The cool kids these days are referring to foam rolling as “self-myofascial release” because it is a type of deep tissue massage that you do to yourself.  Fascia release is becoming a big thing these days, just watch, you’ll start hearing a lot about it.  I met someone through my homeopathic guru whose entire chiropractic practice is dedicated to myofascial release.  It is a really interesting modality, no neck cracking involved.

I would certainly rather have a professional myofascial release me, but it is nice to be able to do it myself at home.

My favorite foam rolling position is to lay on top of it with the roller positioned along my spine (head resting on one end and tailbone at the other, knees bent and feet flat on the floor).  I will roll side to side a little bit but prefer to articulate my lower spine a few times until I feel that arch in my lower back flatten out.  Then I like to do cactus arms (elbows in line with shoulders, hands in line with ears) and just hang out.  Some days it is REALLY painful because my trapezius are too tight/overdeveloped, whatever you want to call it.  There was a good stretch of time (get it, stretch, ha-ha) that my elbows wouldn’t even reach the ground.

Boy, do I feel better, taller, and straighter once I spend a few minutes like that.

That position is also a convenient opportunity to do some ab work.  I can really feel my spine connecting to the roller easier than the floor.  I will sometimes do crunches as well as heel lowers (a balance challenge) from this position.

I have to admit that I am not a fan of actually foam rolling my whole body.  Because it hurts!  Sure, you feel great when you’re done.  I’m just a wimp.  Will do hips/glutes, sometimes.  The other week, I was SUPER sore from Glutes, Guns, and Guts and decided to foam roller my quads.  It did not feel good.  After a few passes, (not that many, maybe 4-5 times) I could actually feel the muscles loosening up.  It really, really helped!

I did some research about foam rolling to make sure that I wasn’t giving you any bad information.  The big thing to be careful about is your lower back.  While you can put the foam roller perpendicular to your spine and roll out your upper back/shoulders and your glutes, you should not roll your lower back.

Do you foam roll?  Do you actually roll or just lay on it while watching TV like I do?

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