Daily Health of Fascia
Fascia is continually being created and laid down throughout our body. Without proper movement, the fibers will not form in the correct pattern, creating pain and inhibiting movement. The stresses that we put on our bodies every day can affect how fascia is laid down. Those stresses can range from running, carrying a heavy work bag on our shoulder, sitting at a computer, or any other activity that we perform regularly! SMR will keep trigger points and scar tissue broken up within the muscle and fascia, allowing greater tissue extensibility, normal function, and normal motion.
Post Injury Tissue Mobility
The concept of tissue mobility is of even greater importance after injury because new layers of fascia are laid down as scar tissue. If this tissue isn’t broken up, mobilized, and properly aligned, it can cause problems in the future. Even if you had an injury a while ago (months to years) it can still creep up on you and cause problems. Many times, when I’m evaluating an injury, the more I get into the history of pain with the person, the more past injuries are revealed. They might have never have completely resolved or properly rehabilitated an old injury, but never traced their current issues back to that injury.
Performance Capability of Flexible Tissue
Another benefit to regular SMR is the performance capability of your muscles. The more flexible your muscles are within normal range of motion, the more power they will be able to produce. This has to do with elastic energy. The more stretch a muscle gets, the more stored energy it has, the more force it will be able to generate. On the other hand, a less flexible muscle produces less stretch, less range of motion, less stored energy, and decreased force output. SMR, combined with proper stretching, strengthening, and training could help you reach new performance levels that you were never able to achieve before. SMR has become standard practice among many collegiate and professional level athletes across all sports because of the perceived performance benefits.