Use a foam roller to help relieve stress, prevent strain
It’s almost like having a personal deeptissue masseuse, except you are the one who moves around to get the massage. Once you begin using a foam roller, you will wonder what you ever did without one.
A foam roller is exactly what its name describes. It’s a roll of hard and dense foam used to relax muscle spasms and stiff muscles, as well as to stretch. Most foam rollers are about six or seven inches across, with a circumference of about 27 inches, and three feet long. But thicker and thinner versions are available, as are shorter models. When purchasing one, also pick up a yoga mat to cushion the floor and protect your clothing.
To use the roller, put it on the floor and put the part of your body that needs a deep massage over it. For example, if you’ve got stiff and painful neck and upper back muscles from looking down at a laptop or at an eye-level desktop monitor, lie with the roller under your neck and flex your knees with your feet flat on the floor. Move the roller back and forth from your neck to the back of your shoulders by flexing and extending at the knees. Your body weight will create the pressure for the roller’s massage.
If you spend several hours a day looking down at a laptop, it is really difficult not to strain your shoulder muscles. Stop and massage them frequently with the foam roller to prevent long term back strain.
The rollers are also good for ending DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) that comes after unaccustomed physical activity. DOMS can come the day after a weightlifting workout, a strenuous hike, or an action-packed mountain bike ride. If the soreness is in your hamstrings (the back of the thigh), put the roller under your butt, and use your flexed knees to move over it from your butt to your lower thighs. You can also bend one leg over the other, with the bent leg’s foot flat on the floor, and use the extra pressure of that position to deeply massage out the soreness one leg at a time.
Use the roller in slow motion, allowing the muscles and tendons of each body part to get the full effect.
However, don’t use the roller under a joint. The foam roller helps stretch out tight muscles and tendons, but naturally, you never want to stretch out the ligaments holding a joint together.
Another benefit from using a foam roller is that it will give you more flexibility. Because the massage stretches muscle and tendon fibres, your range of motion will increase.
If you’re not flexible, check this out for yourself by attempting to touch your toes without bending your knees. Then do a thorough workout on the foam roller, massaging the quads, hamstrings and inner and outer sides of your thighs, as well as your calves. Do the toe touch afterward. You’ll be surprised at how much farther down you can bend, and realize that your flexibility has definitely increased.
You can find numerous foam roller workouts online, but it’s better to use your own creativity to design a personal workout for your own body.
This unobtrusive object will quickly become part of your lifestyle. You’ll enjoy the feeling of massaging your muscles into relaxation instead of suffering the muscle tightness and pain that can come from just everyday life.