Self-Myofascial Release (SMR) for Athletes: Hips & Legs
About the workshop: Participants will learn self-myofascial release (SMR) techniques for athletes, specifically focusing on the hip and leg muscles, to practice at home to enhance their athletic performance and reduce training recovery time. Using foam rollers and lacrosse balls, instructor Tamara Breuer covers a range of techniques that allows individuals to release tension in their own muscles and surrounding connective tissue. Over the course of the hour, Tamara will demonstrate creative and proven effective techniques to release tension in the hips flexors, pelvic girdle, upper and lower leg compartments that are typically used during athletic activities. This is a hands-on workshop where participants will try out these techniques on themselves and ask any questions they may have about daily maintenance for their muscles. In addition, participants will learn a rough framework of how to approach releasing their own muscles that they can use on any muscle of the body, even those that have not been covered in this specific workshop.
This workshop is geared toward weekend athletes who are diligent about their sport but perhaps not so diligent in recovery techniques. SMR will ultimately help improve their performance and overall health.
Requirements for the workshop: You will need to bring your own foam roller. If you do not currently own a foam roller, you will have the option of purchasing one from us up to 48 hours before the workshop (the event organizer will contact you upon registering).
About the instructor: Tamara Breuer is a licensed massage therapist at The Well with extensive experience performing sports massage on individuals of different athletic backgrounds. She earned a Bachelors of Science in Kinesiology from UMD and is completing her personal trainer certification. She trains almost every day in weightlifting, running and yoga. Tamara came up with the idea for her SMR Workshop Series at her CrossFit gym when she realized that athletes who were extremely diligent about their sport did not seem to know effective recovery techniques for daily maintenance and injury prevention in between their massage sessions. Since that time, she has taught multiple SMR workshops at Humble Beast CrossFit and The Well.
More Info about SMR
SMR can play an important role in any athlete's exercise recovery process where hardening of myofascial tissues often occurs following physical stress (such as exercise). In this process, the ground matrix of the connective tissue, which is the liquid gel inside the muscle, loses its viscosity and binds to the surrounding tissue, causing fibrous adhesions to form between and among the muscle fibers and bundles (also known as a “knot”). SMR allows athletes to perform daily maintenance on their muscles by releasing fibrous adhesions and restoring hydration to the tissue. Some of the most popular tools for self-myofascial release include the lacrosse ball and foam roller.
One of the most commonly asked questions surrounding SMR is whether it should be performed before or after exercise. The answer is that both are beneficial for different reasons. When SMR is performed before training, range of motion increases without compromising performance. Sullivan et al. (2013) found that foam rolling the hamstrings before a sit-and-reach test increased range of motion by 4.3% while muscle activation remained the same. When foam rolling is performed after training, delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) has been shown to decrease. A group of athletes who foam rolled after an intense bout of strength training reported significantly decreased perceived muscle soreness for 24, 48 and 72 hours afterwards in comparison to athletes who did not use a foam roller (Macdonald, Button, Drinkwater &Behm, 2014). By practicing SMR in an informed way, you can get the most benefits from foam rolling before and/or after training.