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Foam rollers are an excellent investment for anyone serious about working out! Warm-up and recovery are just as important as the rest of your workout, and I always recommend using these great tools. Here I’ll take you through the specific steps to follow, with some demonstration pictures.
It seems as if there just aren’t enough hours in the day. I know we all attempt to walk the delicate balance between work, relationships, responsibilities, workouts and of course a little bit of fun when we find the time. Even with these busy schedules, most fitness enthusiasts make the time to get their workouts in throughout the week. But all too often the recovery aspects of our programs get squeezed out along the way. Even though we’ve all heard the old adage “You make the most gains when you are at restâ€, when it comes to deciding between a couple more work out sets or actually spending time on stretching or mobility, all too often the stretching is sacrificed for more work out.
The truth is, you wouldn’t expect a Ferrari to race around at high speeds without a bit of maintenance right? So why do we try to beat the crap out of our bodies 5 to 6 days a week without proper rest and expect to not get injured?
While the beauty of bodyweight training is its simplicity and lack of equipment (my own arsenal consists only of rings, parallettes and a stability ball), one of the tools that I also always recommend and add into my own training is a foam roller.
It’s as easy as this, a muscle that is too tight, taught or full of trigger points will not produce as much power. So not only are you losing potential strength, but your risk of injury is significantly increased.
How to Foam Roll
For those of you who are not familiar with foam rolling, this is how it works:
Foam rolling is a form of self myo-fascial release. The body is made up of fascial tissue that covers the entire length of the body from top of the head to the tips of the toes. Within the fascial tissue and the muscle fibers we can form “trigger points†which are painful, taught bands that can become thick, tough and knotted. The trigger points can be caused by physical trauma, poor posture, over training, inadequate rest and even poor nutrition.
So if we think of the fascial tissue/trigger points as the dough and the foam roller as the rolling pin then self myo-fascial release is very similar to rolling out dough.
Keep in mind that foam rolling can be a bit uncomfortable in the beginning but as you make it more of a practice, you’ll notice that you’ll find less painful areas.
General Guidelines
Foam rolling is very specific to the individual, and should be gauged by time and feeling. The basic instruction is to roll or stay on a specific area until the discomfort decreases by about 70 percent. This could take 30 seconds or a matter of minutes. Here’s some general guidelines to help get you started:
- Spend 1-2 minutes per self myofascial release technique and on each side (when applicable).
- When a trigger point is found (painful area) hold for 30-45 seconds.
- Keep the abdominal muscles tight which provides stability to the lumbo-pelvic-hip complex during rolling.
- Remember to breathe slowly as this will help to reduce any tense reflexes caused by discomfort.
- Foam rolling can and should be done daily!
If you don’t already have your own foam roller, check out the ones I recommend from from
Perform Better HERE.
Foam Rolling Variations
Glute and Deep Hip Rotator
IT Band
Adductors
Hamstrings
If you don’t already have your own foam roller, check out the ones I recommend from
Perform Better HERE.