Stop Foam Rolling Your IT Band

Image courtesy of socialphy.com

I have written about this topic before (here and here), but here is an outside article by Dr. Greg Lehman discussing his viewpoint on foam rolling, in particular its use on the IT band.

 

Stop Foam Rolling Your IT Band by Dr. Greg Lehman

Your Body.  Your Training.

Feeling vs. Function

Over the past few months I have written posts about my change of beliefs regarding foam rolling and stretching as both means to increase range of motion and speed recovery time. I have received a lot of comments from people about these new beliefs as people try to rationalize why they may have changed in the first place. I want to stress the fact that just because something feels good, doesn't mean it's good for you in the way you were hoping it to be. When it comes to having greater range of motion, allowing your body to function better, and allowing the muscles to function better, the only way you can know if there is an improvement is if you test it. You need a system of checks and balances to ensure what your are doing isn't detrimental both immediately and in the short- and long-term.

Having said this, showing that you can sit down deeper when you squat or proving that you are now able to touch your toes after stretching and/or rolling out are not valid tests because joint mobility is ALWAYS trumped by joint stability. If you have range of motion at a joint that you cannot actively control, it does you no good to have that range from a performance and training standpoint. So unless you are muscle testing yourself after you stretch or roll out to prove that you are strong and stable at those joints and your muscles are firing properly around those joints, do not tell me how great these things are for you without expecting to be corrected. You are putting yourself at great risk of injury and limiting your training progress, and I can no longer endorse this behavior.

Get big or die tryin'.

Charlie Cates, CSCS

Self Made®, Owner

Charlie Cates is a strength and conditioning specialist and the owner of Self Made® (http://selfmadefitness.com/) in Chicago, IL. He has worked with competitive and everyday athletes of all ages and ability levels, from 9-year-old kids to NFL MVP's. He can be reached via e-mail at charlie@selfmadefitness.com.

This article may be reproduced with biographical information intact.

Is Foam Rolling Doing What You Think It Is?

I used to foam roll all the time. Every day, sometimes twice a day. I had a whole routine for my lower back on down, and in my head I thought I was helping myself. I was told that foam rolling would break up fascial adhesions, releasing tight muscles and allowing me to recover faster. In fact, in one of my most highly praised articles on EliteFTS.com I made claims about how foam rolling after a training session would help remove the metabolic by-products of training, thereby allowing you to come back the next day feeling stronger and ready to go. Now I don't foam roll at all.

I am no longer convinced that foam rolling is doing what I once said it does. In fact, based on my current MAT studies, I now believe that if you roll out your IT-band, for example, you are only smashing your vastus lateralis into your femur. Are you pressing on the fascia as well? Yup, but tell me how that piece of foam is able to only target your fascia and not your muscle fibers. It itsn't, and therefore we are back to the same argument I wrote about in my post and article "Stretching to Improve ROM and Speed Recovery: Fact or Fiction?" because now you are applying force into the muscle tissue but have no idea what it's doing.

Classic

You can use the massage argument if you want, but ask your massage therapist if you can train right after they work on you next and see what they say. Pressing on the belly of the muscle may feel really good, but it's probably not helping you as much as or in the ways that you think it is. And regarding breaking up fascial adhesions, please, fascia is adhesed to begin with! You aren't breaking up those adhesions any more than you are stretching your IT-band, which doesn't have the ability to stretch, by the way.

As far as removing the metabolic by-products of training, eh, it may be possible, but it's not the best way to go about it. In my opinion, the best way to ensure that you recover as fast as possible from your training is to make sure your muscle fibers are firing properly. The amount of force that is generated by the muscle fibers to move your body through space and time is SO much greater than you could EVER put into it with your fingers or a piece of foam or PVC pipe. If there is something that is able to move out of those muscle fibers through force, it will be moved out when they start contracting properly.

After I train, I no longer stretch and I no longer roll out. Instead, I check my range of motion in the relevant body area and perform low-intensity isometrics into any limits I find in my ranges of motion, as taught to me by Muscle Activation Techniques. I'm not sore or achy and my knees feel significantly better than they did in college. In fact, the only days they bother me are when I wear shoes too much. But alas, this subject is for another post.

Get big or die tryin'.

Charlie Cates, CSCS

Self Made®, Owner

Charlie Cates is a strength and conditioning specialist and the owner of Self Made® (http://selfmadefitness.com/) in Chicago, IL. He has worked with competitive and everyday athletes of all ages and ability levels, from 9-year-old kids to NFL MVP’s. He can be reached via e-mail at charlie@selfmadefitness.com.

This article may be reproduced with biographical information intact.

Recovery 101--Training Techniques

This is the second of a two-part article on basic recovery techniques. Part 1 looked at the nutritional aspect of recovery, while Part 2 will focus on training techniques to speed up recovery.

In my last article in the Recovery 101 series I talked about the importance of post-workout nutrition in aiding recovery and allowing you to get the most out of your workouts. However, post-workout nutrition is only half the battle when it comes to being able to recover properly. The other side of the story is the activities that you do after your workout to prepare your body for your next training session.

Many people still perform static stretches before their workouts, trying to lengthen cold or slightly warmed muscles in a futile attempt to prevent injury and enhance performance. Not only does this activity fail to accomplish the desired goals of the individual, but these same principles are also often not applied at a time when the aforementioned goals can be accomplished, i.e., after a workout. Static stretching, along with Self-Miofascial Release, massages, and contrasting temperature environments, such as hot and cold whirlpools, saunas, steam showers, and snow rooms are all means to rid your body of unwanted byproducts of exercise while preparing you to be able to attack your next workout harder and stronger.

