foam roller, balls!

[Rabbit]

Anyone use foam roller, tennis balls etc for myofacial release, stretches, rehab?

Please share any ideas and tips, why do you do it?

Just as started and I really like it...hurts like hell though....up and down the it band ....yeouuuch!

[Ben Fisher]

Dosage matters. Be thoughtful about application, but generally if you find painful spots you should work them out. 30 sec to 2 min. Gastroc with lacrosse ball, hamstring, adductors, it band, quads with white soft foam roll, glutes and tfl with ball, shoulder external rotators laying on lacrosse ball, moving shoulder in and out of external rotation (feels like a knife in the shoulders), longitudinal stretch with roller on spine to get elbows down, then ab/adduction in that position, segmental extension in thoracic spine with roller at each vertebral level, can be made more difficult by holding onto a bar to increase segmental extension.

[chud]

Anyone use foam roller, tennis balls etc for myofacial release, stretches, rehab?

Please share any ideas and tips, why do you do it?

Just as started and I really like it...hurts like hell though....up and down the it band ....yeouuuch!

Funny, I just went to an Airrosti appointment yesterday for a myofascial adhesion in my lower back (I sit most of the day at work) and the Airrosti people love the foam roller, although the girl who worked on me used her bare hands. It definitely hurt, but I felt much better afterwards.

[NoSword]

I have gotten good results with a lacrosse ball, but I tend to prefer using nothing, AKA the floor, to accomplish the same work. It's all in there in the stances, stretches etc., you just have to focus your weight like a laser beam into one spot.

Obviously there are some things you can do with a foam roller, lacrosse ball etc. that you can't accomplish without apparatus, but I find the work I can do with the floor, chair, bed etc. so exhaustive that I rarely have time or energy left over for toys. In short, I think they are primarily useful for people who are very very tight.

On a related note, the abbot of the Zen temple where I studied was very attached to his wooden roller and extremely protective of it, he would not allow anyone else to touch it for fear of their bad juju. While I believe this is a bit extreme, the quality of the material matters a great deal, I would take wood over plastic or rubber any day.

AK

[P. Li]

love this thing especially hips and calves pre-runs. Also lacrosse ball

either rolling or on points with contract release

[Rabbit]

Dosage matters. Be thoughtful about application, but generally if you find painful spots you should work them out. 30 sec to 2 min. Gastroc with lacrosse ball, hamstring, adductors, it band, quads with white soft foam roll, glutes and tfl with ball, shoulder external rotators laying on lacrosse ball, moving shoulder in and out of external rotation (feels like a knife in the shoulders), longitudinal stretch with roller on spine to get elbows down, then ab/adduction in that position, segmental extension in thoracic spine with roller at each vertebral level, can be made more difficult by holding onto a bar to increase segmental extension.

Thanks for this
A bit tec for me to understand. Do you have any links to resources for this or further detail for the exercises?

[Jianhua]

Kelly Starrett is an excellent resource for ideas and techniques to improve range of motion and mobility.

[RobP2]

I sometimes use a hard ball or a large bottle filled with warm water but it is much better if you can work massage with a partner. There's a couple of brief clips here, I should probably put out something more detailed on massage work

[cloudz]

yep, up and down the it bands is what I originally gotten it for, advised by physio. This was a couple of years ago now. I had some issues with my hip flexors. One side needed to be released from spasm. I also started using it around the glutes and lower back and front of thighs too. Really really helps. These days I use it less, but I do get pain coming back after a while, particularly if I have slacked of my specific stretches for the problem area. Does the trick, but yeah can be a quite painful .

[kenneth fish]

You are far better off using a rigid instrument (for example, the shaft of a C wrench) on long muscle groups, and doing it gently. While using a foam roller may feel good immediately afterwards or for a few days, what you are really doing is inflicting blunt trauma on the soft tissues and setting up the conditions for creating new adhesions and scarring.

[amor]

You are far better off using a rigid instrument (for example, the shaft of a C wrench) on long muscle groups, and doing it gently. While using a foam roller may feel good immediately afterwards or for a few days, what you are really doing is inflicting blunt trauma on the soft tissues and setting up the conditions for creating new adhesions and scarring.

damn didn't know that, its amazing what passes for the latest fucking fads that suck people in who are genuinely health conscious. I take it this blunt trauma stuff setting yourself up for new adhesions that you mention is with the normal foam rollers that have no spiky bits on them, just a long cylinder of foam. I don't use it much nowadays but initially got one of those spiky type foam rollers that allegedly knead the flesh which is supposed to be better than the non-spiky plain old foam rollers.
Would you say that the kneading foam rollers can also contribute to blunt trauma, adhesion scarring to the body, as well?

kneading foam roller

http://g02.s.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1Uf5eGXXX ... XFXXXy.jpg

[kenneth fish]

Yes - there were a couple of orthopedic rehab papers on the subject of foam rollers that came out in the past couple of years.

You might want to look at Grasten - a much more rational approach to adhesions.

[Patrick]

You are far better off using a rigid instrument (for example, the shaft of a C wrench) on long muscle groups, and doing it gently. While using a foam roller may feel good immediately afterwards or for a few days, what you are really doing is inflicting blunt trauma on the soft tissues and setting up the conditions for creating new adhesions and scarring.

sounds fish(y) , but who knows. Where did you read/hear that? Thanks.

[Ben Fisher]

Curious about the research on this. A quick search on Ovid/pubmed doesn't turn anything up, do you remember what journal you saw this in?

I like graston and practice instrument assisted stuff on my patients, but sometimes do recommend foam rolling (mostly for paraspinals) based on a couple of studies from JOSPT.

[Rabbit]

I would also like to see more about this. Not convinced by 'blunt trama' surly this would depend on the roller and the amount of pressure being used as well as the area and the method

I know many people who have been using this to relive muscle tension with great results. Interestingly the rolling stops being painful when the tissue releases and then allows a great deal more mobility. This is in the context of Ashtanga yoga specifically