Foam Rolling Benefits
At some point, you’ve probably seen a foam roller in your gym. Usually located with the medicine balls and other core equipment. If you have not taken the opportunity to use one of these unique tools, you may just be missing something amazing! Anyone can benefit from a foam roller, from a professional athlete all the way down to a first timer in the gym. A foam roller is going to help enable performance. It will prepare the muscles for the tasks they are going to be put through. Think of this tool as a secret weapon towards a better and more efficient workout.
So What’s The Purpose Of Foam Rolling?
The benefit that foam rolling is going to give you is it is going to help break up any knots that may occur in the muscles. These knots, also known as Myofascial trigger points occur when the muscle fibers start to get tense and tighten up. This isn’t beneficial at all since you would like your muscles to produce as efficiently as possible during exercise. You usually can feel an area where knots are present since the areas of tightness seem to be pretty sensitive to the touch. So when you apply gentle pressure to the area, you break up any knots within the muscles and help release any tension that has built up.
How To Use The Foam Roller
The foam roller, for the most part, is pretty straight forward when it comes to using it. The more common areas you can use the roller are the Calves, Hamstrings, Quadriceps, TFL, Latissimus Dorsi, and the Upper Back. These areas are going to be the primary areas that need the most attention. While rolling out the ideal time to roll each muscle group should be 30 seconds each. Holding it any less than this doesn’t do too much to help relax and lengthen the muscles back to normal. You should use the foam roller both before and after each workout session to see the best benefits. Also while rolling out it is important to make sure you relax the muscles to help release any tension built up.
The Benefits
If done consistently throughout a few weeks, you should start to notice a difference in how your muscles respond to each exercise performed. When the muscles are lengthened you allow them to produce at peak performance and not lag behind at all. This is great if you would like to get the most out of each workout session performed. Something to note as well is after you roll out a series of dynamic stretching should be performed to help warm the muscles up. This is important since foam rolling helps relax the muscles and so, therefore, needs some kind of stretching to warm them up. If you stay consistent using the foam roller you should start to notice a difference in how you feel before performing any exercise given. Rolling out consistently can also help prevent the chances of any injuries occurring.
Final Wrap Up
So if you haven’t used a foam roller before, give it a try and see if you noticed a difference in how you feel. It would surprise you at how much of a difference this unique tool could make. If you really want to test the benefits out on the first day try rolling out one side of the body and proceeding to jump up and down on that side. Then without rolling out the other side try jumping up and down and see if you don’t notice a difference in how your muscles feel. If you have any further questions please feel free to reach out to me.
