Sorry.

Wrestling reference.

That’s the first thing that came to mind when I wrote the title of this post.  Hopefully you can appreciate.

Aaaaand just so you know I didn’t write this title just to plug a wrestling reference! I promise.

In fact, I was at the BSMPG summer seminar this past weekend and I had a blast.  I got to spend some time with the smartest minds in the business including Patrick Ward, Sean Skahan, Cal Dietz (University of Minnesota), Joel Jamieson, and Jim Snider (University of Wisconsin) just to name a few.

The recurring subject that came back with a lot of these guys during conversations is that…well…you have to know your role!  What I mean is that as a strength coach you need to recognize your area of expertise, and more importantly you need to know where that area of expertise stops.

It’s really cool to learn about the SFMA, DNS, ART, Graston, Mulligans, all the rehab protocols, but we need to recognize that a lot of these things are not our job to do.  There is nothing wrong with learning from different fields, but not with the mindset of doing everything yourself!  As Patrick Ward was telling me himself: “we need to know just enough about everything to know where to refer our clients to and when”.  I couldn’t agree more with this statement.  Joel Jamieson was also telling me that coaches get too caught up sometimes trying to fix people, and their sessions turn out into an hour of corrective exercises.

Don’t get me wrong: I think it’s extremely important to be able to bridge the cap as a strength coach because there always will be some grey area, and we can’t send every one with a mild discomfort to physical therapy.  Which is why we need to understand how the body works, what is good movement, how to identify dysfunctions or imbalances, and how to use corrective strategies efficiently.  But our job is still to TRAIN ATHLETES!

I will be the first to recognize that there is a lot of incompetent health practitioners on this planet, but it doesn’t mean that you should try to fix everyone yourself.

Our job is to make athletes and clients feel better, improve their performance and lower their risk of injury.  If they’re in pain, that is not our job to take care of them and fix them.  And that’s the bottom line.

Another wrestling reference. Sorry.

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If you haven’t heard about the benefits of foam rolling to improve soft-tissue quality, you have probably been living under a rock for the past 5-10 years.  Even with all the benefits of foam rolling though, sometimes it’s just not enough to take care of your soft-tissue quality.

There are a couple reason why foam rolling might not be enough:

1. The trigger point is too hard to reach with a foam roller

2. The pressure applied by the foam roller is not enough to effectively target the trigger point

3. The trigger point area is just too stubborn and won’t go away

Let’s go into a little more details for each of those 3 reasons and see the possible alternatives:

1. Sometimes, you’ll want to foam roll an area of your body that’s not exposed as much as your quads and upper back for example.  Getting to smaller areas, close to the joints and the mid-line of the body can be a difficult task.  A couple example could be the pecs, the high adductors, the long head of the triceps, the plantar fascia, the levator scapula and upper trap among others.  These areas are located in spots where it is difficult to access with a foam roller.  A good alternative would be to use a smaller surface like a medicine ball or a lacrosse ball.  The lacrosse ball works particularly well on the pecs and the plantar fascia, and the medicine ball work really well for the high adductors.

2.  When you’ve been foam rolling for a decent amount of time (usually 6 months or more), you’ll find that the traditional foam roller will not work your trigger points as hard as you would like (a.k.a. it doesn’t hurt anymore).  There are a couple different ways to solve this problem.  The first one would be to move to a denser foam roller; they sell rollers of different densities, with the foam roller plus (a PVC pipe warpped around a thin layer of foam) being the hardest one.  If you feel really tough, or if even the foam roller plus doesn’t do anything for you, you can try a straight PVC pipe (which ends up being really cheap if you just get it a your local hardware store) or the rumble roller.  I have yet to try the rumble roller, but I have had great comments on it.

Are you game?

Using a smaller, denser surface like a lacrosse ball might be appropriate in this situation as well.  You’ll have more pressure applied on a smaller surface, which will increase the pain factor for sure!

3. That happens very often that all self soft-tissue tools won’t work to get rid of a trigger point.  In this case the only option left is to consult a qualified massage therapist that will work your trigger points more in depth.  An ART or Graston certified practitioner is recommended, as I feel it 2 of the most efficient soft-tissue methods available.  A couple of visits might be necessary to get rid of your tight spots.  And if you’re a high level athlete that imposes a lot of stress on his body, I would even recommend that you go see one on a regular basis, at least once a month; that will help keep you healthy in the long run.

If you want a complete soft-tissue routine you can use in your training, simply enter your info below and you’ll get my “Self Myofascial Release Routine” for FREE!