Perform with Dr. Andy Galpin
Jill Miller: Increase Flexibility & Relieve Pain with Breathwork & Myofascial Release
Wed, 09 Apr 2025
In this episode, my guest is Jill Miller, a renowned fascia expert and teacher of breathwork practices and self-myofascial release (SMR) to improve mobility, reduce pain, and enhance body awareness. We discuss how fascia—the connective tissue in and around muscles, bones and organs—is essential for flexibility and movement, and we explore how tools like foam rollers, balls, massage and cupping can improve fascia health. We explain the benefits of self-myofascial release, including improved range of motion, reduced muscle soreness, and improved force output, and we discuss whether experiencing pain or using hard tools is necessary for achieving good results. We also cover practices for managing chronic pain and stress, including parasympathetic techniques and breathing exercises that promote relaxation and recovery. This episode provides many practical techniques to improve mobility, physical recovery and pain management at any stage of life. Read the episode show notes at performpodcast.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/perform Eight Sleep: https://eightsleep.com/perform Momentous: https://livemomentous.com/perform LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/perform David: https://davidprotein.com/perform Timestamps 00:00:00 Jill Miller 00:01:13 Yoga, Physical Recovery 00:03:23 Foam Rolling, Self-Myofascial Release (SMR) & Benefits 00:08:46 Sponsors: Eight Sleep & Momentous 00:11:47 Foam Rolling, Tool: Timing & Reduce Muscle Soreness 00:13:11 What is Fascia?; Massage, Scar Tissue, Pain Management 00:24:08 Pain Management & Movement 00:25:47 Ball Rolling, Range of Motion, Nervous System, Duration 00:29:55 Soft vs Hard Tools & Efficacy, Cause Pain?, Pain Spots & Feedback 00:37:55 Sponsors: AG1 & LMNT 00:40:42 Massage, Tool: Tolerable Discomfort 00:44:26 Compression Alternatives, Cupping, Tool: Pin, Spin & Mobilize 00:49:53 Stress, Back Pain, Release, Tool: Spine Decompression 00:57:23 Myofascial Massage & Release; Lumbar Hammock 01:02:14 Sponsor: David 01:03:33 Respiratory Diaphragm, Increasing Awareness, Gut, Mindset 01:12:39 Diaphragm, Intercostals, Overbreathing, Tool: Breathing Zones & Symptoms 01:18:35 Breathing & Increasing Awareness, Pain, Tool: Contract-Relax Exercise, Timing 01:25:26 Parasympathetic Tolerance Capacity, Chronic Stress, Pain & Tightness 01:30:10 Tool: Parasympathetic Practices & The Five P’s 01:38:14 Pelvic Floor, Rib Flaring, Pelvic Tilt, Stacking 01:43:14 Diastasis Recti, Pregnancy & Recovery, Back & Pelvic Pain 01:52:31 Pregnancy, Hypermobility, Tool: The B’s of Rolling with Hypermobility 01:58:36 Gaining Mobility, Static Stretching & Rolling 02:01:16 Self-Myofascial Release & Benefits 02:08:22 Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Subscribe & Reviews, Sponsors, YouTube Feedback, Social Media, Perform Newsletter Disclaimer & Disclosures
Chapter 1: Who is Jill Miller and what expertise does she bring to fascia and mobility?
the science and practice of enhancing human performance for sport, play, and life. Welcome to Perform. I'm Dr. Andy Galpin. I'm a professor and scientist and the executive director of the Human Performance Center at Parker University. Today, I'm speaking with Jill Miller.
Jill is an expert in everything from mobility to breathwork to bodywork, and especially in what's called self-myofascial release. Now, in this episode, you're going to learn more about what these things actually are and how to use them best. There are many broad applications of these techniques that extend beyond just pain relief and range of motion and mobility.
Jill will talk about things like the role of the fascia and some of the science that's emerging and how that's regulating everything from your digestive system to your pain to your physical performance, strength, and power output. And so I know that whether you are dealing with pain yourself or physically,
you like yoga, you're into body work, breath work, or anywhere in between, you're going to find something in this episode that you may have not heard before, or at least you find tremendous value in. So with that said, please enjoy today's conversation with Jill Miller. Jill Miller, thank you so much for coming and chatting today.
Andy, so good to see you.
My introduction to your work was, I think, from Kelly Starrett. Probably. 15 years ago or more, Brian McKenzie. But what really grabbed my attention was I had dabbled a lot and paid attention to the world of, we'll call it yoga. Okay. And for the most part, threw it all away. I just felt like there's just nothing here for what I'm doing.
