Foam rollers are a powerful therapeutic tool that you can use at home to maintain optimal physical health.
The idea is simple enough: Using your own body weight and agility, you roll specific muscle groups against a firm foam roller to mimic a deep, gliding massage.
With a foam roller, you can control how much pressure you apply to the tissues you’re working on, and you can locate and focus on areas that are problematic.
Foam rolling is a perfect adjunct to soft tissue therapies like deep tissue massage, myofascial rolling, and active release technique (ART). And because you can use a foam roller just about anywhere, you can experience terrific health gains in a relatively short period of time.
The main benefits of foam rolling include the following:
- Improved blood circulation throughout your skin, fascia, muscles, and even tendons and ligaments where you can access them with a foam roller.
- Better cellular function through improved blood circulation, more efficient exchange of nutrients and waste products at a cellular level, leading to better overall cellular function and intercellular communication.
- Lengthening of short (tight) muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Some muscles (like hip flexors) and ligaments (like the iliotibial band, which runs along your outer thigh from pelvis to knee) are prone to shortening, and are difficult to effectively stretch and apply therapeutic pressure to using standard massage and trigger point therapy techniques. But with a foam roller, you can apply deep pressure massage to such areas and lengthen shortened tissues, thereby preventing physical imbalances that can predispose you to injury.
- Promotion of optimal spinal range of motion. You can accomplish this by slowly rolling your spine against a foam roller and pausing whenever you feel restrictions to allow your joints and surrounding tissues to stretch.
- Better posture, stronger core. Beyond using a foam roller as a therapeutic tool, you can also use it for a variety of exercises. It’s especially useful for a number of core-strengthening and stabilizing postures and movements.
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