This edition of May’s “My Favorite Things” series is about workout recovery tools that I think are underrated for how much of a difference they can make in speeding up your recovery and optimizing your exercise. I use the following items weekly and don’t know how people exercise or even get by daily life without having these handy.
Why It Matters
For When a Daily Massage Isn’t an Option
Essentially, I use self-myofascial release techniques because I can’t afford to pay to get a massage everyday. (Side note: while these tools may not technically provide the same type of technique, I categorize all of the following into one form or another of self-myofascial release techniques.)
The mechanisms of why self-myofascial release works can be better explained in this NASM article, but the TL;DR is that the pressure of these tools on a trigger point causes our muscles fibers to react in such a way that they “unknot” themselves thereby providing some muscular relaxation. Even though you aren’t actually injuring yourself, our body perceives the pressure of these tools as an injury and begins a “cumulative injury cycle” that our bodies naturally go into when we experience an injury which essentially is a self-healing response.
This Healthline article also offers more of a deeper dive on the benefits of self-myofascial release, specifically foam rolling, if you’re curious. The TL;DR benefits include “can help relieve muscle tightness, soreness, and inflammation, and increase your joint range of motion”.
My Favorite Things
These products aren’t sponsored (unfortunately), but are absolute staples in my recovery.
Foam Roller
I’ve become almost unable to workout without first foam rolling. Especially since I like to work out in the morning, or even in the evening when I had been sitting at a desk all day, I love to foam roll before a workout to get my blood flowing throughout my body as part of my warmup.
As a refresher: warming up before a workout is crucial as it primes the body and helps us to avoid injury. But warming up essentially means we’re getting blood flowing. Increasing our blood flow means we’re able to supply our muscles with what they need to perform and flush out the byproducts as we go.
You can also foam roll after a workout. Again, this will help blood flow which means that you’ll be aiding your body in bringing healing nutrients to your muscles that will help repair the tissue damage from your workout and flush out waste byproducts created during your session.
I like the softer foam rollers for most cases, but sometimes the firmer rollers (although more painful while rolling out) are better to really provide the pain relief. Alternatively, softballs and lacrosse balls can be very effective here and substituted where as well!
Acupressure Mat
The mechanism behind this mat is essentially from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and works similarly to acupuncture, but it’s non-invasive. You simply lie on these plastic spikes and the spikes don’t puncture your skin at all, but they provide pressure instead. Similar to the mechanisms at play during foam rolling, your body perceives the pressure to be an injury and begins a self-healing response including sending your blood flowing to the place of pressure which brings nutrients and flushes away waste in addition to signaling to your muscle spindles to unknot. The plastic spikes aren’t that sharp in my opinion and they don’t poke holes in my clothes ever. However, I like to put my direct skin on the mat so the spikes can really dig in and provide the relief I need.
I can’t remember how or why I came across this Acupressure mat on Amazon, but my life has never been the same. Some reviews call it a torture mat, but I’ve never found the mat to be tortuous. Instead I’ve found the mat to be quite relieving and comforting. Everyone I know that’s tried this mat ends up loving it and agrees that it provides such relief. Especially great for back or shoulder pain and relieving headaches.
Percussion Massage Gun
I was first introduced to these percussive massage guns at the athlete performance training facility I used to work at and we had the top-of-the-line Hypervolt by Hyperice. Definitely a wonderful product that they’ve created, however I’ve found this Chriogun works just as well for a fraction of the price. Most of the off-brand, no-name Amazon brands work just fine from my experience.
The same principles of the self-healing response apply here. Your body perceives the percussion as an injury and sends resources to the localized area as well as signals to your muscle spindles to relax.
I’ve never found these devices to hurt, but you can adjust the speed of percussion on most models. The different heads can be helpful, but I rarely find myself deviating from the standard ball attachment.
Same, But Different
The purpose behind these different tools and techniques are essentially the same. The difference is in the application. Essentially, the same self-healing mechanism is being deployed every time we use one of these methods because our body thinks it’s responding to an injury and our bodies do an incredible job of healing itself.
If you haven’t already given one of these methods a try, I’d start with the cheapest which is likely a foam roller or softball. The mat and the massage gun work wonders, but you can save a few bucks and achieve just as much with rolling.