Regular Soft Tissue Work

This week I was reminded of the importance of regular soft tissue work.

I have had a bit of a tight back and hips, nothing bad, just stiff. It was starting to hamper my performance though as my technique just felt off slightly. Not enough to call a session off but I just didn’t feel like I was hitting my groove very well and not as consistently as usual. After doing a couple of T-Spine drills on the foam roller and using a massage gun around the hips and quads, I immediately felt much better. I could bend down fine and most of the stiffness I had been feeling was gone.

The next day I did some more of this soft tissue work and when I went to bench in my workout that day, I increased my loads by 5kg. I had been struggling the previous week so to make an increase like that I knew I had been neglecting my soft tissue work. My next squat session was also a lot better than the previous one, and I added 10kg to my rack pulls from the previous workout.

So, spending about 5-10 mins a day really pays off. I know this, but like a lot of people, I got lazy and neglected it.

Charles Poliquin always used to say that if you didn’t address adhesions you develop from lifting and training in general, it would bring your progress to a dead stop. He said that too many adhesions make it hard to grow and that many of the top lifters in the world would get soft tissue work done all the time when they were setting world records.

This was highlighted to me once again this week.

Rack Pull 185kg x 7