Foam Rolling - Tis the Season

FOAM ROLLING – TIS THE SEASON

You have an ouch.  They tell you to “roll it out.” So you go to Fleet Feet Sports and buy a Grid or an Addaday stick or something similar to “get into” those muscles. But now what???

If you have never rolled or want to know more, our Fleet Feet team is very knowledgeable on how to use these instruments…why if you come in when we aren’t too busy, you will catch a lot of us in the act of trying to increase our blood flow and breaking up the “knots” so our run can be the best that it can be.

 Here are a few tips:

1. If you have not rolled before, please ask us all about it. We like any excuse to roll out our own muscles and when we get to demonstrate we usually pick out our side that needs it most. So don’t ever feel shy.
2. Then when you use the roller at home you want to make sure not to dwell too much on the point of pain. As you may know, everything is connected. You want to roll an equal amount (if not greater) amount of time on the surrounding muscles.
3. You want to roll slowly. Unlike when you are running a race, speed is not the key here. Slow rolling motions are what you want. You want to allow your muscles to slow-ly feel the roll as you slow-ly move up and down.
4. You want to roll slowly and not hang out at the same area for long periods of time. You can actually do more damage than good if you roll too much or too long.
5. Do roll your legs and glutes before and after your run. This is a great way to “warm-up” your muscles and get the blood flowing before a run. Then after your run, it keeps the blood flowing and helps take the waste product away from your muscles before it can build up. I am not talking a half hour – more like 5 minutes – hitting the calf and surrounding muscles, the quad/hamstring and surrounding muscles and the glutes. If you notice tension in your shoulders, go ahead roll the shoulders and your neck.* You will feel ready for your run when you do it before your run. When doing it after your run, you will notice that you recover faster. This will also help thwart off future aches and pains.

 If you want to know more, come on in and we will sit with you and show you, as I said, any excuse is good for us to roll.

 Have a great day!

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 *If you are feeling stress in your shoulders, ask us about Good Form Running and how we can help get rid of that stress after your run.