I am going to attempt to give you the first scientific answer, as far as I can see.
- Foam rolling, as done according to the NASM protocols, call for a “scanning” with the foam roller, finding the most extremely tight (read: painful, haha) locus, and pushing as freaking hard on it as possible, as much as pain tolerance will allow, for 30 seconds. An alternate to this is holding the same spot for 90 seconds far below your pain threshold.
What this does is relaxes the muscle fibers to which that hyper-irritable locus belongs. I don’t want to write it all out, but this is accomplished via a reflex mechanism through the Golgi-tendon organs (and theoretically muscle spindles). This is neurological relaxation, not simply due to the mechanics of tenderizing your muscles (although that plays a part) This also means that it will NOT relax the entire muscle, simply the fibers innervated by the same motor unit. For instance, if you foam roll your later calve, it will relax most of the hyper-active fibers, and less so the rest of your calve, leaving you to use them as normal.
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As a lot of the best manual therapist (DCs, PTs, some ATCs) will tell you, it is useless doing soft-tissue work (like foam rolling) without following it by active-isolated stretching. If you don’t do this, you are teaching your body to set the length and tension of the muscle you just treated to the same “settings” as before. SO , foam roll it, then stretch it.
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Then, you need to activate muscles which are underactive synergists. For instance, it is no use foam rolling your ITB/TFL if you don’t tell the glute complex to fire, allowing it to relax, neurologically. Because these two muscle groups need to work together to control lateral stability of the hip, dominance of some muscle groups will take over others, such as the glutes turning off and the ITB/TFL turning on.
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Next, you need to integrate it into a movement pattern you use, like a squat. , this one should be obvious, but whatever muscles you worked on need to be used in the way you want them to in order to be capable of doing it right. They don’t have to be prime movers, just be active as stabilizers.
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Do all of this BEFORE your workout, so that your motor patterns are correct and your system is integrating the movements correctly before you start.
RECAP:
- Foam roll obviously tight muscles and spots
- Stretch the same muscles, and others that need it
- Isolate and activate the under-active synergists
- integrate it all into a movement that is low resistance and proper in movement pattern
- DO it all as a WARMUP, once you get it down quick, you will be done in 15 minutes and breaking a sweat, ready to go heavy
Got it? Good.