Foam rolling

[Crackle]

I've spent the last few months making foam rolling part of my life after doing my knee in in February. I discovered a number of things: First I needed to do it. Turns out most of the major muscle groups in my legs needed releasing and with that and stretching I feel a whole lot looser and it has aided my knee recovery.

So at the moment I'm rolling once a day and as I've gone on my technique has got better and I've developed a routine which covers all the areas of my leg. I've reached the stage now where I'm maintaining things. I can roll quite comfortably as opposed to when I started, when it was so painful the screams woke the dog.

I'm now thinking that for certain areas I might need to roll less. That by rolling every day I'm keeping a little bit of soreness and tension in the muscle, so a day would off be good. So I'm wondering what others do, bearing in mind we are all different?

 

[Fubar]

I've spent the last few months making foam rolling part of my life after doing my knee in February. I discovered a number of things: First I needed to do it. Turns out most of the major muscle groups in my legs needed releasing and with that and stretching I feel a whole lot looser and it has aided my knee recovery.

So at the moment I'm rolling once a day and as I've gone on my technique has got better and I've developed a routine which covers all the areas of my leg. I've reached the stage now where I'm maintaining things. I can roll quite comfortably as opposed to when I started, when it was so painful the screams woke the dog.

I'm now thinking that for certain areas I might need to roll less. That by rolling every day I'm keeping a little bit of soreness and tension in the muscle, so a day would off be good. So I'm wondering what others do, bearing in mind we are all different?

I use them, not as much as I should but have started after turbo training - one of the guys mentioned a video on UToob from Sky (I think?!?) of how their physios use them on the pro's - apparently 10 mins all told. not had a chance to look it up yet but might give some useful tips? It's all about working the blood back through your legs, allegedly.

 

[Crackle]

I use them, not as much as I should but have started after turbo training - one of the guys mentioned a video on UToob from Sky (I think?!?) of how their physios use them on the pro's - apparently 10 mins all told. not had a chance to look it up yet but might give some useful tips? It's all about working the blood back through your legs, allegedly.

Thanks, I'll have a look.

One of my other questions was when to use it. I have been using it after exercise to release things but I've also started to use it pre-excercise to warm up. Interesting to see what they do.

 

[Crankarm]

I roll but not with foam but a £1.99 large aerosol can of car de-icer. It is heaven. The can is nice and cool even in summer. As OP said very sore at first but now have been doing it for a little over a year now and legs feel pretty good. Legs feel strong and relaxed, don't suffer any twinges and certainly no pulled muscles like I used a few years ago when riding and running far relying only on stretching without rolling. Soreness pretty much gone and now do it for relief after long rides or runs. Great for the lower legs, calves, Achilles, IBT, backs of knees, basically everywhere on legs, pressure adjusted accordingly. I try and do rolling in morning and evening always working to push blood out of muscles along tendons back up to the heart so start at furthest point i.e. Achilles on ankle. If I skip a few days when I come to roll, it is such relief! Heaven.

I really look forward to rolling after many miles in the saddle or long run. Also try to do 5-10 minutes as a warm up before I get onto my bike or putting on my running shoes which works a treat. I highly recommend it. I only occasionally stretch now and if so gently and don't push it. All the better for it. Rolling/massage is far far better than stretching imho. Have been totally injury free since I discovered this and feel 19 years old again.

 

[Ciar]

I do a total of 15-20 minutes normal stretches got the info on what to do via the british cycling website for stretching. as for foam rolling i then do 2 minutes per exercise on the foam roller, so that's about 10 minutes in total best thing i ever bought was a foam roller, i try to roll every night after riding as the release of tension in the legs is very noticeable.

one thing i will say. the stronger my legs got the less effective my original foam roller made of foam became, so i upgraded to this https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=Fitness Mad Vari-Massage Foam Roller&tbm=shop&spd=3569019748595778872

this roller truly hits the spot, another tip i can give you is don't roll to quickly try and stretch everything and don't over do it, as it can cause issues.

 

[Crackle]

..and don't over do it

That's the bit I'm trying to get a handle on as I feel I might be doing that in a couple of areas.

