If you feel
pain, don’t
press as hard3therapy balls have seen how kneading the
fascia and the muscles underneath can
produce emotional benefits that are at
least as profound as those of
regular massage, which has
been shown in dozens of
studies to reduce
anxiety, stress and
depression, as well
as help with sleep.
“Fascia is a sensory
organ,” says Lauren
Roxburgh, a personal
trainer and foam rolling
expert. “We feel everything there,
including emotion. I’ve seen clients
literally roll of all sorts of negative
emotions – grief, anger, anxiety,
childhood trauma. This can be very
powerful stuf indeed.”
HOW ROLLING RELEASES EMOTIONS
Although studies haven’t yet confirmed
why rolling on a small rubber ball or an
oversized foam tube can have such a potent
impact on our minds, one theory relates to
the simple, soothing efect of touch. When
moderate pressure – from a foam roller,
therapy ball or the skilled fingers of a
massage therapist – compresses your
tissue, the pressure receptors in your fascia
and skin are stimulated. Those receptors
then send a signal to your vagus nerve, a
nerve bundle deep in your brain that is
part of the calming, parasympathetic
branch of the nervous system.
“The vagus nerve has branches
throughout the body, including the heart,
so triggering the pressure receptors slows
your heart rate and makes you feel more
relaxed,” explains Dr Tifany Field,
director of the Touch Research Institute,
at the University of Miami School of
Medicine, which is the world’s first
research centre to study the efects of
touch and its application to science
and medicine. “We know this from our
massage studies, but there’s no reason
that self-massage with a foam roller
wouldn’t have a similar efect.”
As your heart rate slows, your hormones
begin to respond to the signals from the
pressure receptors. Cortisol, a stress
hormone, drops and the feel-good
chemicals in your brain,
like serotonin and dopamine,
rise. “We’ve found that the
efect on hormones is more
long-lasting if you get
massages frequently,
and that’s the beauty of
self-massage with foam
rollers: you can do it on your
own at home as often as you
like,” Field says. She suggests that the
healthy emotional boost you get from
daily foam rolling at home may even
provide sustained relief to carry you
through the day.
There’s another theory about why foam
rolling might be efective at eradicating
negative emotions, according to
researchers. When you’re stressed,
scared or angry, your muscles become
tense. If the emotions are relatively
fleeting, lasting a few hours or a day,
the physical tension dissipates.
But if you’re under constant strain
and your emotions remain
heightened due to grieving,
divorce or other major stressors,
for weeks, months or even years,
your muscles are constantly
ready to contract. Over time,
this afects the fascia, which
surrounds the muscle, causing
it to thicken and stifen.
“You actually start to hold the
negative emotion in your fascia,”
says Robert Schleip, director of
the Fascia Research Group at
Ulm University in Germany.
It’s thought that SMR helps
free those stored emotions that
carry messages to the brain.
The idea that emotions can
get trapped in the fascia isn’t
proven, but it rings true for
some foam roller devotees.
Try it for yourself and see. 3 HEAL YOUR
HIPS (BELOW
This move targets the IT
band, a strong piece of
connective tissue that
links the buttocks to
the outer knee and can
cause pain when tight.
TRY IT Sit on a chair with
2 balls wedged against
outside of right thigh.
Angle right leg into balls
and roll back and forth
across thigh. Aim for
4 minutes on each leg.ROLL
AT HOME
Try these moves to soothe
aches, release stress, and
ease anxiety. All can be done
with therapy balls (or two
tennis balls) and a sot
pillow or rolled-
up towel.JUNE/JULY 2017 PREVENTION 107ALL-DAY ENERGY