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In The Arena Blog

Myofascial Release to Help Fighters Recover

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Recovery is an often overlooked but extremely important part of combat sports training. That’s why Strength and Conditioning Coach Jason Salazar is here to show you several ways to break up those knotted muscles to keep you training longer.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Coach Jason Salazar:
Hi, my name is Jason Salazar. I’m here at the arena. Today’s tip of the week is we’re going to talk about myofascial release. What that is is a thin webbing that coats all of our muscles and organs. When it gets inflamed, it clinches on that muscle. Basically, you feel like you have a knot. Whenever you touch something, it’s really tender and it hurts. This is how we get rid of it.

Everyone’s probably seen one of these in the stores. Everyone probably bought one and probably never use it. It’s called the foam roller. Very important. If we can’t go to a masseuse every week, deep tissue massage, you can use these guys in your hamstrings, just like that. You want to make it more intense? Raise one leg up. Put more pressure on there. You can use them on your calves. Like I said, you want more pressure? Put a leg on top of the other one.

You can get one of these little rolling sticks. Great for if you want to watch TV and roll your legs out, just continue rolling. I would do this for at least three minutes on one area until you get the pain to go away. It should feel nice and numb. It’ll feel good. Pain might come back, but this is going to speed up the recovery time of our muscle coming back.

A rolling pin works great for the forearms. Once again, you can be watching TV. Sit there, roll your arms out. Remember to breathe when you’re doing this. We’re trying to relax. We want the muscles to calm down.

These are great for your lower back. Anywhere where you can’t get that roller in here, like here. You can lay on both of these and just roll it up and down and up and down. Stay away from your spine. It’s not good to roll on your spine or any of your bones, muscle only.

So, if you perform these at least three times a week for at least 15 minutes a day, remember to spend at least a minute on that muscle. I guarantee you will have better release with your muscles. And that’s your tip of the week.

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