Self-Myofascial Release: Why Foam Rolling Combats Pain


Self-myofascial release, or now commonly known as foam rolling was once a recovery technique used only by professional therapists, coaches and athletes. Today, it has become a more familiar to all of us, an everyday practice for people at any level of physical fitness.

Self-myofascial release is a fancy term for self-massage. It helps release the tightness in your muscles by applying pressure to specific areas of your body. It supports the recovery of your muscles and bring back their health and elasticity.

It Is Not Enough To Stretch

Stretching can help loosen up and bring back the elasticity of your muscles, but it alone is not enough to release all the muscle tightness. This is when self-myofascial or foam rolling techniques come in the picture.

The goal of self-myofascial release or any recovery and corrective technique is to restore the point of normalcy in the muscles. Foam rolling aids blood flow and restore normal muscle functions for optimum performance.

How Foam Rolling Works

Foam rolling applies deep compressions to your muscles to help break up tight muscles and aid relaxation. On top of this, it can also address the adhesions formed between the muscles usually caused by dehydration, injury, overuse, etc.

Foam rolling your muscles can be compared to tenderizing a piece of steak. At first, there will be some slight pain and discomfort. But afterwards, your muscles will become loose and supple. If you neglect your muscle health, you will be more susceptible to pain movement, muscle adhesions and flexibility loss.

Common Pains Foam Rolling Can Fix

If you use the right technique, foam rolling can become your personal, free masseuse. It does not just prepare your body for the stresses caused by workout, it can also relieve aches and prevent them from coming back.

Here are eight common pains that foam rolling can fix for you.

1. Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain is usually caused by chronic sitting down, poor posture or tight hip flexor muscles. The pain usually gets worse when you try to bend your waist. This puts a lot of pressure at your back and lead to injury over time.

2. Upper Back Pain

Just like lower back pain, pain in the upper back is also caused by poor posture. Your upper back muscles can stiffen and lead to weak shoulder muscles. Foam rolling will relieve the sharp pains and tightness between your shoulder blades.

3. Heel Pain

For people who constantly walk around or suffer from plantar fasciitis, a foam roll will help ease their discomfort. This inflammation is located at the band of fiber that runs along the bottom of your foot called plantar fascia.

4. Knee Pain

People who suffer from weak or tight hip flexors have problems with their knees. When your hip muscles fail to stabilize your stance and support your body, the iliotibial band overcompensates for your weight. This puts a lot of pressure on your knees and cause pain.

5. Shoulder Pain

Your shoulder is one of the first places in your body to get hurt. This is because it has the most complex and unstable joint in the body. On top of this, when people exercise, they tend to focus more on the deltoids and neglect the other smaller stabilizing muscles found in the back of the shoulder joint, causing stretch imbalances and pain.

6. Shin Pain

Pain in the shin is commonly known as shin splints. It is when the sheath surrounding the tibia bone is inflamed due to extensive jumping or running on hard surfaces. Foam rolling this area will help release the inflammation around the bone and alleviate pain. Athletes who run a lot will find foam rolling their shins helpful.

Many healthcare practitioners encourage their patients to utilize foam rolling especially when they experience muscle pain. However, it is still recommended that you ask your doctor or your physical therapist first before proceeding with foam rolling, especially when you just recently recovered from an injury.

Effective Weight Loss From Pure Forskolin

Gym instructors and fitness coaches will try to push you to exercise and somehow pressure you to get an expensive gym membership. What many people don’t know is there are some individuals who try to stay away from leaving their home due to many different reasons.

It could be that they want to save time, reduce additional expenses, or they are simply uncomfortable showing up at public places. This is why aside from home exercises and workout programs, weight loss supplements have become a commodity.

Weight loss powders and pills are said to come from foreign plant extracts. This is an interesting note to consider as all weight loss products have names that are quite tricky to pronounce. But no matter where the ingredients of these weight loss aids come from, many Americans still get their hands on them as they do yield favorable results.

With a little effort spent doing some research, you will surely find a reputable brand that sells quality dietary products.

One weight loss supplement will all the rave right now is pure forskolin extract. It is known to efficiently burn fat and produce results in a matter of weeks. This is the reason why it’s also the most popular post-pregnancy weight loss solution.

Because of its many positive reviews, more research has been done on this product to understand better how it can effectively make you lose weight.

What Is Forskolin?

Forskolin is a plant native from Southeast Asia. Scientifically known as Coleus forskohlii, it was traditionally used to treat blood pressure, chest pains, heart disorders and a number of respiratory conditions including asthma.

It has also been recorded that this plant plays an important role in treating bladder infections and gut problems hundreds of years ago. In fact, a concoction made from this plant has also been used as a traditional beauty remedy to treat skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis.

