Mornings, pre-workout, post-workout, or it doesnn’t matter?
Also, how often should you foam roll for general injury prevention purposes?
Whenever it’s convenient for me.
For preventative purposes? As often as you need.
^^^Now THAT’S concise answer-giving.
Night before an off day. In the past foam rolling has over loosened muscles up for me and caused injury while training a muscle I foam rolled the night prior.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
Night before an off day. In the past foam rolling has over loosened muscles up for me and caused injury while training a muscle I foam rolled the night prior.[/quote]
That’s interesting. Any other views on this?
Before lifting if I remember.
[quote]hYperTrOphY_07 wrote:
[quote]therajraj wrote:
Night before an off day. In the past foam rolling has over loosened muscles up for me and caused injury while training a muscle I foam rolled the night prior.[/quote]
That’s interesting. Any other views on this?[/quote]
I find that interesting as well. I foam rolled my hips before squats today (something I rarely do) and ended up having a really shitty session, even though my energy levels were very high. SOmething just didn’t feel right.
I always roll out before every session as part of my warmup for maybe 5-10min, then on my off days ill roll out for 30-1hr. I’ve never had any problems rolling before training, sometimes in the middle of a set of squats i’ll roll if i’m feeling tight.
Anyone else have any insights?
Only roll when I feel like I need it. If i’m feeling tight before a session, I’ll do it then. If i’m halfway through and think i need it then i do it then. If something has been bothering me I might roll that out before bed. It might be beneficial to be more consistent with it but, I get impatient with foam rolling.
Rather than creating another thread, I’ll ask another question here.
When I roll my quads, I often feel slight pain in my knee at the same time I am experiencing the greatest amount of pain in the quads. Is this normal?
I know that when I had a deep tissue massage of my pec a long time ago, I experienced a sort of shooting pain down my arm which I was told was normal, so this may be the same sort of thing. Any ideas?
[quote]hYperTrOphY_07 wrote:
Rather than creating another thread, I’ll ask another question here.
When I roll my quads, I often feel slight pain in my knee at the same time I am experiencing the greatest amount of pain in the quads. Is this normal?
I know that when I had a deep tissue massage of my pec a long time ago, I experienced a sort of shooting pain down my arm which I was told was normal, so this may be the same sort of thing. Any ideas?[/quote]
I foam roll every morning. I always hit my quads, hams, calves (basically all parts of my leg), back, hips and glutes and use a tennis ball for the bottom of my feet. I do this and about a dozen different mobility and activation exercises. Doing this routine is definitely the best decision I have made related to lifting, or my well being for that matter. It has helped my posture and alleviated or in some cases totally gotten rid of the severe pain I had in my back and hips prior to doing this (they used to hurt everyday). I rarely foam roll my chest or lats (although I probably should) and doing those specific parts hurts a lot. I use a high density roller and the parts I roll everyday barely give me any discomfort at all while rolling.
How long have you been foam rolling? Maybe your body just isn’t used to it yet and it’s got a shit load of knots or tight areas. I would say it should be uncomfortable and hurt somewhat (like a deep tissue massage as you mentioned) but I don’t think there should be any ‘shooting’ pain, especially in your knee.
Keep in mind I am no expert. I’m just talking from experience.
I roll before weight training, as the first part of my warmup. I’ll also roll any time I feel especially sore. I’d say rolling cuts DOMS time in half, the next day after a hard squat workout. So I think it’s great for warmups, and for recuperation.
I’m an old fart, and the roller has been extremely helpful in getting me able to squat again with reasonable form, and to also stay relatively injury free. I recently went out of town, and trained for a week without foam rolling before lifting. Man, I was tight all over, by the end of the week… I realized how helpful rolling was for me.
I do it every morning. Its easy when its part of a routine.
i foam roll at never o’clock
When my back is sore. I should do it everyday though.
I’m going to start adding it in to my morning routine
Before and after leg training
Before any other training day
non training days when I can fit it in.
This has drastically improved my knees. I’m fairly confident that I have patellar femoral tracking syndrome (tight IT band pulling the kneecap out of alignment) and the foam roller is my best friend.
EVERYDAY after lifting/plyos… Its amazing what prevenative measures will do for your training but also your physique…
sometimes you dont want to have loose, relaxed muscles. like when unracking for a squat
[quote]eremesu wrote:
sometimes you dont want to have loose, relaxed muscles. like when unracking for a squat[/quote]
Although I’d still like to hear others’ opinion on the matter, this is the view I am now taking.
A few weeks ago I had to take a week off after straining my back on my last set of squats. It may have been a coincidence, but it was the first injury of this type I’ve ever suffered and was after foam rolling my back before lifting.
Now I foam roll on off days, after training, or parts of the body not being trained that day.