Do you see stuff everywhere about foam rolling but not sure why or how you should do it? Hopefully I can help! 🙂
So, what is it? The technical name for foam rolling is Self-Myofascial Release, or SMR for short. It might help to think of it as a deep tissue massage which you do yourself. When you foam roll, you are doing as a masseuse does and encouraging those knots in your muscles to relax. These knots actually create an inability for the muscle to stretch, which in turn reduces your flexibility and can ultimately result in injury, so dedicating time to rolling is a pretty good call.
Foam rolling, or SMR, is key to developing good flexibility. If you roll a muscle before you stretch it, that stretch will be more beneficial 🙂. Why does flexibility matter? I wrote about how important it is in a past blog.
How do you do it?
One of the most common examples I do with my clients is the quadriceps, so your thighs; especially as in our everyday lives we often spend a lot of time sitting, so rolling your quads will help to counteract that.
To really get into the muscle properly you need to go slow, make sure you don't rush it as it won't be as effective.
Lying on your front, prop yourself up onto your elbows, put the roller under the top of your leg about 4 inches down from your hip
Use your other leg out to the side to support you
Slowly inch yourself forwards, so that the roller travels down your thigh towards your knee
Stop about 2 inches above the knee. *Important: DO NOT ROLL OVER YOUR KNEE!!*
Then work your way back up and repeat a couple of times
If on the way down you feel any knots, just pause on them and hold it there for up to 30 seconds and let the knot release, then carry on.
You can do this on virtually any muscle in the body, however legs are the most straight forward, it gets a bit trickier on your upper body.
Top three things to remember when you're rolling:
Make sure you stay on the muscle and don't stray onto a joint
Go slooooow and stop whenever you find a knot to let it release
Ensure to keep good alignment, so try to avoid twisting or putting your body into an awkward position, the whole idea is to reduce the risk of injury not increase it!
Lastly, buying a foam roller. There are loads out there and they're pretty cheap to pick up but which is best? My personal opinion is that I like the ones with a mixture of smooth and bumps but I've not looked to see if there's any research to which suggests a specific design is more effective than another.
I do hope this helps but if you have any questions at all and would like some free advice, you know where I am!! 🙂
C xx
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