Foam Rolling Series
The benefits of foam rolling your body and a full series to guide you through elongating different muscle groups.
Foam rolling is at its core a self massage. It alleviates soreness and tightness within your musculature, reduces inflammation that can occur during the muscle repair process, aids in muscle recovery, increases blood flow, and helps with injury prevention. You can really access direct trigger points through foam rolling and here is a little series to get you started!
Tips:
Pause wherever something feels tender or tight. Use foam rolling as an exploration, a way to get to know your kinetic chain on a deeper level. Take a long inhale and exhale on a spot that is especially tight and then feel free to move on.
Think about treating your body section by section rather than continuously rolling back and forth
Do not over foam roll. Continually foam rolling the same spot (just like over-massaging the same place) can cause bruising to your muscle fibers.
Click here if you would like a gentle series of bodyweight stretching and exercises.
Calves and Hamstrings
Place your hands under your shoulders with your fingertips facing forward and the foam roller just above the back of your ankle. Lift your body off of the floor and start to roll up on the foam roller until you reach just under your knee and then roll back the opposite way.
IT Bands (outer thighs)
Come to one forearm and place the foam roller right below the top of your hip with your top leg crossed over and flat on the floor. Gently start to roll on the foam roller until it reaches just above your knee and then back in the opposite direction.
*your IT bands (iliotibial bands) run along the outside of the thigh from the pelvis to the tibia. They are an important stabilizing structure for the lateral part of the knee as the joint flexes and extends.
Quads
Come to your forearms and place the foam roller right below your hip flexor. Brace your weight in your forearms as you maneuver yourself forward and back allowing the foam roller to come right above the knee and back up towards your hip flexor.
Inner Thighs
Come to your forearms and place your inner thigh on the foam roller as it lays vertically to your body. Press your weight into the foam roller as you roll up high towards your groin and then back down to right above your knee.
Glutes
Sit your booty on the foam roller, place your hands behind you and cross one ankle over your opposite thigh with your foot flexed. Start to roll forward and back on the foam roller as you explore leaning to one side and the other to reach all around your glutes.
*your glutes are made up of your gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus. When working through a figure four stretch, foot flexion helps to stabilize your knees.
Hip Flexors
Come to your forearms and place the foam roller at the crease of your hips in the front of your body. Start to roll back and forth about a 4-5 inch range
*your hip flexors are a group of muscles near the top of your thighs that are largely responsible for moving your low body.
Lower Back (sacral spine)
Middle Back (thoracic spine)
To help improve posture and mobility in your spine, start with your lumbar spine and take your time in rolling upwards towards your cervical spine. Press both of your feet down into the floor for support but feel free to press into one foot more firmly to focus in on a certain area.
Upper Back (cervical spine)
Place the foam roller underneath your scapula (shoulder blades) with your hands behind your head and your elbows wide. Release your head back slowly and then draw your abdominals towards your spine as you curl your chin back to your chest.
Neck
Place the foam roller like a pillow at the base of your neck with your hands actively pressing into the floor. Take your time in turning your head from one side to the other providing a gentle massage.
Arms
Start with the foam roller underneath your armpit and massage your latissimus dorsi (the broadest muscles in your back). Allow that to lead into the massage of your triceps, biceps, and deltoids.
*Use this foam roller guide as an exploration. Please always consult your physician or healthcare specialist prior to performing any of the movements in this program.
