Mighty Joe Musselwhite

Several weeks ago my good friend and Grip Enthusiast Jedd Johnson wrote an article asking the question, “Are Foam Rollers Crap?”

After reading the article I e-mailed Jedd and offered an explanation behind the science of foam rolling if he was interested and he said he’d love to have a short article on some of the science behind this new wave of supplementing one’s training.

I said I’d give it my best shot, so here we go!

First, Foam Rolling falls into the category of SMR which stands for Self-Myofascial Release. You may or may not have ever heard of autogenic inhibition but this is the underlying principle at work here with foam rolling.

Deep inside every muscle and tendon is the Golgi Tendon Organ, (GTO). These are tiny receptors called mechanoreceptors. These receptors tell the central nervous system,(CNS) the amount of tension (length) inside a muscle/tendon group. If enough tension is generated in said muscle/tendon group, the GTO will cause the muscle spindles to relax thus preventing further damage or injury. This reflex is called autogenic inhibition. With foam rolling you stimulate this muscle tension causing the GTO to relax the muscle, thus giving the relief.

To answer Jedd’s question, “Are Foam Rollers Crap?”

It depends.

If you consistently employ their use, NO! They are not crap.

Foam Rolling, like massage offers temporary relief and have to be consistently used to offer the benefits. There’s no permanent change to the muscle/tendon group when foam rolling as opposed to resistance training where there’s actually a physical change in the muscle fibers. Foam Rolling or SMR has more to do with improving tissue quality than anything else.

If you’re thinking foam rolling is an overnight fix for your aches and pains then it’s not for you and I guess
you could label them “crap.” As with any training aid or device its intended use always has to be kept in its proper context.

Here is a video demonstrating some excellent ways to apply SMR for Grip Strength Competitors, Arm Wrestlers, and even those who perform a great deal of manual labor…

In closing, always ask questions when exploring new ideas in your training. What others say is an important starting point in your investigation but nothing can substitute self-experimentation.

Ask the right questions. Perform some tests and draw your own conclusions. This is my approach to most every new avenue I choose to explore.

I hope this article helps explain away at least a small portion of weather or not foam rolling is for you.

A Big Thank You to Jedd Johnson for allowing me to write an article for the Diesel Crew! What a privilege it has been!

Joe Musselwhite (Mighty Joe)

Check out Joe’s YouTube Channel = > Grip Freak

• Foam Rolling 101 With Advanced Techniques
• Strength and Conditioning Discussion – Are Foam Rollers Crap?
• Essential Hip Mobility – How to Warm-up Correctly
• Essential Hip Mobility – How to Warm-up Correctly
• Thumb Update – Powerball Training

Hello Diesels.

As I have posted before, I am a huge baseball (and especially New York Yankees) fan. I watch them every chance I get. I stay up to date on the Yankees’ rumor mill, trades, signings…all of it in-season and out.

However, putting all that drama aside, I also like to study what they do for strength and conditioning, and what other industry leaders are saying about strength and conditioning for baseball. I have a handful of baseball players that come to train every so often, and I like applying the stuff I learn to the training I do with them, plus I try to apply it to my own training. Although I will probably never play baseball again, I do indeed suit up for Slow Pitch softball during the summer and enjoy playing to the best of my ability because it is fun as hell and it is a good break from the “hardcore” training I am normally doing in the gym.

This season, to my enjoyment, it seems the Yankees have actually put a lot more information out there as far as what their players are doing.

For instance, in a recent episode of Yankees Magazine, they showed a Strength and Conditioning session between first basemen, Mark Texeira and strength coach, Dana Cavalea.

For the most part, it talked about how they have incorporated the use of the foam roller into Mark’s training (I am not sure if all the players use them). Cavalea spoke about the foam roller’s ability to improve tissue quality while Texeira spoke about how he would utilize foam rollers as a part of a warm-up prior to strength training.

Improving Tissue Quality

The idea is that by rolling over the foam roller, the pressure will do a couple of things. First off, the localized pressure will “break up” adhesions and improve the quality of the muscle tissue and allow it to perform better. Going further, these adhesions, similar to scar tissue within the muscle, can reduce flexibility and mobility, so by eliminating these flaws in the tissue, you should be able to perform better in lifting and sports.

Here’s a little bit about foam rollers in my experience.

