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Foam Rolling Basics

So you’ve got a foam roller, now what do you do?  Foam rolling doesn’t take any special skill.  You basically lie on the foam roller and move around.  The primary use of a foam roller is myofascial release on the thighs.  This includes foam rolling the entire thigh: inside, front, outside, and back.  In other words, you foam roll the hamstrings, quadriceps, groin, and hip muscles.  I could have made a video of foam rolling on the thighs, but this British dude did a great job of that (I’ve reviewed all 80 something foam rolling videos on YouTube and this guy is the best).

Tips:

• Speed: generally, you should roll your legs relatively slowly, say 2 inches per second.  There are morons on the internet saying things like “if you foam roll too fast you’ll give yourself knots.”  This is garbage; I’ve rolled fast, slow, and everything in between and every speed resulted in a looser, happier muscle.
• Duration: there’s no reliable source on how long to roll.  I’m not aware of any studies on this subject.  My short answer is, “I don’t know.”  That said, I roll each muscle/area between 10-15 strokes.  I generally roll an area until further rolling is uncomfortable bordering on painful.
• Frequency: you can roll every day.  I would not do it more than once a day because your muscle needs time to recover.  I think this involves your blood carting away any toxins you rolled out of the muscle along with breaking down and carting away the intramuscular fascia you’ve shaken loose.
• Intensity: if your muscle is actually sore the next day, you rolled too hard or too long.  Back off next time.  A little soreness is normal after the very first time, though.
• Pressure: After rolling for 5-10 times it won’t hurt as much and you’ll need more pressure.  Just lift your other leg off the ground.  You can even stack your other leg on top of the leg being rolled for even greater pressure.