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Dedicate Time to Heal To Speed Recovery – Three Techniques

September 6, 2015 by Jessica 1 Comment

As a fitness coach at the best gym in Orange County, we have clients that need to dedicate time to heal, so they can experience relief, improve body adaptations, and speed recovery.

Without proper recovery, the body will generate a buildup of stress.

This can create pain, joint restriction, muscle tension, tightness, discomfort, and fatigue.

These experiences will hinder your progress.

When your body doesn’t heal, you can alter your muscular-skeletal structure and notice mechanical inefficiency.

The great news is, there are actions of remedies!

If you need three ways to dedicate time to heal and recover, check out these three ways we can heal our bodies: Soft Tissue Manipulation, Temperature, and Activation.

Soft Tissue Manipulation
There is a continuous and seamless web of tissue under your skin.

It surrounds and connects the muscles, organs, bones, and is present from the top of your head to the bottoms of your feet.

It is called fascia.

Fascia can become restricted through injury, stress, overtraining, and poor posture.

The increase in tension can bring muscle spasms, pain, and a lack of range of motion!

A very effective method of recovery for this is soft tissue manipulation.

Using tools such as foam rollers, tennis balls, and lacrosse balls for manual massage can allow the fascia that is stuck to other fascia to let go.

Soft tissue manipulation will allow for better circulation and better functioning of the muscles.

When the muscle tissue is pulled on in different directions, the tissue will become more supple and will work better.

Implementing myofascial release in your routine is a positive action towards restoring tissue health in your body, so you can move better and feel better.

Temperature
The concept is simple, and the benefits are great!

Regulating certain temperatures on the body can help with the rehabilitation and recovery of the muscle tissues.

Try taking contrast showers, switching from hot to cold water.

The hot water gets the blood flowing and then the cold water will send the blood to protect the internal organs from the cold.

Basically, contrast showers will improve the circulation of blood and allow for a quicker recovery.

They improve lymphatic circulation and blood circulation to detox the body and make the organs work better due to the blood that gets forced into them from the cold.

The temperature change stimulates the nervous system, circulatory system, and immune system to reduce Delayed Onset Muscle Syndrome and increase recovery.

Ice packs, ice baths, and thermal blankets are other sources of temperature tools to aid in healing the muscles and decreasing pain and dysfunction.

Activation
Although it takes place during a workout, activation is an essential action for recovery.

Before performing strength exercises, making sure to “light up” the muscles that you will use to allow your body to warm up before expending a force output.

Activation prevents injury, because contracting muscles during a strength exercise that are not activated or warmed up puts the joints and muscles at risk for sprains, tears, and sometimes breaks!

When properly activated, the muscles can perform their best during the strength movement and can quickly recover without being overwhelmed.

It is far better not to be hasty through the workout, and be honest with yourself about the quality of your warm ups.

Being careful will bring you progress faster, as opposed to frequently recovering from injuries.

As your muscle tissue gets healthier, you will feel better each and every day.

Dedicating time to aid your body in recovery will benefit you before, during, and after your workouts.

Looking for more information on Recovery Techniques, check out –

17 Scientifically Proven Ways to Speed Recovery
Warming Up Before Exercise – A Simple Way to Speed Recovery, Improve Performance and Avoid Injury
Recovery is Much More Than Skipping a Workout

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Recovery is MUCH More Than Skipping a Workout

May 3, 2014 by ptpt Leave a Comment

By Mark Elmasry

“Man that was a good workout!” We’ve all said recently enough, or how about, “Ouch, I am sore”?

But the last thing, and possibly the worst thing you may be saying is, “I’m too beat up to do anything today.”

These are all indications of a couple of problems.

Firstly, feeling “beat up” is a sign of your muscles becoming slightly more acidic acutely following exercise, or days later you may be feeling the effects of delayed onset muscle soreness caused by sensitive muscle fiber endings. Secondly, it can be attributed to a poor diet and poor sleep.

Proper nutrition is what fuels our muscles, providing our body the nutrients necessary for repairing torn muscles post workout, while sleep allows for hormonal benefit and aids in muscle growth and rebuilding.

Last, and certainly not least as to reasons why you have ‘thrown in the towel’ for exercise that day are neglected recovery tricks.

For starters, we are not all lovers of pain, so soft tissue manipulation on a foam roller or trigger point tool of some sort is not something we all religiously do as we should.

Soft Tissue Manipulation (STM), be it that you go to a fancy massage clinic, performed self massage, or self myofacial release(SMR) with a ball, roller, stick, etc. should be done constantly. There is always some area in your body that has recently been over-worked and is extra stiff or sensitive. It is necessary that we release those trigger points, whether they are latent or active, and obviously painful.