Smitty made me a ghetto foam roller in like 1999. From then until 2008, I used it solely to crack my back every once in a while. It worked great for that purpose, but I had no idea what else I was supposed to with it until like 2007 or 2008 (can’t quite remember which).

In 2007 or 2008, whenever I trained with Smitty and the other guys in the Diesel Squad, I would roll on the foam roller they had. In 2008, they eventually upgraded to a new foam roller which was black and scary looking and they let me take the white foam roller to my place to train with. That was right around when I built my home gym here in the garage. Every so often, I would roll on it prior to a workout, but mainly I only used it to adjust my back prior to workouts.

In 2009, I started to come to the conclusion that my neglect for my joints and my flexibility was holding me back in my strength training. I had gotten so tight in the hamstrings that I think I may have torn one playing softball that year. A lot of this was compounded by the fact that I have worked at a desk since 2001. My thighs and hips have been locked up for several years and this has gradually worked up my back into my thoracic region as well. Around this time is when I started to use foam rollers more frequently.

I started using foam rollers of some sort in almost every workout session in 2009. I started out still using the old beaten up white foam roller. However, that thing was well beyond its time and it literally was now shaped like a flattened U. This was a softer grade foam roller that got used heavily for years by mostly lighter dudes and then I put it through the ringer with my 260-lb ass, so by this time it was just plain wasted.

That was when I abandoned the foam roller made of foam and went with a cardboard core from my old place of work. It was a similar length as a form roller or maybe longer (I have since cut in half so I have one upstairs and one downstairs), but it is smaller in diameter and of course much much harder.

So, because the cardboard pipe is a bit smaller in diameter, it could focus into the dense adhesions more directly and let me tell you – the sensation I would get was nearly a 10 on the 1-to-10 pain scale. Some of this dramatic sensation I wasn’t even feeling on the foam roller. The white foam roller had essentially become useless in my opinion – I could barely crack my back with it because it was beaten up so badly. Jumping onto the hard pipe was a WAKE-UP CALL as to my tissue quality.

To this day, I still use the cardboard core roller every single workout. I start with my thoracic spine, then move on to the lats and then the lumbar area. From there, I move to the hips, working around the head of the femur, the glutes, piriformis, IT band, hamstrings, quads, etc.

I must say that when I go down to the gym, I sometimes feel like ABSOLUTE TRASH, especially in my hips and my back.

After I get off the cardboard core, the feeling in my hips improves DRAMATICALLY.

However, here is my issue…

I see very little proof that my flexibility, mobility, range of motion has improved “chronically.” In other words, while I feel like 900,000 bucks (not quite a million bucks) after hitting the roller and prior to my workout, the next day, I feel locked up just like any other time. So I am not entirely sold on the idea that the foam roller will change your life.

Yes, my injuries have been reduced DRAMATICALLY since employing them religiously – YES SIR. But as far as how I feel throughout the day, there has been very little change.

Now onto the other side of the foam roller equation…

Foam Roller as a Warm-up

I think the foam roller has been a great addition to my workout as a part of my warm-up. Part of being strong is feeling good, and I must say that I feel much better after foam rolling and perform better in my workouts after I hit the foam/pipe roller. I even do this if I am just hitting an extra session of Grip Training – it makes me feel that damn good.

I think there are a couple reasons why the cardboard roller works for me as a warm-up device…

First off, you have the tissue lengthening and circulation promotion properties of the foam roller. Seeing how I am pretty much sitting on my ass all day, getting down on the foam roller and moving around a bit is a welcome feeling. I can feel the blood moving into the areas and I start to feel less like Frankenstein or the Tin Man once I do it.

Secondly, many of the positions that I get into with the roller are similar to the Plank. The Plank is a great movement for warming up and strengthening the core. I think we all know this and have used it from time to time. I’ve noticed that as I roll on the roller, if I make sure to keep my feet off the floor and support myself ONLY with my hands or on my elbows, my core gets a light stimulation, much like in a Plank position.

Incidentally, my warm-up does not include ONLY foam rolling. I also do quite a bit more general warm-up moving patterns prior to each training session using a mixture of Scott Sonnon-influenced Flow and stuff from Smitty’s Amped Warm-up Protocols. But even if I don’t do that stuff, I feel much more mobile and better prepared for the workout once I roll for 5 to 7 minutes.

So, the point I am trying to make here is simply that I have seen lots of short-term benefit from using rollers, especially the cardboard one.

