Marion Freijsen A blog about Sports, Fitness & Health

Soft tissue

An expansive topic – Soft Tissue. Meaning all the tissues that are not bone, effectively so skin, underlying layers as well as muscles and tendons. Often injuries start occurring when layers of tissue get “glued” together – causing less flexibility and more friction for other parts to move. Or your muscles develop tiny tears which can lead to scar tissue which in turn can lead to more tearing etc. So all in all, keeping your soft tissue loose is definitely something you want to do. You can do a lot of it yourself, with the help of props like foam rollers and golf/tennis balls (yes really). Or you can find a good masseur that can loosen the layers for you – not always a pleasant sensation until after!

From Caleb Chiu, PT in California, here’s some further info:

a lot of knee problems are due to non-optimal biomechanics.  specifically, knee pain can be attributed to maltracking patellae which is often caused by excessive tension in the iliotibial band (IT band for short), the quadriceps, and/or other leg muscles.  it may not have anything to do with incorrect movement and is often simply the result of consistent (or suddenly consistent) exercise.

the following video is a great soft tissue management routine for those of you who already suffer and for those of you who don’t want to suffer in the future.  It’s extensive, but soft tissue management should be just as big a part of your exercise routine as the actual workouts themselves.

VIDEO – Preventing Knee Injury
*you may prefer to watch the video on mute as the background music is a bit distracting.