Foam rolling recovery workout: fitness, gyms, toning and relaxing muscles
Leaving Geneva for a couple of days is always like fast-forwarding me to modern age: I learn about new trends and progress in various aspects of life. Do you often go the gym ? do you want to learn a way to recover much much faster from sore muscles ? Today, I am sharing information on a new kind of recovery workout popular in nordic countries: beyond classic after training (crossfit, HIIT, TRX) unwind stretching, how to bring dramatically fast muscles relaxation. Discover how.
How the foam roller entered my life and their role in relaxation
Recently, I talked about my stay in La Santa Sport Club. Over there, I was training with Scandinavian folks mostly, doing a variety of classes. One of them was called relaxation, and I discovered the stretching technique that utilizes a foam roller.
Basically, the principle behind the foam roller is to not only stretch the muscles, but to target the tissue surrounding the muscle or group of muscles. As a matter of fact, tightness in the body has often more to do with the faschia tissue than with the muscle.
How do you target them ?
By doing gentle massages in various areas of the body: after training, it is mostly used for calves, quads, ischio muscles, but also for the arms and the obliques.
These massages aim at obtaining a release in the area. One of the technical term is "myofascial release". Indeed, you can experiment it yourself: try one stretch, measure your range of mobility, then massage the area, and measure again your range of mobility: you should see a difference !
That tension can be eased by various means but the simpler is to use the weight of your own body to press against the foam roller et massage gently the area.
How to properly use a foam roller - my experience, basics
As I am always eager to try new things in fitness, I immediately ordered a foam roller. I use it as instructed during the class: sit on the floor, legs straight in front of you. Place the foam roller under your calves, lift your body slightly using your hands and roll your calves on the foam roller. Putting more or less weight on your hands will help you control the pressure on your legs.
The most painful points is where you will want to linger a bit more, by breathing through it. The minimum being 30 second, but my ballet teacher always said 1mn is actually the minimum to overcome the initial resistance.
You should never use it on the joints, so avoid behind the knees and one portion.
How did foam rolling feel the first time ?
For me, it was an eye opener, WOW ! Quite painful, just like my body was screaming. I could not believe my body was holding so much tension. I have come to realize we re never quite aware of much tension we hold inside until we start to release it.
Reading more about myofascial tension, I learned that there is a deep connection between the emotions and the tensions in the fascia, so if for example you tend to be anxious, you may hold increased tension in one or more areas of your body.
When can I use it ?
Naturally people doing a lot of exercise will benefit from foam rolling after a sport session. But anybody can use it while watching TV if this is what you like to do for relaxation. The key for a consistent practice, in my experience, in to link a new activity into one that is already firmly anchored in your daily schedule.
Where to find / buy a foam roller
Because I live in Switzerland and the shop close too early, plus not sure I would find one, I chose to compare several rollers and finally settled for one that has the plane foam roller structure but an additional structure with a trigger points grid. A trigger point is a localized area of hyper irritability within the muscle, fascia or tendon.
I bought it on Amazon, here is the link if you wish to buy the same:amazing foam roller with trigger points grid
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