Foam Rolling (Super) Pre-Excersice

Hi fellas. So I do a lot of throwing (football/baseball) as well as a lot of lifting. I do know i can do both without any problems but I need more mobility/flexibility in my shoulder/throwing muscles. I have been doing a lot of static stretching, dynamic stretching and foam rolling. I understand that mobility will come with time.

my question:

if I foam roll extensively about 1 hour and 30 min before a throwing workout, will i still reap the magical powers of rolling? or are their negative effects of doing it that early before the throwing session?

90 minutes sounds excessive. If you are talking about the shoulders, upper back/rotators and maybe elbow/triceps I cannot imagine you needing more than 10-15 minutes for those areas

If I’m reading correctly he wasn’t saying he was going to roll for that long, that was just the time before his competition that he could fit the rolling in. Thus his question was if the rolling would maintain its benefits that far in advance of activity. I don’t know the answer, just thought I could help clarify.

Rolling by itself just release the muscles.
You need to roll, stretch, activate then do some power work to reap the full benefit.

so if i did something like this:

1.5 prior to workout- foam roll
30 min before throwing- dynamic warmup for total body

would that foam rolling session do anything for me? or could it hurt me in any way?

Experiment and see what works best for you.

I don’t see how it could possibly hurt you. If you’re doing any foam rolling at all it should be beneficial.

90 minutes is def excessive
i don’t think this guy or anybody in their right mind
would anticipate this to be the study proven method
sounds like an obvious waste of time
might wanna clarify that OP
but
regardless

i think foam rolling traditionally is of the nature to which is would supplement maybe a massage for the sakes of excessive muscle tension and/or lactate buildup
therefore i proper time would be under these conditions:

pre workout:
under the circumstances that you had a rather intense lactate buildup from the exercise before or overtrained muscle you are seeking to eleviate during another bodypart split(ex. gastrocs/peroneals prev and lats currently) for the sakes of recovery
post workout between a two a day routine:
when the same bodypart is already taxed from the AM HIT workout and needs to recover glycogen as well as bloodflow before a later PM volume exercise

all of that unnecessary information aside
i fell that you pre competitive MYO Release is a safe yet fairly unproductive activity
perhaps the night before pre or post neighborhood jog
but the tension in your muscles should be fairly even [exception being a previous imbalance/tight agonist muscle]pre competition

so long as you condition and cool down the proper way
which i can easily assume your coach is rather unschooled in what the true methods of cooldown or even conditioning should be
but now i’m being assumptive

just warm up properly and you should be fine so far as you get butterflys, in which case you should just try to chill until it’s time to psych yourself up immediately before your game time
take it from a wrestling captain and coach
aggression best achieved from team mate participation
testosterone best achieved from opponent observation and anticipation

Its fine honestly. Extra insurance for making sure your trigger points don’t get worse lifting or exercising.

i wish i had that kind of time.

I would recommend doing the foam rolling more than 6 hours after the throwing and not before.

Rolling is hard on the muscles and if done correctly it is going to do some minor damage - it’s analogous to pulling stuck fibers apart and stretching the muscle. It MAY increase mobility but at the cost of force generation in the time following it.

A very good dynamic warm-up before your throwing session is critical but I recommend saving the aggressive mobility work until well after the work is done.

Just a quick clarification.

I AM NOT FOAM ROLLING FOR 1.5 HOURS! I AM foam rolling 1.5 PRIOR to a throwing session. This foam rolling may last 10-15 minutes.

Thank you for your replys. I will take everyones advice into account but I think i will start foam rolling a few hours AFTER the throwing workout. which should help increase my mobility for the next workout.

Check out Cressey’s book Maximum Strength. He also has some soft tissue suggestions for joints and you can use a baseball for more pinpoint work around joints.

I use them on my shoulders and hips and it helps.

[quote]Welcome2TRME wrote:
Just a quick clarification.

I AM NOT FOAM ROLLING FOR 1.5 HOURS! I AM foam rolling 1.5 PRIOR to a throwing session. This foam rolling may last 10-15 minutes.
[/quote]

Illiteracy is a sad thing, isn’t it?

lol@ kbc

its a good thing and shouldn’t inhibit your progress but rather enhance it.

Soft tissue work then mobility work then practice sounds pretty damn good to me.

Check here in case though I’m sure you can shoot him a PM on this site or send him an email on his blog/website/etc

http://www.ericcressey.com/articles.html

Not quite sure if the illiteracy comment was directed at me but oh well thats not what we are here for.

Thank you all for your help and this thread has definatley “upgraded” my training.