Addressing Tension and Tissue Quality - Part 3

For the third and final installment of addressing tension and tissue quality I want to quickly review and consolidate the previous posts and then touch on one last issue: muscle adhesions.

Foam rolling is one of the most common forms of myofascial release and can work wonders for ones movement and tissue quality. Similar to stretching, we can see lasting benefits from regular rolling. It can also help address muscular imbalances caused by today’s sedentary lifestyle. We often forget that our bodies will adapt to any situation presented to it meaning we are essentially always training our bodies regardless of whether we frequent the gym or not.

As noted in part 1, sitting can cause a host of problems most commonly displayed as adaptively short and tight hip flexors. This leads to what Dr. Vladimir Janda, a leading thinker regarding muscle imbalances and faulty posture and their relationship with chronic pain syndromes, coined the lower crossed syndrome. If we spend an exorbitant amount of time in a seated position the body will adapt and the hip flexors become short and tight while the antagonist muscles do the opposite and become long and weak. In the case of the lower crossed syndrome, the iliopsoas and rectus femoris become short and tight as do the spinal erectors. In conjunction with this the abdominals, glutes and hamstrings become lengthened and weak. The following graphic shows how this causes an anterior pelvic tilt, which can lead lower back pain and faulty movement patterns. The good news is that regular foam rolling and stretching of the hip flexors and quads can help prevent this. However, one should not forget that strengthening the weak muscles is also important.

Lower crossed syndrome. The pelvis is allowed to tilt anteriorly because the antagonist muscles (glutes, hamstrings, and abdominals) have become weak and no longer balance out the pull of the muscles shown.

And now the last part of this topic: muscle adhesions. Adhesions are basically scar tissue that builds up in the muscle due to trauma. This trauma does not need to be major for this to occur.

Scar tissue build up between the muscle fibers

Think back to the last time you exerted yourself physically and woke up the next morning experiencing soreness. That soreness is the result of micro-trauma to the muscle tissue which is enough to create adhesions over time. Obviously with resistance training soreness is accepted as somewhat of a norm, though it shouldn't be the goal. 

Now you may be wondering why we would want to subject our bodies to this relatively avoidable trauma. Remember how we were talking about our bodies adapting to every situation thrown at it? Well when we challenge ourselves physically our bodies adapt by becoming stronger, faster, more flexible, more endurance tolerant and lets not forget healthier and more disease resistant. So there is a huge upside to pushing ourselves physically as long as we train in a balanced way and address tissue quality. Foam rolling is the easiest way to do this. It can alleviate trigger points, reduce overall muscle tension and help keep our muscles functioning at their best. It doesn't really matter when you roll be it before exercise, after exercise, or on off days as long as you do it regularly.

-KO