 

[Ciar]

That's the bit I'm trying to get a handle on as I feel I might be doing that in a couple of areas.

I can only go by what i have seen online, they say to roll for a max of 2 minutes so if your doing inside leg to release knee muscles i do 1 min to 90 seconds moving the roller towards the groin from the knee.

for thighs and sides i do each for 2 minutes, and take it very slowly pushing the muscles out but, one thing i can say don't stay on super tight spots for more than 10 seconds as that's one of the issues i have heard can cause problems.

 

[Crankarm]

I can only go by what i have seen online, they say to roll for a max of 2 minutes so if your doing inside leg to release knee muscles i do 1 min to 90 seconds moving the roller towards the groin from the knee.

for thighs and sides i do each for 2 minutes, and take it very slowly pushing the muscles out but, one thing i can say don't stay on super tight spots for more than 10 seconds as that's one of the issues i have heard can cause problems.

Yeah, start gently and slowly as your muscles etc won't be used to it if you've never done it before, but once you become a regular you know where the tightness in your legs develops, where your sensitive spots lie and you can roll around and gently over these massaging the tissue pushing out old blood, adjusting pressure and orientation of your body to deliver just the right degree of pressure. Heaven. You need strong arms to support yourself though.

 

[400bhp]

Someone suggested foam rolling to me a couple of months back.

I'm being lazy here but could anyone point me in the direction of useful information on what to do/what not to do?

Oh, and in what way have peeps found the benefit? On/off the bike?

Thanks

 

[Crankarm]

Someone suggested foam rolling to me a couple of months back.

I'm being lazy here but could anyone point me in the direction of useful information on what to do/what not to do?

Oh, and in what way have peeps found the benefit? On/off the bike?

Thanks

See above posts. This is all you need to know. Just get rolling. You can spend a fortune on a foam roller or do what I do. But go easy on your first few rolls as if you have NEVER done it before your leg muscles, tendons, etc, will be tender. Start at your ankles and move up always rolling toward the heart. You can do a couple of reverse rolls every now and again but predominantly to the heart.

If you have any other medical condition that you feel might be affected by you using this method then go and see your GP first.

 

[Crackle]

I can only go by what i have seen online, they say to roll for a max of 2 minutes so if your doing inside leg to release knee muscles i do 1 min to 90 seconds moving the roller towards the groin from the knee.

for thighs and sides i do each for 2 minutes, and take it very slowly pushing the muscles out but, one thing i can say don't stay on super tight spots for more than 10 seconds as that's one of the issues i have heard can cause problems.

OK, sounds sensible. My rule of thumb, was to roll an area and if it eased off to carry on for a few more roles, if it doesn't and begins to get more painful, stop. Next time you could a little bit more on it and so on until eventually it felt free.

Very painful areas and I had a lot of them initially, I could only roll for a few seconds anyhow. Funnily enough, one of the areas that is resisting release is the inside of my thigh along the adductors but I had a lot of pain around my knee where the adductors insert, so this is coming as no surprise.

 

[Crackle]

Heaven. You need strong arms to support yourself though

That too, was a limiting factor initially.

 

[Crankarm]

That too, was a limiting factor initially.

But now you look like Arnie …………………… .

 

[Crackle]

Someone suggested foam rolling to me a couple of months back.

I'm being lazy here but could anyone point me in the direction of useful information on what to do/what not to do?

Oh, and in what way have peeps found the benefit? On/off the bike?

Thanks

I haven't found the Sky one but there's a Garmin Sharp one here which uses a more methodical technique than I've been using but affirms that how I do it is roughly correct.

 

[Ciar]

Yeah, start gently and slowly as your muscles etc won't be used to it if you've never done it before, but once you become a regular you know where the tightness in your legs develops, where your sensitive spots lie and you can roll around and gently over these massaging the tissue pushing out old blood, adjusting pressure and orientation of your body to deliver just the right degree of pressure. Heaven. You need strong arms to support yourself though.

I have been rolling for a year or so, as for strong arms the side of the legs is like doing a side bench it's hurts wish i had kept using the TRX my upper body is so weak now.