Summer is finally here, bringing with it sunshine, longer days and so many fun activities to fill those days with. Below RMT Andrew Burchell gives his best tips for savouring the season while giving your body the care it needs to carry you though these sun filled days.
Every year, as we enter the summer months, our activity in general will begin to increase with the warmer weather. We hike more, bike more, walk more, run more, and swim more. It is important to remember that this increased activity volume also requires an equal increase in our self-care and remedial exercise. Remedial exercises are designed to address the imbalances, dysfunctional movement and added strain to different parts of the body due to this added activity.
For example, if one runs, plays tennis, or rides their bike more frequently and for longer periods compared to other times of the year, what must follow then, is a greater volume of remedial exercise. This might look like stretching, rolling, anti-inflammatory practices, and professional care, to counteract and offset these increased impacts on our bodies. Although activity is very important and very necessary for our health and well-being, no activity; especially the more intense and higher impact activities, is completely consequence free.
Self-care practices, remedial exercise, and professional care, such as massage therapy can help to bring the balance to our increased Summer activities. What can be an especially effective form of care is myofascial release. The fascia is the connective tissue that essentially fills the spaces around and in-between all the solid structures in our bodies. As an analogy, if our body is the planet, then the fascia is essentially the “ocean of the body”.
With increased impact from activity, our muscles and surrounding fascia can become very tight, restricted, and adhered. Tight, restricted, and adhered fascial tissues will lead to tension, soreness, pain, a higher risk of injuries, along with decreased performance for our future activity bouts. Regular massage and myofascial release treatments can help greatly to restore the balance in our bodies, whether it is after weeks, days, or immediately after our activity.
As a bonus, a myofascial release treatment is very relaxing, and can help to drop down the nervous system to a level that we don’t normally experience in our day-to-day lives. This allows for us to heal, re-balance, and re-calibrate on a deep level. So if you are also feeling stressed, anxious, or “off” in any way, a fascial massage can greatly help one to feel “back on” and in your body again.
Book your myofascial release treatment with RMT Andrew here at Evolve Wellness Centre today. For more information about the fascial system and myofascial release, please check out Andrew’s previous blog post: “What is Fascia.”
Please note that any advice in this article doesn’t replace personalized medical advice from a professional.