I had gone through several experiences and didn't really appreciate it. And then I saw what you were doing, and I thought, this is the extraction. This is the stuff I wanted to get out of yoga, just me personally. And I thought, this girl's nailed it. You're all over it. So my thoughts of you still to this day are that.
It is the best parts of yoga that, again, for me personally, what I was looking for in myself and clients and the scientific experience, as well as there's so many other ways we can go about Self-care, the physical body, recovery. There's just there's so many ways you can get to. And I've yet to see anybody put it together better than you.
So as an introduction, there was no question there, but it was just letting, you know, framing when I think about the reasons why I was dying to get you in here for this conversation. It is all that stuff. And I have a I have literally three pages of notes in front of me, as you can see. And I'm super excited to go into that stuff.
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Chapter 2: What is self-myofascial release and how does foam rolling benefit flexibility and pain?
We're talking about different balls, even pokey tools, like just single things that have knobs on them. So anything like that is a implement that is trying to influence tissue in a variety of different ways. These implements are trying to mimic somebody's hands, right? So this is something that you can do on your own. You don't have to hire somebody. You don't have to go out of pocket.
You can do it any time of day you want, wherever and whenever you need it. So what are they doing? What are these implements doing? They are... sometimes compressing tissue. Like you said, they're inducing local stretch. So if I just lay on a ball or lay on a foam roller, I'm really just putting pressure into that local region.
But what happens if I stroke that implement with my body weight, either in a reclining position or up against a wall or in myriad other arrangements? What happens if I take that implement and I move it along the line of pull of a muscle or across the a pull of a muscle? Or what happens if I do a different type of compressive rolling?
What happens if I pivot the implement or pivot my body so that it creates traction and creates like a pinching sensation? What are all those things doing? They're affecting different stretch receptors in different ways, and they're affecting different layers of your body in different ways, from skin to deep. And one of my deep interests is in the fascial tissues that it annoys.
What is it doing to those tissues? It's doing a lot of different things. So I recently wrote a narrative review of the scientific research on self-myofascial release. And there are a lot of things that these implements are doing to your body. One of the, I think, things that we can... almost all the systematic reviews can agree on is it improves range of motion very quickly.
So it's somehow dampening some of the sympathetic feedback into your body. So you can very quickly improve your sit and reach test or shoulder overhead or spinal movements or even jaw movements. It just depends on what is your target. What is your joint target? What's your tissue target? What's your intention? So that range of motion improvement is really exciting.
But some of the other research that really excites me, especially I know I'm on the podcast called Perform, and people want to get more out of their workouts here, is that not only is the rolling improving this range of motion, but it's also improving performance. force output. It's improving torque. And that's really helpful, especially if you want to be able to lift more over a range, right?
So maybe you're deficient in your overhead and you're overusing certain muscles again and again. But what the rolling does, it'll restore a range of motion. Plus, you'll be able to get more out of those muscle fibers. They'll be able to pull more or push more depending on what it is, the movement that you're trying to do. The rolling also happens to dampen sympathetic overflow.
So the tools happen to increase parasympathetic reactivity. So that's really beneficial if you're trying to calm down, you're trying to gather your thoughts, you're trying to minimize your anxiety. The balls and tools and foam rollers, I always say the balls because I'm a ball dealer, but I have to note that these things also happen with foam rollers or rolling implements.
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Chapter 3: How does fascia anatomy influence movement, pain, and recovery?
Like we don't always have to be totally, you know, zen and present and all of that. Sometimes we're like, I kind of want to see what will happen if they just maw on my vastus medialis till I bruise. I just want to see what's going to happen. Will that free up this portion of my knee?
Yeah. I would imagine then what you're saying is if you're, If your myofascial release strategy is check your phone, hands are supposed to come up with emails while you're cruising on a foam roller for three minutes, what you're trying to tell me is that's probably not the most effective strategy.
You know what? It is an okay strategy for the fibroblasts and the fascia sites. Those fluids, those fibers, they will respond to that contact.
Because it's just smashing, moving.
Yeah. I mean, it's fine. Yeah. But I think if you really want to be in control of this remodel of yourself, you want to be aware. You want to remain aware and pick up on both the subtle and gross sensations that are percolating from these different sensory neurons at different levels within your tissues.
I think this is a really nice way to frame it because— it's still not negative, right? You hop on a foam roller for one minute, but bad things didn't happen. But are you getting the most bang for your buck? And this allows people to level up when they want to, right? So if you need to check out for a few minutes on the massage table, check out, great.
But if you're also then trying to use this as a strategy for many other things, there are options. And just people knowing you can use modalities like this to go after bigger problems, It's something that I don't think a lot of folks really realize. So I know you have many examples of that.
But before we get to any of that, I really want to dwell on double, triple, quadruple tap on this compression idea.
Okay.
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