Foam Roller & Its Benefits

 What is ‘Foam rolling’

You will often see a cylindrical instrument covered in foam in a gym set up, at a physiotherapist’s clinic, or even at an athlete’s house. You would see individuals rolling their back, hips, quads, thighs, calves, hamstrings, etc. over it and you may be wondering how exactly is this cylindrical thing helping these individuals. This compact and portable roller helps the general population as well as athletes in multiple ways. Foam rolling has now become one of the most popular therapy among fitness enthusiasts and athletes for the purpose of mobility, flexibility, and myofascial release. Foam rolling is mostly done in the warm-up sessions by athletes to prepare themselves for fluent movements in their particular sport.

The fuss about Myofascia and Myofascial Release

The word ‘Mayo’ refers to the Latin word for ‘Muscle’ and the word ‘Fascia’ refers to the band or a sheet of connective tissue. Hence Myofascia is the interconnection between these two elements.

‘Myofascial Release’ is the therapy of releasing the tightness in muscles with the help of these foam rollers. In simpler words, foam rollers help in reducing the myofascial tightness. The tightness in the myofascial restricts movements and foam rolling helps in making the muscle much softer and movement-friendly.

That is why it is considered effective…

Foam rolling has become very popular among both professional and recreational athletes. The major reasons for its popularity are increased range of motion, enhanced recovery, and an overall improvement in athletic performance. A lot of scientific research is currently going on on the same topic and the majority of researchers claim that foam rolling does have a significant impact on athletic performance.

Foam Rolling, Flexibility and Mobility

Foam Rolling helps in short term flexibility which does not last for a longer period of time. But some of the researches also prove that it helps in increasing long term flexibility if the foam rolling exercises are performed regularly. As foam rolling is proven to improve the range of motion of the joints, we can say that it helps in increasing the mobility of the joints too.

Foam Rolling and Athletic Performance

Foam rolling has effectively broken all the stereotypes of static stretching in a warm-up session of an athlete’s workout. Along with dynamic stretching, foam rolling has also made itself someplace in the warm-up routines of athletes. As it helps in improved range of motion of the joints, flexibility, and mobility, it proves as a significantly positive differentiating factor from the performance point of view of the athletes across all sports and not just one.

Foam Rolling and Recovery

Another reason to use the foam roller is that it helps in speeding up the recovery process of the athlete. It helps the athlete in reducing the effect of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). As of now, not much research is made in this area other than the relation between foam rolling and DOMS.

Before workouts: Rollers help to relax muscles, allowing more efficient movement during the workout.

After workouts: Rollers help to lessen muscle soreness and shorten recovery time.

Benefits of foam rolling :

• Alleviates soreness
• Lessens inflammation that occurs during the muscle repair process
• Aids in muscle repair recovery
• Supports injury prevention by maintaining muscle length and remedying tension and tightness
• Increases blood flow and elasticity of muscle tissue, joints, and fascia — the body’s connective tissue — which helps with mobility, overall well-being, and a smoother appearance of fat underneath your skin
• Promotes relaxation — roll away your worries!

Body parts to train:

1. Quads:

If you are inactive most of the day due to a desk job, roll out your quads to get your blood flowing and keep muscles engaged.

2. Hip flexors:

Sitting for prolonged periods of time can really mess with your Hip Flexors. While stretching them is good, foam rolling them is even better because it works on relaxation of the muscle tissue plus the connective tissue (fascia) around it.

3. Calves:

In addition to calf stretches, try foam rolling these muscles for an additional ease in your step.

4. Hamstrings:

Another muscle that gets affected in a negative manner by sitting all day is your hamstrings, your hamstrings may be in need of some TLC.

5. IT band:

Made of connective tissue, the IT band runs along your outer thigh from the hip to the knee. Soreness and tightness in this area is common in runners, but anyone can benefit from foam rolling this area.

6. Upper back:

Is Poor posture the reason to get you down? If you feel tension in your upper back, hop on the foam roller to help loosen things up.

7. Lats:

Lovingly known as your “wings,” tight lat muscles — located on back, right below armpits — can throw posture out of shape. Make sure they’re nice and relaxed by hitting them with the foam roller.

8. Shoulders:

Do your shoulders need some action? Roll out your deltoids to get mobility back.

Conclusion

Foam rolling has become very popular among athletes and fitness enthusiasts. This is encouraging the researchers to take charge and dive deeper into this topic to bring out the right study along with pieces of evidence. As of now, we can conclude that this technique can impact the training of a professional athlete or a fitness enthusiast in the right manner. Get yourself rolling with the latest collection available at Gambol.