Helpful Hint for STM or SMR – “Less is More” when it comes to targeting a specific area of soreness or tightness. Putting continuous and concentrated pressure for multiple minutes at a time will cause even further sensitivity and even bruising. Short, simple, and straight to the point is effective and essential for taking care of sore muscles and ridding our body of hazardous trigger points and sore muscles that will ruin our body mechanics.

Playing with temperature can also be a highly effective tool for recovery. “Throw some ice on that bad boy!” is an age old saying from all kinds of uneducated coaches but is extremely valuable and helpful for recovery. Ice application by itself for a couple minutes brings down pain levels, swelling, general edema(swelling), and stops the excessive nerve signals from the brain. Not only that, but applying ice for a few minutes causes the blood flow to slow down tremendously and then come back with oxygen and nutrient rich blood cells to help repair the torn tissue. Heat is the opposite, and acts in a different yet beneficial way as well.

Let Innovative Results help you with your recovery!

A Few of Our Favorite Foam Rolling and SMR Techniques

December 28, 2011 by ptpt Leave a Comment

Feeling a bit stiff and sore?

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

Foam rolling and SMR (self-myofascial) techniques are an extremely important part of Innovative Results gym and coaching program.

These foam rolling and SMR techniques include compression techniques using foam rollers, therapy balls, trigger point equipment, rumble rollers and several other pieces of SMR equipment.

For those of us that spend too much time on the couch, in the car and at our desks, these techniques are a lifesaver.

The benefits include:

Breaks up adhesions in our muscle tissue. (aka loosens tight muscles)
Improves proper movement mechanics (aka we move better)
Reduces the risk of injury
Reduced soreness after workouts

As a mixed martial arts fighter who goes through brutal training day in and day out, I would collapse and be physically broken if I did not quickly take care of tight muscles every day. We all know our bodies better than anybody else and the more we roll and stretch out our tight muscles the better it will feel and the more effectively we can take care of ourselves.

But this is not just for athletes. Executives, managers, office workers, weekend warriors and anyone else that visits the gym can benefit from these techniques.

Here’s a few areas to check out next time you’re on the roller:

1) Hips. Hip flexors (front), Glute medius (side) and Glute max (aka butt cheaks) are usually tight on everyone. Foam rollers work great, as well as therapy balls, tennis balls or similar.

2) Lower legs, i.e. right above and below the knee and above the ankle as well, a tennis ball moved around by your hands will work the best on our shins and lower leg. Also, be sure and check out the video below.

3) Upper back and shoulder blades. From sitting in chairs and incorrectly lifting things all day our upper back and shoulder start to crumble on us. This is my personal favorite spot to roll out on and I need it once a day or else I feel terrible. Our favorite tool for this area is called a peanut (two tennis balls taped together). It works perfectly for that area between your shoulder blades.

In addition to the foam rolling techniques mentioned above, stretching is also a great way to relieve tension and improve range of motion.

There are many different types of stretching, but here are a few of our favorites that can be done at home, in the office or just about anywhere.

Here’s a quick peak into a recent mobility workshop at Innovative Results

By utilizing these foam rolling and SMR techniques before and after your workouts, you will not only feel better, but you’ll also move more efficiently.

In fact, you should feel brand new!!!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave us a comment and we’ll get back to you right away 🙂

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5 Tips To Turn Your TRI Into a Win-Endurance Athletes, This Is For YOU!

January 23, 2010 by ptpt 1 Comment

Dear Innovative Results,

I need your advice…I am increasing in my mileage like a crazy woman, but I feel good about it and I am doing great…except one thing…my long run today was 20 miles =) in 3 hrs, it was a great run except my legs were giving up on me…I had enough energy to keep going, but once I slowed down it was like, “HOLY CRAP! This freakin hurts!” Though the pain was in my quads and hip flexors..Is there anything I can do in my training to strengthen my legs…I feel like I am doing great runs throughout the week…maybe more sprints? Or try to incorporate more strength training?…if that is the case, then what can I do? I appreciate your help! Oh and the count down begins…4 WEEKS til the big day…26.2!
[Read more…]

Dedicate Time to Heal To Speed Recovery – Three Techniques

Recovery is MUCH More Than Skipping a Workout

A Few of Our Favorite Foam Rolling and SMR Techniques

5 Tips To Turn Your TRI Into a Win-Endurance Athletes, This Is For YOU!

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