Myofascial release (MFR) is a key component in athletic performance and general overall well-being. Fascia is the scaffolding of your body. It encases and connects each muscle group, each muscle, and every cell. It holds and carries the organs. It’s also the place in the body where movement happens or at times, where movement is restricted.
Benefit of Myofascial Release
The number one and most agreed-upon benefit of myofascial release is hydration. The sweeping strokes of rolling or the moderate pressure of compression help to hydrate the body’s connective tissue.
Hydration is a crucial component of fascial health. It helps slow down the degenerative process by supporting the maintenance of the fascia’s wavy infrastructure. It also stimulates the connective tissue’s thixotropic quality. This means the tissue can become more viscous through stimulation or through movement. This viscosity prepares the tissues to glide over one another more easily as movement demand and intensity increase. The less hydrated tissues move past one another like sandpaper. Speaking of sandpaper, the grittiness or resistance of the tissues is often created by the highly adaptive and beneficial inflammation process.
Inflammation is constantly attempting to repair the body after rigorous play or the diabolical pursuit of strength or endurance.
The inflammation process stimulates the laying down of collagen, especially in the areas exposed to repetitive motion. (For instance, the I.T. band gliding across your outer quadricep as we walk or run).
It’s also prominent in primary movement muscles that tear and repair as we build muscle strength. (Such as the pectoralis from the one hundred push-ups you performed last week, or the lats and upper traps after some dynamic rock climbing.)
The more repetitiously or intensely the tissue is utilized the more likely the repairing collagen layer will lay down chaotically and thus restrict the connective tissues ability to glide smoothly.
Hypothetically, myofascial release compresses and stimulates the area increasing the tissue’s lubrication, but also stimulating the collagen to come in and lay down a less chaotic and more elastic layer of tissue.
This can be immensely enjoyable in the short term, creating a nearly instantaneous sensation of relief or fluidity once the compression is over, much like a great massage.
Rolling on a foam roller is a classic form of athletic recovery properly known as myofascial release. It is also believed to create long-term effects if the technique is repeated with frequency and consistency.
Our amazing bodies, fascial layers included, respond and adapt to whatever they’re exposed to most frequently. If you repeatedly send the body the message to lay down smooth, elastic tissue, then it will eventually get the memo and adapt accordingly. Your body is magic like that! It’s constantly rebuilding itself in response to demand.
Your fascia is also a communication system. It is constantly sending sensory feedback to your control center.
Palpation can help you neurologically connect the dots. It can aid you in the powerful mindfulness practice of body awareness.
Body awareness serves us well in athletic performance and in nervous system recovery. Body awareness can even create an incredible baseline for emotional recovery.
For more on the relationship between trauma recovery and body awareness, check out Bessel von der Kolk’s, The Body Keeps Score.
Feeling good physically plays a huge role in how you feel mentally and the routine practice of myofascial release can improve mental clarity and relieve stress and anxiety. Myofascial release is a core part of our health and wellness-based lifestyle. As a avid outdoor athletes, the muscular abuse we put our bodies through in surfing, hiking, mountain biking, and rock climbing, requires a great deal of recovery.From a daily sports-specific yoga practice to post-workout protein, ZMA supplements, greens juices, and more, there’s no recovery method we swear by more than myofascial release.
It’s a crucial piece of the puzzle for overall stoke in life and could be majorly beneficial for all adventurers who go hard in their activities.Whether you charge hard in the mountains, in the gym, or your day-to-day life, myofascial release is a key component for recovery and overall well-being.
There are a wide array of myofascial release tools on the market today. This blog is designed to help you decide which myofascial tool is best for you and to provide tips on which muscles you should target with each myofascial release tool.
Myofascial release is some serious business for those of us who take your hobbies and sports seriously, but it’s also an amazing tool for self-care and reducing stress even if you aren’t as active as you’d like to be. Myofascial release, or self-massage, allows us another opportunity to take care of the body, while also providing an opportunity to reconnect with the mind and the breath. Even if you don’t hike mountains or drop in on crazy waves, massage can help heal tired, cramped, or unhappy muscles.
