Foam rollers do way more than just feel good.
Optimal performance requires commitment to training, a sound nutrition plan — and some agonizing teetering on a hard cylindrical object.
Historically, the worlds of fitness and physical therapy have been at odds with each other, the latter putting back together what the former breaks down. Physical therapists will warn you that even walking can be dangerous; athletes will tell you that it wasn’t a good workout if every muscle isn’t screaming the next day. But lately, these two adversaries have found one thing to agree on: the benefits of foam rolling.
Physical, massage and sports therapists have used foam rolling for decades in their practices. And now this proven and effective therapeutic technique has made its way into the fitness industry, introduced to the masses predominantly by CrossFit boxes (and thanks, yes, primarily to Kelly Starrett and his MobilityWOD program).
Put simply, foam rollers help athletes apply pressure to muscles in order to relieve tightness therein. This tightness takes the form of “trigger points” — hyperirritable spots that often can be felt as “knots” in muscle fibers. The pressure applied to a trigger point can aid in the recovery of tight muscles and assist in returning them to normal responsiveness, which means they’re elastic and ready and able to perform when called on. Who wouldn’t want that?
SORENESS EXPLAINED
Every skeletal muscle is wrapped in a thin connective tissue called fascia, which is made up of collagen and elastin, and it encapsulates the muscle and allows other muscles and structures to slide over it. Problems occur when an athlete completes an intense training session, particularly one in which they performed activities they are unaccustomed to. Training hard — or with new, unfamiliar exercises — creates micro-trauma, or microscopic tears in muscle fibers, and part of the body’s response to those tears is edema, or swelling. We feel this as pain and call it delayed onset muscle soreness. Every CrossFitter who’s doing it right knows the feeling of waking up the day after a tough WOD feeling soreness in a specific muscle group.
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