3 /9 hen Lynda Ellison walked into her first foam rolling class, she was desper-

Question

3 /9 hen Lynda Ellison walked into her first foam rolling class, she was desper- ate for help. Over such constant pain that she had a hard time working, cooking dinner, or even getting out of bed most days. She couldn't tolerate medication because it made her brain foggy, and other the past decade, she'd experienced a things she had tried-physical therapy series of devastating losses. First, her 30-year-old daughter died of a drug overdose. Two years later, her mom had a fatal heart attack. Then she lost her 29-year-old son to heart failure and her father to lung cancer. "My grief felt like a cold, black ache in my heart,"says the 61-year-old bookkeeper from New Bedford, MA. chiropractic care, and acupuncture- provided only limited relief. Then Ellison heard about foam rolling- agentle form of self-massage that eases aches and pains by using spongy balls and foam cylinders to apply pressure to specifie points on the body. She found a class and signed up. On top of that, Ellison suffered from fibromyalgia, which left her in To her surprise, she felt relief almost immediately. After several minutes of slowly rocking side to side on a 80 PREVENTION.COM-DECEMBER 2016 FITNESS eylindrical foam roller centered beneath that what rolling can do for your mind her head and spine, Ellison's habitually and mood may be as remarkable as hunched shoulders relaxed, and the pain in her legs and lower back started to subside. But that wasn't all: She felt use self-myofascial release instead of the tension and sadness in her chest painkillerns, start to seep away, too. By the time the ceuticals, or alcohol, says Jill Miller 60-minute session ended, she felt more a specialist in therapeutie elearheaded and peaceful than she what it can do for your body Many of my students say they mood-regulating pharma- who created Yoga Tune Up and the

Explanation / Answer

For both athletes and active individuals, SMR is often used to enhance recovery and performance. Despite the popularity of SMR, the physiological effects are still being studied and no consensus exists regarding the optimal program for range of motion, recovery, and performance. And hence Foam rollers are having a major moment. Once relegated to physical therapy offices, they're now found in most gyms and are even used in group exercise classes. Research suggests that both foam rolling and the roller massage may offer shortterm benefits for increasing sit and reach scores and joint ROM at the hip, knee, and ankle without affecting muscle performance. The benefits of foam rolling have to do with the mobility of the fascia. Fascia is a fibrous layer of connective tissue that surrounds all of the muscles in our body. Without proper mobility, fibers of the fascia become cross linked and they bind to muscles and nerves, inhibiting normal motion and causing pain.Many runners will stretch to try to keep their muscles healthy, but this stretching is not enough. Stretching may be more beneficial if foam rolling is done prior to the stretch. A recent study (Foam Rolling and Static Stretching on Passive Hip Flexion Range of Motion) that was accepted for publication in the Journal of Sport Rehabilitation in January of 2014 measures the effects of foam rolling prior to static stretching. The authors found an increase in hip range of motion after rolling on the hamstring then stretching, compared to stretching alone. Increase in flexibility was thought to be from increased blood flow and an increase in intramuscular temperature, both of which increase the viscoelastic properties of muscle.

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