What is body tempering?
Body tempering is a soft tissue treatment that involves rolling weighted cylinders across your muscles and joints. Your provider may hold the cylinder in one place to apply deep pressure or move it slowly along the length of the muscle.
You can use body tempering to prepare your body for intense exercise and enhance your performance during athletics. And you can also use it after your activity to promote healing and speed up muscle recovery.
How does body tempering work?
The pressure and movement applied during body tempering breaks up adhesions, relaxes muscles and trigger points, and improves soft tissue elasticity. Tempering also increases circulation, which boosts the supply of oxygen and nutrients, while removing more metabolic wastes.
The force of body tempering may also cause cellular changes that boost new growth in bones, muscles, tendons, and cartilage. As a result you can significantly improve your strength and range of movement.
After body tempering, your muscle movement improves and you have less pain. Additionally, your muscles recover and rebuild faster. The treatment lowers your risk of a traumatic injury in the future because your muscles are fully prepared for the next round of activity.
Athletes can also save time and get better results. Using body tempering alone produces better results than stretching, foam rolling, and deep tissue mobilization combined.
What conditions improve with body tempering?
Many athletes use body tempering to improve their strength training and overall performance. Back To You Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation also uses the therapy to perform myofascial release and relax trigger points.
The myofascial tissues, called fascia, surround and support your muscles. Repetitive stress, intense activity, and injuries cause scarring that makes the fascia stick to your muscles. When that happens, the tissues restrict muscle movement and cause pain. Body tempering releases the tissues and restores mobility.
In addition to promoting muscle health, body tempering improves conditions such as:
- Tight hamstrings or calves
- Limited shoulder motion
- Knee pain
- Iliotibial band (ITB) syndrome
Body tempering has the ability to improve many different problems, depending on the area treated. For example, performing body tempering on your calves may strengthen your ankles.
If you’re ready to take your muscle recovery and healing to the next level with body tempering, call Back To You Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation to book an appointment today.