9 Foam Roller Exercises - Printable PDFAfter publishing my original foam roller post at the beginning of the year I've had a number of my clients ask me if I could put together a printable sheet of foam roller exercises for them.
After doing this separately 4-5 times I thought it would be best to put a sheet of exercises here on the blog, so everyone can benefit.
If you are interested in using the foam roller for your own 'self massage' click here for my first post on how to use the foam roller, there is a useful video on the basics there.
Once you've done that click here and print off a program sheet of exercises.
Finally read this...
3 top mistakes when using the foam roller
1) You're rolling too fast - most people I see roll up and down the foam far to fast. Slow down. As you're rolling you should be 'scanning' your muscles for trigger points, knots and scar tissue. To make it easier if you are rolling a large muscle group like your thigh (quads) then roll them in two halves. The top half, then the bottom half separately. As a rule it's better to roll too slowly then too fast!
2) You're not stopping on the trigger points - When you're rolling you should be 'scanning' for the knots and trigger points. You'll know you're on them as the area will be pretty uncomfortable once you've got pressure on them. Unfortunately these are the areas that need the work, much like if you were having a sports massage the focus will be on the problem areas. The same goes for when you're foam rolling, when you find these areas spend some time going SLOWLY backwards and forwards over them.
3) You're not doing it for long enough - Everyone asks me how long you should foam roll for. This is a 'how long's a piece of string' type question. The time required will differ hugely between individuals. However here is a good rule for effective use of the foam roller: Roll your trigger points long enough for your discomfort (some times pain) levels to drop by 50%. Depending on where you're rolling this may take as little as 30 seconds all the way up to 5 mins. However long it takes your aim is to reduce your discomfort level 50% - Simple!