For the majority of our history, we’ve ignored this tissue, considering it convenient but irrelevant. Now, we’re fascinated, eager to concoct torturous pointy devices or bulbous foam tools to prod at it. Myofascial release is the technique of stimulating, moving, and hydrating the connective tissue through palpation and pressure, often with tools such as balls, blocks or rollers.
Tips for Myofascial Release
Be sure to breathe. If you are clenching your teeth, holding your breath, or making noises, you are likely going too deep or hard into your massage. Everyone has different thresholds of pain and all of our bodies are unique so when in doubt, less is more. Focus on breath and relaxation when you are using any massage tool.
Best Fascial Release Tools
1 | Foam Roller Myofascial Release Tool
Pros: Simple and Affordable. Easiest to use.
Cons: Doesn’t travel well. Hard to use in certain areas.
Best Areas It Targets: Back and glutes
Foam rollers are the best introductory tool to myofascial massage and they are also the easiest to use compared to other massage tools.These long, round cylinders come in a variety of lengths, textures, and firmness. If you are new to self-massage, start soft with something like this. Once you get accustomed to the feel or if you just want to jump right in, this is the one we love the most. For those who want a bit of intensity, try a high-density roller like this or try one with knobs like this.
The majority of foam rollers are 3 feet long, which is great because you can stay on the targeted areas easier, however, this means that they aren’t the most space-efficient myofascial tool. There are one-foot options like this, which are good if you like rolling but don’t have a lot of storage space.
Because of their size, foam rollers don’t travel well, so if you need something while on an adventure trip, a traditional foam roller will take up way too much space.
Foam rollers are hard to use on certain areas of the body. Although much easier to use from the get-go, some areas require the user to use strength to hold themselves up to target quads, IT band, or upper back.
I use my foam roller daily for the back and hips. When I am introducing clients to self-massaging techniques, I always start with a foam roller on the back. Using a foam roller is easy to learn and because you are on a cylinder it helps to minimize the pressure on the spine. Another great area to target with a foam roller is the hips. By sitting on the foam roller, you can get broad sweeps through the fleshy part of the gluteals.
Overall
If you train any adventure sport from a home base, then foam rollers are great. If you live small in an RV or van, maybe not so good. Anyone who has some referred fatigue in their low back or that their sport requires a lot of low back and hips. My hikers, bikers, skiers really can’t live without a little extra love and attention to the posterior chain,
2 | Tennis Ball or Lacrosse Ball for Myofascial Release
Pros: Small, easy to pack, and affordable. Great for the nooks and crannies of the body.
Cons: May be too intense and can be hard to target specific areas.
Best Areas It Targets: Upper traps, pecs, and calves
If you are super active person, using a orb or tennis ball as a myofascial tool can be a life saver.
These days I’m not sure if tennis and lacrosse balls are used more for their appropriate sport or as myofascial tools.
The size of a ball allows you to target areas that are harder to reach with a foam roller.
While the foam roller can massage the superficial gluteals, a tennis or lacrosse ball can get into the deep muscles of the glutes, like the external rotators of the hip and break up even the toughest adhesions. Tight hip flexors plague a lot of athletes and a lacrosse ball into the abdomen does a great job of releasing this problematic area.
It’s definitely not a beginners tool!
Using this device can be a challenge and requires a general understanding of the human body. Due to its small size, it does lend itself to more pressure, meaning it can get deep into tissue really fast. This may be too intense for some people, however, this type of self-massage does an amazing job of breaking apart adhesions.
Keep in mind that the lacrosse ball is a much more intense sensation than using a tennis ball. A lacrosse ball can bruise you much like a deep tissue massage gone horribly bad. If you aren’t accustomed to deep myofascial massage it can leave you feeling beat up.
Also, using either of these balls as myofascial release tools requires a little more understanding of your body and the size and density of the ball adds a little challenge because you can quickly move off the target area.
Ball-type myofascial tools are great travel tools since they are small, easy to pack and quick to use. When we travel, we always have a tennis ball or other small myofascial tool like this orb with us. It takes up very little space and helps us recover not only from our sports but also using it on the lower back after a long drive or flight feels wonderful.
