
- Quadriceps: Lie face down, propped on your elbows, with the roller under the front of one thigh. Roll from the top of your knee to the bottom of your hip.
- Upper Back (Thoracic Spine): Lie on your back with the roller placed under your shoulder blades. Cross your arms over your chest, lift your hips, and slowly roll up and down your mid-to-upper back.
The Takeaway
Adding self-myofascial release to your daily routine is a small investment with a significant return. Consult with your Exercise Physiologist to develop a personalized SMR routine tailored to your areas of tension, health goals and lifestyle.
When you find a tender spot, pause and hold gentle pressure for 20-30 seconds, or until you feel the tension starts to release. Remember to breathe deeply throughout the process to enhance relaxation.
