Stop, Drop & Roll - How Exercise On a Foam Roller Relieves Tight Muscles

My idea of a lucky person is someone, who, after half a lifetime of being physically active, can spring out of bed without a bit of muscular soreness; no moaning, creaking or limping. It is a truly lucky athlete that can work their muscle vigorously for years and not feel the effects of aging, as in inflexibility and tightness.

Most of the rest of us get to a point where we just cannot keep up the pace. We cannot keep running the miles we are used to running without a price to pay when the morning alarm goes off. Some of this sensation is typical muscle soreness, just the usual buildup of lactic acid that accumulates a byproduct of exercise. Every jock recognizes the familiar feeling when you hustle up a flight of stairs and you feel that brief burn in your thighs that could kindle a campfire. But I am talking about a different kind of ache; something beyond the brief aching of a little extra activity.

If sprinting up a flight of stairs was the only time I ached, I'd be a happy camper.I've even been known to keep on working out, even through this quad burn. But I am talking about a different, more pervasive kind of tightness. The inflexibility to which I refer still lingers at noon. It is felt sometimes when you pivot to fasten your seatbelt or reach down to tie your sneakers. In my case, I tolerated this limitation in my bodily movement for about six months, trying all types of stretching, Pilates and tons of yoga classes.

Still, I was limited. I felt flexible, yet tight. I started to do some research on the Internet by Googling a few words that described my symptoms. I discovered a new word. The culprit in my bodily rigidity was something called FASCIA. Fascia is a type of connective tissue that surrounds and usually protects the muscles; bones, joints and even the organs, helping us maintain our upright posture. All people have fascia.

Think of it like a wetsuit that surrounds our inner body, just below the surface of the skin. Some people have thicker "wetsuits " than others. The more physically active you are, the thicker your facial "wetsuit" will be. This is a response that your body makes to help support itself during more activity Those lucky jocks that I enviously spoke of earlier feel minimal tightness because their fascia deposits are not thick or layered.

Some people just have a tendency to develop more fascia than others. Many experts believe that this heavier layering of fascia is related to dehydration, not the type of" I'm thirsty" dehydration, but a lack of fluid and therefore fluidity in the connective tissues that no amount of daily water drinking can quench. In other words, those lucky, pain-free jocks have more hydration in their connective tissue.

Us unlucky "stiffs" have the opposite tendency. Our body's inclination is to manufacture more fascia because of less hydration in the connective tissues, especially in the areas of powerful workhorse muscle groups, like the lower back and the thighs and buttocks. Also consider that as we age, bodies naturally lose their capacity to maintain hydration. Think of how many middle-aged men that you hear of who have torn their Achilles tendon while jumping for a lay-up in basketball. This type of injury rarely happens in kids and is due in a big way to lack of fluidity in the connective tissue.

So this is where the morning stiffness begins. If you keep exercising the way I did, this facial tightness can become very limiting to your fitness regime. This is where I discovered the wisdom in the phrase "Stop, drop & roll", but not just when you are on fire! I got myself a foam roller based on the fitness advice of New york City expert, Susan Hitzmann, owner of Longevity Fitness, Inc in New Yourk City and creator of the M.E.L.T. Method. M.E.L.T. is an acronym for Myofascial Energetic length Technique. Some experts also refer to this foam roller technique as Myofascial Release. She explained to me that deep compression of these areas of fascial tightness could actually rehydrate these stiff body parts and give an immediate sensation of relief to my aching yet athletic body. Not only was Ms. Hitzmann right about the foam roller. She also lives up to her promise of immediate relief from stiff muscles. She explains that the foam roller rehydrate connective tissues by first compressing the area, which decompresses the tissue, allowing hydration of that area to occur. It is similar to trigger point therapy, only this technique is superior. This is only my opinion but having tried both MFR and trigger point therapy, I believe that the foam roller can and does cover more anatomical territory, so the release is more profound. For more information of foam rolling to relieve your aches and pains, check out Sue Hitzmann at www.bodylanguagenyc.com

penny Love Hoff, 20 year fitness professional . is the author of the revolutionary CD workout program"Does My Marriage Make Me Look Fat?", an eight week fitness program for couples to radically change your body and reawaken your relationship.You can find her at http://www.pennyhoff.com

Denise Austin S Pilates And Yoga Trainer Systems

The Simple Golf Swing

David Nevogt has been involved in golf and instruction for many years. He works with two full-time coaches and has helped golfers from USA, Australia, Europe and South Africa, 7987 over the past two years, to be exact!

Bobby Eldridge forms part of the team and has been involved in coaching for over 30 years. Talking about experience!

David is known as the swing GURU and promotes his simple golf swing, with all the recommendations from happy golfers to boot.

The first question might be why this system? simple. Because it is simple. I worked through the setup as explained by David and I feel the difference, but I also see the difference in my ball striking. I am a firm believer of ball striking, regardless of the technological advances in equipment. If you cannot strike a golf ball properly, find another sport!

This system makes sense to a brainless twit like myself because it does not clutter your mind with swing thoughts. simple. Do the basics and watch the improvement.

one of the outstanding features of this system is that it teaches you to analyze your swing. Only then will you be able to rectify imperfections and to improve positive moves.

With this system you'll get five simple steps to go through for every swing you put on the ball. Then you will start to see trends developing, and you can always tie those trends back to one of the five steps you are most likely forgetting about which is causing the negative trend.

You learn that having simple but effective controls in place will really help your game. You will be really surprised how much you'll learn about your own game, and how easy it is to develop and maintain good habits once you understand how to recognize them.

The good thing is that all of this is not limited to the long game. The short game, on and around the greens, is covered as well. I still maintain that this is where the good scores lie.

David also offers an apprentice system whereby you can register and improve your game. It comes complete with charts and control sheets to help you analyze and improve your game.

If any system will be beneficial to your game, this might be it. I saw improvements very quickly. I will post more comments on a later stage.

Corrie Nel is a golf fanatic and former club captain. Find out how to lengthen your drives and lower your scores at:

www.sportatlas.com (Please use ID 1536)

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