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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Tags: flow, foam rolling, get stronger, how to build muscle, improve flexibility, improve mobility, injury prevention, injury rehab, SMR, soft-tissue

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 10:19 pm and is filed under accelerated muscular development, grip strength competition contest, how to bench press, how to build muscle, how to improve fitness and conditioning, strength training muscle building workouts, strength training powerlifting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.