This post contains affiliate links.
Do you want to know how to foam roll properly? Foam rolling is one of the most powerful tools to manage aches and pains and prevent injury. Learn the benefits of foam rolling plus how to foam roll properly from a Corrective Exercise Specialist who uses her foam roller to manage chronic pain.
New Here? I’m here to help you make sense of all the health and fitness info out there and create a simple, healthy lifestyle you love, even if you don’t know what that looks like yet!
- 5 Day Movement Habit Challenge (FREE!)
- 1 Week (FREE!) Getting Started with Cardio Program
- The Monthly Meal Planner eBook (FREE!)
- Join the Making Sense of a Healthy Life Community (FREE!)
- Creating Crucial Habits 4 Week Program
- Book a 15 minute Coaching Consultation here to learn how I can help you rebuild your health and fitness and create a healthy lifestyle that works for you.
What is Foam Rolling?
Foam rolling allows you to give yourself your own deep tissue massage. How it works exactly isn’t fully understood yet. But the general consensus is that it works really well to reduce pain, promote relaxation, and prevent injury.
It’s believed that it works like a deep tissue massage by breaking up adhesions in the muscles and surrounding soft tissue. Adhesions result from workouts and the stresses of daily life and cause pain, soreness, and irritation.
You can use a foam roller to find the adhesions, or trigger points. Then hold pressure on them long enough to enable the muscle to relax and realign. This ultimately breaks the cycle of inflammation, muscle spasm, and adhesions that can eventually lead to injury.
Foam rolling combined with slow, deep breathing, calms your nervous system. This makes foam rolling even more effective at relaxing your muscles while reducing your overall stress levels.
Why Foam Roll?
- Corrects muscle imbalance
- Helps your body recover faster
- Improves range of motion if you’re very tight
- Decreases overall soreness
- Manages chronic muscle spasm and pain
- Boosts the parasympathetic nervous system to allow for better relaxation
- Prevents injury by promoting optimal alignment
- Decreases overall stress
I personally use foam rolling almost every day to manage my hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. My muscles tend to get really tight because I’m too flexible – they’re tightening up trying to stabilize my joints. Foam rolling works wonders to relax those tight muscles without stretching them, while reducing the activity of my nervous system so I don’t experience as much pain and stress.
Who Should Foam Roll?
Nearly anyone can benefit from foam rolling. But, people with congestive heart failure, kidney failure, or any other organ failure as well as bleeding disorders, bone disorders or contagious skin conditions should talk with their doctor as foam rolling may not be appropriate for them.
If you want to live an active lifestyle or have any tight or aching areas, foam rolling will be your new best friend.
When to Foam Roll?
Foam rolling can be done anytime you feel the need to relax tight muscles! You can foam roll before a workout to make sure your muscles are aligned and at their proper length so you can have a safer and more effective workout. When you’re done with your workout, you can foam roll again to help your body recover faster while ensuring you get a good cooldown to calm your body and mind.
While foam rolling is really useful to correct muscle imbalances and manage chronic pain, it’s also an incredibly effective preventative method. Regular foam rolling will prevent injury-inducing adhesions from forming in the first place. Nip it in the butt before you start to hurt am I right?
I keep my foam roller where I can grab it anytime I feel a tight spot starting to yell at me. I’ve learned not to ignore tightness or discomfort and feel better throughout the day if I can quickly manage any spot that might flare up.
How to Foam Roll?
Start with the proper density foam roller. If you are new to foam rolling, go with a light to medium density. Only after you’ve been rolling for a while should you try the super knobbly foam rollers because those suckers can be really intense. Foam rolling should feel good for the most part because you need to be able to relax and breathe while rolling. If you’re using a roller that is too hard and you keep tensing up, you won’t get the benefits you’re looking for from foam rolling.
Pain is never the goal. Though, fair warning – foam rolling the outer thigh (aka the IT band) is pretty much always unpleasant because it’s less muscle and more tendon.
Practice 3D breathing, slow and deep, while rolling to get the biggest benefit to your parasympathetic nervous system and greatest muscle relaxation.
Check out my Engage Your Core Training where I’ll teach you exactly how to breathe properly to get the most out of foam rolling (among other awesome things!).
Here’s how to foam roll:
- Place the muscle group you’d like to roll on top of the roller.
- Roll slowly up and down the full length of the muscle. Rolling quickly back and forth can cause more stress to your body which is not the point. Move at a rate of about 1 inch per second along the roll.
- Return to the single most tender spot and hold pressure there for about 30-60 seconds (or until it releases) while you practice slow, deep 3D breathing.
- Once the tenderness decreases, you can do 4-6 active movements to work through the last of the tight spot. For example, if you’re rolling your calf, point and flex your foot to work your calf muscle over the foam roller.
Foam Rollers to Try:
Soft Density OPTP Foam Roller
OPTP Medium Density Foam Roller
High Density AmazonBasics Foam Roller
TriggerPoint GRID Foam Roller
Where to Foam Roll?
Pretty much any muscle you can reach with the foam roller is fair game. There are even some fancy tools available to help you seek out and destroy knots in hard-to-reach places like your upper back.
There are a few rules you should follow to make sure you don’t hurt yourself.
- Don’t roll over your joints and bones. Joints are mostly made of bone and ligament which don’t need to be foam rolled. You just need to focus on the muscles and some tendons that run between your joints. Plus, your joints often have a lot of delicate nerves and blood vessels running through them and those should never be rolled. Areas like behind your knee, your inner elbow, and your armpit should never be rolled over.
- If you feel any numbness, tingling or shooting sensations STOP. This means you’re rolling on a nerve and continuing to roll can cause nerve damage.
- Unless you have the proper tools and have been taught by a qualified professional, avoid rolling on your neck. The structures here are too delicate to stand up to foam rolling.
Get started with my Full Body Foam Roll Routine!
Watch the full playlist below or on my YouTube Channel. If you find these videos helpful please hit the like button, share and subscribe!