Foam rolling and what is technically known as ‘self myofascial release’ is a huge part of our training philosophy at Functional For Life. However, we often get asked when we are working with new clients, ‘what is the point of foam rolling’? That is a fair question and we can see why it might seem ‘strange’ initially! However, in short this is one of the numerous techniques we use to improve the movement and function of muscles and muscle groups by releasing tight muscles that are in chronically long or short. In today’s blog we go deeper into the science behind foam rolling and other release techniques.

What is fascia?

Fascia is a matrix of connective tissue present throughout the whole body. It stabilises, encloses and separates muscles and other internal organs. Essentially all muscles sit within fascia, fascia give the muscles structural integrity and as mentioned separation from one muscle cell to another, one muscle group to another and so on.

To give you a visual, consider an orange. When you peel an orange there is the white stringy stuff around the orange. This seperates its juice into tiny little sacs, then into sections, then into the shape of the orange itself.

In essence this fascia is essential in the structuring of the human body. If you are interested in a more detailed break down of fascia check out the following  article.

Why should we be releasing fascia?

From a functional movement perspective, the reason we want to release fascia is because when it is tightly binded around a muscle it can restrict the movement of that muscle. This can hold us back from being able to perform exercises correctly and efficiently and increase our risk of injuring our self. Keeping in mind if we repeat the same movements with a high degree of biomechanical efficiency, that is great, if we repeat the same movements with dysfunctional and non efficient movement we will likely have issues at some point.

Stay tuned for part 2

We hope after reading today’s blog you have a better idea of what fascia is and why foam rolling and other forms of self myofascial release are used. In our next blog we are going to give you a practical example of how short and tight muscles can lead to dysfunction. We will also give you some tips on releasing in some upcoming blogs and videos. Thanks for reading and for more training and functional movement tips check out www.functionalforlife.com.au