Pre-workout static stretching is not ideal due to the decrease in power output that occurs and the possibility of injury from attempting to increase the length and range of motion of a cold muscle. However, post-workout static stretching is a beneficial recovery technique because it increases blood flow to the working muscles, delivering the much-needed nutrients talked about in Recovery 101—Nutrition, as well as helping to remove metabolites from those working muscles. Three alternatives to static stretching that, when applied properly, can be just as affective of a post-workout recovery technique are passive stretching, isometric stretching, and PNF stretching.

Passive stretching is often mixed up and used interchangeably with static stretching. While during static stretching an individual is actively lengthening the muscle and then holding that lengthened position, during passive stretching some external force is stretching the muscle, whether it be a machine, a partner, or the individual themselves pulling on their own elbow or leg to stretch their triceps or hamstring.

Isometric stretching is done by lengthening a muscle until a good stretch is felt and then isometrically contracting the muscle by attempting to concentrically contract it while another person or apparatus resists the contraction with equal force. A very common isometric stretch is the wall stretch for the calves whereby an individual is literally trying to press through the wall with a staggered stance. Because the individual is unable to press through the wall, the gastrocnemeus and soleus of the back leg are being isometrically stretched. By forcing the muscle fibers to isometrically contract while already in a lengthened or stretched position, the muscle spindles are numbed just enough such that when the isometric contraction finishes the muscle can be stretched beyond its previous length.

Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) stretching is a combination of isometric stretching and passive stretching. This technique involves a brief passive stretch of the muscle, followed by a 10 second isometric contraction of the stretched muscle, then a 2 second relaxation of the stretched muscle, and finally a 20 second passive stretch of the muscle. A variation of this routine is to isometrically contract the antagonist muscle for 10 seconds after the 2-second relaxation period of the agonist muscle. The isometric contraction of the antagonist will further lengthen the agonist through reciprocal inhibition. This isometric contraction should be followed by a 20 second relaxation period before performing another 10-second isometric contraction of the passively stretched agonist.

Massages are a great post-workout recover tool in addition to stretching. There are two main types of massages that would be beneficial post-workout: those performed by yourself and those performed by others. One of the best types of massages an athlete can receive is a sports massage. Over the last three decades the popularity of sports massages has really taken off among professional and Olympic athletes. Sports massages are not your average spa-treatment relaxation technique. Quite frankly, they hurt. If done properly, these deep-tissue massages will leave you feeling miserable for a few days after you have it done for the first time. The reason is because the point of sports massages is to improve tissue quality, and to do that you need to remove all of the toxins that have built up in the tissue from past workouts and daily diet. In order to remove these toxins from the tissue the therapist has to really dig in to the athlete’s body. This, in itself, is a painful experience, but the end result is absolutely incredible. Once you get through the first few days of mild illness while you body excretes all of the unwanted toxins, you feel remarkably refreshed and energized. While sports massages are an effective post-workout recovery technique, they may be better served to be performed on an off day from training. Self-massages, however, are very beneficial immediately post-workout.

Self-massages, known as Self-Miofascial Release (SMR), are a great pre-static stretching activity after a training session. They can be performed using instruments such as a foam roller, a tennis ball, or The Stick. These exercises are also beneficial as part of your warm-up routine as they promote blood flow to the desired tissues and loosen up tight fascia that can inhibit optimal muscle elasticity and flexibility. Post-workout SMR is great for removing metabolite buildup as well as promoting blood flow to and lengthening short and tight muscles. Three of the most effective places on the body to perform SMR are the gluteus medius, the IT band, and the arch of the foot. Using a tennis ball and/or foam roller to roll out these areas pre- and post-workout will relieve much of the pain felt in the joints of the lower body.

Once I roll out and static stretch after a training session, I like to hop in a cold whirlpool for 10 minutes or so, followed by a steam shower. The 55-degree water in the whirlpool forces my muscles to contract and helps to kind of squeeze out the unwanted byproducts of my last training session. It also ices down my entire lower body, which does wonders for any aches and pains I may have. Then the steam shower raises my core temperature and gets a lot of blood pumping to my outermost tissue, helping to remove those unwanted byproducts. Saunas provide a similar experience post-workout, promoting blood flow and causing you to sweat out what your body has produced during your workout and doesn’t want. Snow rooms are also beginning to make their way onto the stage in many eastern European countries, especially at spas and hotels. Basically, a snow room is exactly what it sounds like, a cold room filled with snow. The temperature of the room varies depending on where you go as some of these rooms are used more as relaxation techniques of the vacationing businessperson while others are used in conjuncture with saunas for various alleged general health benefits. Like sports massages, these extreme temperature environments are beneficial both post-workout and on an off day.

So, if you have been struggling to make gains in the weight room, you feel like you are constantly under-performing on the field of competition, or you are not getting the results you want from the gym, strongly consider looking at what you are doing immediately after and in the hours following your workouts. There may be some little changes you can make in how you use that time that will lead to great improvements in your training. You have to allow your body to rest and recover properly because when you rest is the only time when you actually get big. Remember, the time you spend in the gym only creates an environment for change, but it is what you do outside of the gym that truly allows your body to change.

Get big or die tryin’.

Charlie Cates

Self Made, Owner

Charlie Cates is a human performance specialist and the owner of Self Made (http://selfmadefitness.com/). He is a Certified Personal Trainer and Performance Enhancement Specialist through NASM and has worked with competitive and everyday athletes of all ages and ability levels, from 9-year-old kids to NFL MVP's. He can be reached via e-mail atcharlie@selfmadefitness.com.

This article may be reproduced with biographical information intact.