Without using complicated medical terms, here are the three ways forskolin works in your body:

1. Burns Fat

Forskolin increases the activity of your Cyclic Adenosine Monophosphate, or cAMP. This acts as a messenger to all metabolic processes in the body – including converting your stored fat into energy.

It has been found that taking pure forskolin extract increases your body’s sensitivity to energy production and consumption to promote efficient cellular activity.

2. Improve Metabolism

Because your body has been continuously burning fat and creating fuel from the output work of forskolin, your body has more energy to power all metabolic processes. An efficient metabolism is evident when you are regularly relieving yourself at the toilet, when your hunger pangs come at a consistent time every single day, and when you simply feel light and energized.

3. Suppresses Appetite

Because this extract boosts your cyclic adenosine monophosphate activity, your metabolism will be in sync with what your body actually needs. The cAMP encourages your body’s enzymes and hormones to power your body and boost its ability to burn fat cells. This activity also has an effect on how your food cravings come by.

The urge to eat more food comes from the signals your body sends to your brain saying that it lacks energy. Since the increased cAMP levels caused by forskolin effectively conducts lipolysis (breakdown of fat to energy), your brain gets this understanding that it has enough energy to sustain you throughout the day, and that excess food intake is no longer needed.

Is It Safe?

As forskolin is sourced naturally from plant extracts, there is nothing to worry about. If you follow the printed instructions on the bottle, you will get the maximum results.

But if you have decided on taking forskolin as a weight loss supplement – or any kind of weight loss pills for that matter, you need to understand that supplements work differently from one person to another. In fact, there is no particular supplement that can work for all of their users.

Make sure to include a healthy lifestyle and a balanced diet as they are contributing factors to a healthier body. If other weight loss supplement like Garcinia Cambogia or Green Coffee did not work well with you, forskolin can be another option to try.

Nutritional Value Of Apples

Apple is a fruit containing high nutritional value compared to other fruits, it is advisable to eat at least one apple a day to keep fit, like the famous proverb an apple a day gets the doctor away. With its 10 meters tall, the apple tree thrives in the temperate zones of the planet. The apple is adorned with colors depending on the variety and contains fiber, vitamins, oligo-elements and pectin.

The apple is multiple and under the image of a certain classicism hides a great diversity. More than 100 varieties are produced offering a wide range of flavors, and many aspects for cooking. The main variety is the Golden, easily recognizable by its yellow color, sometimes tinged with pink. On a beautiful green toned, Granny Smith offers a crisp flesh, juicy and tangy flavor.

The Red apples hide under a dress from ruby to garnet, a crisp, crunchy and very sweet flesh. The scented Queen Reinettes is desired all year until the end of August to late October when it rules. Also in the family pippin, Belle de Boskoop and Grey Canada conceal a fine flavor to the flesh in a rough, rustic feature. And what about the family of bicolor apples: Elstar, Gala, Jonagold, Idared, Melrose, Fuji ?

In its multiple varieties available year round, apple merit, through its dietary qualities to become the base fruit of our food. Moderately energetic (54 calories per 100 g), it is ideal in case of munchies because it quiets good hunger. With its perfectly tolerated fibers, it regulates smooth digestion.

Well endowed with minerals and vitamins, it participates in the good balance of our metabolism. Finally, the regular consumption (2-3 apples a day) can reduce excessive blood cholesterol and stabilize blood sugar. It gives a very beneficial effect of apple, not only to its fibers, but also combined some of its constituents: fructose, magnesium, potassium, vitamin C, and possibly other components not yet identified.

Pectin, the characteristic apple fiber are polysaccharide of complex structure: these polymers of galacturonic acid have a very high molecular weight. They are present in various forms: protopectin (insoluble in water) in acidic apples, blackberries or little; pectin itself (gelling substance) is very abundant in the perfectly ripe apples; pectic acid is a breakdown product of pectin that forms when the fruit pass beyond their optimum stage of maturity.

Various beneficial features have been attributed to the apple: it would be soothing, especially when it is eaten in the evening and would be good for the teeth: in fact, when you bite an apple, it does not consume sweets that would increase the risk of cavities!

It is believed that apple comes from the Caucasus, the apple would have benefited from a lull between two ice ages to reach Central Europe: the remains of apples have also been found in Neolithic lake dwellings in Switzerland or Northern Italy. The Greeks had already selected some varieties (Caton describes 7 of them), and the Romans knew a good thirty they would bring in much of Europe.

At the end of the sixteenth century, the great agronomist Olivier de Serres listed over 50 different varieties. At present, there are hundreds, but the choice of market turns around thirty different varieties gradually selected for their taste, their strength, performance, and their ability to transport. Note that there are still regionally more fragile or rare varieties consumed locally.

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