There are many areas that you can use these types of myofascial tools for but three of my favorite spots are the upper traps, pecs, and calves, which are hard to really get to with a foam roller. The harder you train the more serious you should take your recovery
Any extreme adventure athlete can benefit from a lacrosse ball. Climbers will love how it can get into the upper back and forearms quickly, hikers and backpackers will enjoy how it triggers relief in the calves, and surfers can target the muscles of the pecs easily with any of these ball-type myofascial release tools.
Overall
If you are active, enjoy deep tissue massage, or train hard, then this is the next step. The tennis or lacrosse ball is an awesome myofascial release tool for recovery. If you are backpacking, traveling abroad, or live small, like us, these are great because they take up very little space.
3 | The Peanut Myofascial Release Tool
Pros: Two points of contact, inexpensive, travels easily
Cons: Effective for limited areas of the body
Best Areas It Targets: Paraspinals
I almost didn’t include the peanut because it is a tool with limited use. However, it is amazing for the para-spinals, the muscles that run along your spine.
A peanut is going to provide two pressure points at the same time making it great for getting deep into those postural muscles. The two balls are connected in the middle which will allow them to roll together so you can work both sides at the same time. While you could use it for other areas like the quads or calves, the other myofascial tools listed in this blog are better.
You can make your own peanut with a sock and two tennis balls pictured above, but a lot of the myofascial release tool kits sold on Amazon include a peanut and so now you know what to use if for. If you tend to have a tight back, check out this peanut lacrosse ball.
Overall
The peanut is a great myofascial release tool to add to your arsenal but it designed only for certain areas of the body. It can travel easily, takes up less space than a foam roller, and provides the back, quads, and calves some amazing massage.
4 | The Stick Myofascial Release Tool
Pros: Simple to use. Very effective for certain muscles.
Cons: Limited certain areas of the the body and requires effort.
Best Areas It Targets: Quads and calves
A must for runners or cyclists.
The stick is a rolling pin-looking device that allows you to roll it over trigger points. It allows you to use as little or as much pressure as your arms can provide. The nature of the device and the fact you need two hands to operate makes it harder to misuse.
The stick is great but the user has to generate the pressure with the arms which can be good or bad. In general, when people are doing self-massage they should be focusing on breathing and relaxing which can be a challenge when you are exerting yourself to create pressure.
This tool was mainly created for the quads and calves. You can generate a ton of pressure or very little which is awesome.
Overall
If you run or cycle, your quads need extra love and attention. This works wonders without having to lay on the floor and hold yourself up. My runners and triathletes could literally spend hours on their lower legs if I let them.
5 | Cork Block
Pros: Simple to use. Very effective for certain muscles.
Cons: Limited certain areas of the body and can add intensity
Best Areas It Targets: Lats
While a yoga block isn’t normally considered a myofascial release tool, it does wonders for breaking up adhesions and hydrating the lats and even the pecs.
With a block on its mid-height, place it just under the armpits the edge of the block rests against the lats. Slowly shift your weight forward and backward to give the muscles of the lats and pecs a little cross-grain massage and then rest in spots that feel like they need some extra attention.
Overall
As a surfer and rock climber, my lats need a lot of attention. If you do a sport that involves a lot of lat engagement, I encourage you to give the block a try as a myofascial release tool.
Wrap-Up of Best Myofascial Tools
- Foam Roller: Best for back and glutes.
- Tennis or Lacrosse Balls: Best for traps, pecs, and calves.
- Peanut: Best for paraspinals.
- The Stick: Best for quads and calves.
- Cork Block: Best for lats.
Amazon also sells some pretty rad foam roller + myofascial release tool kits like the one below. It’s awesome because it has 4 of the 5 tools that I just covered, a spiky ball, plus 3 resistance bands for doing light therapy.
Hopefully this shed some light on the 5 best myofascial release tools you can use. Recovery is some serious business for athletes but also helpful for anyone looking to live healthier and feel their best. If you are looking for more guidance on MFR or optimizing your recovery, schedule a free consult with me and I will be happy to help you.
In the end, it’s all still an exploration. The science of fascia is relatively new and frequently adapting. It might be the most powerful approach to recognize that we do not truly know. Everything is changing all the time.
What you can do is ask yourself: What in this grand experiment works best for you? How does the modern, collective understanding support the beautiful, contemporary, moment to moment unfolding of your individual life in this body?