Image credit: doug krutil

Static & dynamic stretches increase the length of your muscles. But what do you do about the quality of your muscles? Trigger points, adhesions, scar tissue, … All this stuff adds up in your muscles and can cause pain.

ARTs can break those down for you. But regular visits are expensive. Worse, I can’t find an ART in Belgium and chances are you can’t neither. Luckily you can do soft tissue work yourself. Here’s how.

Benefits of Soft Tissue Work. First time this will hurt a lot. But the pain is worth it in the long-term, and it gets less painful anyway. Benefits:

• Increased Flexibility. The Iliotibial Band (ITB) is often tight. Stretching doesn’t work well as it’s fascia, not muscle. It needs soft tissue work.
• Improved Posture. Improving your thoracic mobility – especially thoracic extension – can fix slouching shoulders.
• Less Injuries. Through increased muscle quality, flexibility and posture. Working on your ITB & calves can get rid of knee pain for example.

What You Need for Soft Tissue Work. The best way remains getting it done by an ART. Alternative ways:

• Foam Roller. Cheap rollers get distorted fast. Get a paperboard roller or PVC pipe. Or invest in the Foam Roller Plus: the PVC pipe on the inside makes it last 5x longer than regular foam rollers.
• Tennis Ball. You’ll reach smaller muscles more easily with a tennis or lacrosse ball than with a foam roller. They also provide more pressure.
• Thera-Cane. More precision, increased leverage and no need to lie on the floor to work on trigger points. Check this one.

How to Do Soft Tissue Work. Here are some books & free guides on how to use foam rollers or tennis balls for soft tissue work.

• Free PDF 1 & Free PDF 2. Free guides on how to use foam rollers. (right click – download as. View with Acrobat Reader).
• Tennis Ball: a Tool You Never Knew You Had by Lauren. 3 part article with pictures & instructions on using tennis balls for soft tissue work.
• Feel Better for 10 Bucks by Eric Cressey & Mike Robertson. First article I read on soft tissue work. Has pictures & instruction on foam roller use.
• Soft Tissue Work for Tough Guys by Tony Gentilcore. Pictures, videos & instructions on how to use a tennis bal for soft tissue work.
• Trigger Point Therapy Handbook by Clair Davies. Lists all possible trigger points, how they can cause pain, and how to assess them.
• Maximum Strength by Eric Cressey. Includes 10 pages with pictures & instructions on soft tissue work using a foam roller/tennis ball.

Check out the video below by Eric Cressey.

Soft Tissue Work Routine. Work on the following muscles as warm-up. 2-3 strokes per muscle before your dynamic stretching. Takes 10mins.

• Feet: tennis ball
• Calves: foam roller
• ITB/TFL: foam roller
• Quads/hip flexors: foam roller
• Adductors: foam roller
• Hamstrings: foam roller
• Glutes/piriformis: tennis ball
• Thoracic extension: foam roller
• Lats: foam roller
• Pecs: foam roller
• Infraspinatus: tennis ball

Soft Tissue Work Techniques. Spend extra time on the most painful spots. It will hurt, but the only way to get used to it is to work through the pain.

• Work All Sides. Calves: curl your toes up, out, then rotate in & out. Infraspinatus: externally & internally rotate your upper-arm. Etc.
• Work Small Areas. Quads/hip flexors: work your quads first, then move up to your hip flexors. Same thing for your hamstrings.
• Increase Pressure. Start with 1 leg on the floor. Switch to legs crossed or on top of eachother after a few weeks.
• Avoid Neck & Lower Back. Work all muscles except these 2. You don’t want to injure your spine.

Whatever your level of experience, if you never did soft tissue work, try it. This is like stretching, you need this to be healthy. Try it for a few weeks. You’ll feel better and will get addicted to soft tissue work.