Singing the Praises of Foam Rollers

LauraR

LauraR

Cathlete
There've been a couple threads in the past about foam rollers, with lots of questions about them, so I thought I'd start a thread to share my experience.

I had a very ache-y knee that actually hindered some cardio activities. With the foam roller, it's completely better. Granted, the pain was caused by tightness in the muscles and ITB band, and not by tendonitis or some problem with the actual knee. But I had tried a variety of things in the past, including stretches specifically prescribed by a PT, and nothing had helped . . . until the foam roller.

I roll both the outside and inside of my leg. I start at the hip and roll down an inch at a time, stopping when it really hurts and holding that position for 30 seconds.

Yes, it does hurt at first. But the awful "can't breathe" kind of pain does go away in time.

I am a new fan of these rollers now. In fact, we live in Uganda, and when we recently flew over, I actually used precious luggage space to bring over a roller, even though it's bulky and took up a lot of room. It's worth it!

Laura
 
I've thought about getting one for shin splints. But I'm trying to figure out HOW it helps? I guess I just need to buy one and try it.. but then when you said "pain that you can't breathe" kinda scares me off?
 
I agree! I bought mine as a last ditch effort to help with chondromalacia/tendinitis/plica syndrome issues. I was doing all the stretching I could (every few hours) but the IT Band is just not an easy area to stretch. Plus I view stretching like I do any exercise: as much variety and as many angles the better.

My first time trying the roller: OUCH!
I had to stop midway quite often, and I recall quite a few #$@*'s being spoken.

I can't say how well it worked since I was at an I'll-try-anything stage, so I was also wearing new shoes with new inserts and had just started taping. But when I did my traditional stretching, I found myself immediately able to stretch deeper. So I'm thinking, since stretching is half the problem, of course it helped. And over the past few months the condition has improved, despite my impatience.

Without fail, everytime I reach for my roller, that Sarah McLaughlan song pops into my head:
"Hold on, hold on to yourself, for this is gonna hurt like hell"

It's a bit of dark humor for me, it's not really that bad Calvillo! Well, maybe the first time. But I think the more it hurts the more you needed it in the first place. And the second time really is orders of magnitude easier. Regarding how it works, I think of it as the most intense deep tissue massage you will ever get. If you think about it, you're isolating almost all of your body weight to press on whatever inch or so is balancing on the tip top of the roller at that point. That's a deep massage!
 
Foam rollers work so well...if only I remembered that when I need them!

The really do help so much, and hit muscles that you just can't get to any other way (the IT band is so hard to hit any other way, unless you have a professional massage...and a foam roller is cheaper!).

That "ouch-that-hurts, but-it's not-harming-me" pain you get when you hit a knot, I've also had it when I've gotten massages (especially with a chair-massage I got in the Chicago O' Hare airport, where this Russian dude was seriously digging his elbows and whole upper arm into my delts). If you can stick with it, it feels SOOO much better afterwards! (I was more loosey-goosey than I'd been for days! And the relief lasted for several days).
 
Foam rollers

Over here we also foam roll as a warm up set before doing workout. You will be surprised how much your muscles are warmed up this way. We also include mobility exercises and core exercises before doing any lifting to prevent joint problems.

Also, when you encounter soreness or pain when you roll, just hold that part of the body against the roller for a few seconds before rolling away. That really help to relieve the pain.

Shelly
 
I have been looking into getting the foam roller for my back. A few questions...

How do you know how to use it? Does it come with a DVD (typical vidiot question...)?

Where did you get yours -- performbetter, fwonline, fitness1st?
 
SteppingFool said:
I have been looking into getting the foam roller for my back. A few questions...

How do you know how to use it? Does it come with a DVD (typical vidiot question...)?

Where did you get yours -- performbetter, fwonline, fitness1st?
Click to expand...

I got mine from Dick's and it did come with a pretty basic instructional DVD.
 
SteppingFool said:
I have been looking into getting the foam roller for my back. A few questions...

How do you know how to use it? Does it come with a DVD (typical vidiot question...)?

Where did you get yours -- performbetter, fwonline, fitness1st?
Click to expand...

I got mine from performbetter.com. It came with several pages of directions (with pictures) showing how to use it for both balance and flexibility. You can download the directions from the site without even purchasing it though. That might give you an idea of what you could use it for.

http://www.performbetter.com/catalog/assets/Exercisesheets/PDF/FoamRoller.pdf
 
LOL, And here I shallowly thought, reading the thread title, ooh, excellent-- hair tips!! Hope you feel better soon!
 
Have seen foam rollers at Target too - not sure of the brand though. Seems they were between $20 and $25. It is on my wish list when I have a few extra $. (Bought my kettlebell on Sat so there went the extra $ this week !)
 
Yes, the "can't breathe" kind of pain is like what you feel with a deep tissue massage. Like one other poster said, you've got almost your whole body weight pressing down on the spot on top of the roller.

I bought mine at Academy and it came with a DVD.

I also use mine pre-workout on cardio days to stretch out the muscles pulling on my knees prior to working out. It has made all the difference.

librarydiva--I'm LOL at the mistaken "hair tips" :)
 
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Shellynfree said:
Over here we also foam roll as a warm up set before doing workout.
Click to expand...

That's an excellent idea (and one I'd forgotten).

Tell us more:

What type of foam-roller warm-up do you do? Same as regular rolling for releasing trigger points (ie: "roll, then when you hit a sore spot, stay on it until it releases"), or more of a 'light roll over'?
 
As others have mentioned, some rollers come with DVD's, some not. Quite a few of the FR DVD's I've seen, though, are 'instructional' rather than work-along. They show how to do the exercise, but don't spend any time on it. I've been disappointed, or at least underwhelmed, by most foam roller DVD's I've seen so far (hmmm....maybe Cathe could make one?).

Kelly Robert's had promise: but her continuous near-erotic moaning as she releases her knots and, even moreso, the fact that she completely omits an IT band roll on one side that she did on the other, makes me not want to do it after one try.

One excellent foam roller segment (a 15-minute work-along) is on Denise Beatty's "Fitness Fix" DVD's (three DVD's --beginner, intermediate, athelete). I think it's got to be the best I've seen so far.

The same segment is on each DVD, and the DVD's also contain a variety of exercise segements, with some excellent work for pre-hab, knee stalbilization, core work. www.fitnessfix.ca
 
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After watching a You Tube demonstration and reading a bit, I just tried a little gentle rolling on a PVC pipe. Holy Crap!

Kathryn, thanks for the link. Fitness Fix looks great.
 
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