Foam Rolling

The other week, when I had major Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), I used the foam rollers at the gym every time I was there.  I try to do this anyway, but it's more of a challenge when your muscles are already super sore and you're squashing them against a roller.  More than once I was grimacing, and holding my breath counting the moments until it was over.

So why do it?  Why put myself through that pain and agony?  Simple - if I foam roll on a regular basis the pain and agony goes away and it actually becomes relaxing (in a way).

Since I've read a lot about it, and viewed tons of videos on how to do it, I thought I would capture some of the benefits here.  In the hopes that this will help me get back to doing it on a regular basis, and to the point where it's no longer as painful.

The benefits of foam rolling include (source):

• Improved blood circulation (through skin, fascia, muscles, tendons, and ligaments)
• More efficient exchange of nutrients and waste products (as a result of the improved circulation)
• Lengthening of short (tight) muscles, ligaments and tendons (particularly good for those muscles that are hard to stretch)
• Optimize spine range of motion (as a result of rolling your spine over the roller and focusing on tight areas)

A simple search on-line will result in tons of videos to show how to use the roller for various body parts.  I generally use it for my quads, inner thighs, IT band, calves, and back (mainly my lats).  I find that usually my quads are the sorest, although at the moment it's my IT band as well as my quads.  If nothing else the foam roller helps me stretch my IT band, which I have a very hard time stretching otherwise, and my inner thighs (as they are really tight and it's making it hard to do some exercises like side lunges).