Muscle releases at home

At Barefoot Physiotherapy we love meeting new clients and helping kick start them of their health journey. For most clients it is important to be completing their own exercises and muscle releases between appointments to maintain improvements. In a session with a Barefoot Physio we will do a head-to-toe assessment to work out what muscles need to be released to help improve your movement quality and reduce muscle tension. Completing these muscle releases daily is ideal as this will help to ensure you are consistently reaping the benefits of happy relaxed muscles.

Benefits of keeping your muscles happy are:

• A reduction in muscular spasm and pain
• Increase or maintain movement range of the muscle
• Helps with post exercise recovery
• Reduces tension pain such as headaches
• Preventing injuries!
• Happy muscle and joints = happy nerves 🙂

How often do you need to do your homework?

It is important to work out a way of fitting your muscle releases into your daily routine, so that they can be easily completed with the least amount of fuss. As a guide we recommend setting 10 mins aside to work through your release list. However, the ideal amount of time for you could be more or less depending upon where you are at on your health journey. Your physio will help you work out the ideal amount of homework for you!

Tips to fit releases into your routine:

• Dedicate the ten minutes at a certain time of day as ‘me time,’ a good way of setting your body up to happily complete all your daily tasks.
• Think about the various positions you complete your releases, this way you can conveniently fit them into parts of your day. For example: Sitting – you can do them during the ad breaks while watching your favourite TV show. Standing – during a study/work from home break against the wall. 
• Keep any tools you need in an easily accessible spot, so there are no barriers for you to quickly fit a session of releases in. Make sure your foam roller, lacrosse ball or spiky ball are not hidden in a faraway cupboard.
• Use visual cues to help you remember to do your releases: i.e. a post it note on your fridge or computer screen or a daily alarm/alert.
• Importantly keep a list of your muscle releases handy this way you can easily access what ones you need to do. If you ever need help on how to complete them you can also follow this link, to read more about them on our website.

We can help with teaching Muscle Releases if you need

If you or someone you know is experiencing any muscle joint or possible nerve irritation please contact us. We can determine if it is a musculoskeletal issue before having to see a GP. We are open 5 days a week and a couple Saturdays a month. We have early and late appointments available. Please call us at 1300 842 850 or Click here to book an appointment.