Foam Roll Your Way to Mobility

 

 

Believe it or not, for those of you who are really stiff and find mobility a challenge (ie.having a hard time touching your toes), you can find relief in a roll of foam! The foamrolling technique invokes the principle of self-myofacial release (SMFR). SMFR is aform of soft tissue release which will cause a relaxation of the fascia surrounding themuscle. Picture fascia as plastic wrap around your muscles; when you sit a desk all daylong or even if you are an elite athlete, your fascia gets tight and builds up adhesions that can make movements painful.

Foam rolling is done by slowly rolling along the length of a particular muscle andpausing for 20-30 seconds at a time when a “hot” painful spot is found. You will spend 1-2 minutes rolling each muscle. It is important to keep the muscle that is being rolled relaxed. The only pressure needed in most cases is your own body weight.Keep in mind that this is not for the faint of heart! Foam rolling can be quite painfuldepending on how immobile you are.

It is recommended that you take some time to foam roll at least once per day and if youregularly exercise, foam roll at the beginning of your workout as a part of your dynamicwarm-up. You will be pleasantly surprised at how much more comfortably you moveduring your exercises and in some cases you will be able to lift more weight due to more efficient neuro-muscular firing patterns.

While other types of therapy such as deep tissue massage and Active Release Techniques(ART) are more effective, they also cost a lot more money! You can purchase a foamroller for between €15-€30  and for non-specific mobility issues it will get the job done.Most of them come with an instruction manual or DVD but incase they don’t check out Eric Cressey foam rolling techniques on You Tube  for guidance.

Happy rolling!

Yours in Health

Richard.