Foam rolling is somewhat of a controversial topic. Some people swear on them uphill and down. Unfortunately, some of these people also throw around fitness buzz words like “Core” left and right, and sometimes when you hear fitness professionals like that talk about something and they are buzz word-aholics, you can shut them out of your mind right away.

Foam rollers also seem to be completely abhorred by the Gym Movement community. For instance, I have read Mike T. Nelson shoot these things down on multiple occasions. He even submitted an article to our site several years ago called “Get Off the Foam Roller.” One thing he pointed to in that article was that they caused pain, and so he did not believe in their use (there were other reasons given, that is just one of them…)

So I guess I am stuck in the middle between the dude that absolutely loves these things and thinks they can cure everything from flexibility/mobility issues, to cancer, and the dude that hates them because they cause pain and anything that causes pain is bad.

As far as the longer lasting benefits of foam rolling, I can’t say I have seen that many. But maybe I am doing it wrong?

What I am asking is this. If YOU have tried foam rolling and given it an honest try, post here and tell me what you think. What benefits have you found? What limitations have you seen? How often do you use foam rollers?

Just leave a comment below. I appreciate you sharing your experience. Thanks ahead of time!

All the best in your training, Diesels!

Jedd

P.S. I just got word from Eric Cressey that he is taking $50 off his Show and Go Training System because he is celebrating his tenth anniversary of turning 21! Cressey is a strength training genius, so you should really consider this deal. This program is usually $127 and for a short time it is just $77 = > “>Cressey’s Show and Go Training

As a BONUS, I will offer up a 30-minute phone consultation to anyone who picks this up through
my link above. I believe in Cressey’s stuff so much, I really want you to benefit as well. Just forward me your receipt and we will schedule it!

• Foam Rolling 101 With Advanced Techniques
• Foam Rolling for Grip Athletes, Strongmen and Arm Wrestlers
• 3 Insanely Effective, FAST Upper Body Warm-ups – Repost
• 3 Insanely Effective, FAST Upper Body Warm-ups
• Strength Training – Rest, Recover and Get Stronger

Foam rolling is an essential part of any good muscle building / strength training program.  It must be done before, during or after your workout.  In fact, it should be done on your off days too to help get ready for the next workout or sporting event.

When it is time to get real, it is time to get real.

Nothing is more real than foam rolling.

I’m not talking about the white fluffy foam rollers, I’m talking about the black foam rollers or even a PVC pipe son.  The real stuff.  Just the right tools to get a brother’s soft-tissue right while bring a tear to your eye.

Nothing is tougher than fighting a dragon-man-beast with a wooden spear in full armor.

Foam Rolling 101

Foam rolling is an essential piece of every workout AND every off day when you don’t go to the gym.  You should be doing it everyday.

Why is Foam Rolling Important?

Excerpted from the ACS Manual (just one part of the AMD system)

• Improve ROM (and subsequently execution of movement patterns) of a joint by lengthening and flattening scar tissue, removing adhesions (remodeling fascia), reducing tension / tightness and neurological inefficiencies
• Use in conjunction with your static, dynamic, ballistic and PNF stretching protocols to improve muscle length, flexibility and mobility
• Improved recovery and diminishing the effect of DOMS
• Should be utilized along with other restorative soft-tissue therapies usually grouped as self-myofascial release (SMR): trigger point therapy (golf balls, tennis balls), trigger point therapy, active release technique (ART), the Stick

How Foam Rolling is Changing?

Recently I’ve been incorporating more flowing movements not only to our workout, but our pre-workout routine for not only my athletes, but for myself as well.  And it is paying off big time.  I can now full squat (after battling a knee injury from high school and a subsequent botched surgery for 20 years), jump, lunge and many other movements.

What we are doing is, in addition to our conventional foam rolling, using a small, dense medicine ball to roll on.

It is denser and has a more focused application to the massage (exactly like tennis ball and lacrosse ball applications).  But that is not the coolest thing!

Linear movements on a conventional foam roller now become flowing movements across your cross the body and multiple muscle groups and kinetic segments.  If we attack tension and inefficiencies at multiple angles across each joint.

This is very important because we don’t not absorb impact, decelerate or even accelerate linearly.  Our bodies act in 3D and we move treat them and improve the function of them in 3D.

Remember, slay the dragon don’t play with Barbies.

Smitty

Advanced Foam Rolling

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