Hey Team! I hope you're having a wonderful Fathers Day weekend.
I hope you learned a few things from yesterdays post and how you can utilize foam rolling for your benefit. It is seriously an amazing practice once you get the hang of it and studies show significant increases in performance and recovery from those who foam roll as part of their routine. With that being said, here's a step-by-step guide to making that foam roller work for you!
A Step-by-Step Guide to Foam rolling (self myofascial release)
So, we're talking about those 12-36 inch dreadful foam tubes laying around your gym or wherever you train. Traditional foam rollers tend to be soft, and are a good place to start if you’ve never foam rolled before. So let's get into it.
The general principle is that you position yourself and the foam roller on a certain muscle group, accumulating enough pressure so that you feel slightly uncomfortable feeling without actually being in any pain.
**Tip: I recommend starting with somewhere like your hamstrings, glutes or upper-back, as these will be the least painful, and the easiest to roll.
Move the muscle group along the roller gradually, maintaining pressure, evenly until you run across a tight spot. When you hit a tight spot, I assure you will, remain there for 30 seconds. Ideally, the discomfort level should be between a 6 and 8 out of 10 – it’s certainly not pleasant, but you don’t feel the need to jump up, run away and never touch your roller again!
Spend around 60 seconds on each muscle and try to cover your main muscle groups with focus on any areas particular that you may be having trouble with.
Progressions
You may find that the foam roller is slightly to large for some muscle groups, so you may need to make some additions to your SMR (self myofascial release) arsenal. A hockey or a lacrosse ball works great for the calves, pecs and glutes (though you should probably start working on these with a tennis ball first, to get used to the increased pressure).
When to Roll
There are two best times to foam roll –
Before your workouts
Before bed
Before training, focus on areas you know are tight and tender, so you loosen them off prior to working on them.
The evening sessions can also be useful, as after a long day at work, where you’ve probably been sitting in a tight, tense position, rolling will ease everything off before you lay your head down for the night.