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The Benefits of a Foam Roller and How to Use It

A foam roller is a super-versatile piece of equipment, which can help you in your fitness endeavors. It can benefit you in a wide range of ways from helping you work out your muscles to sculpting a jaw-dropping set of abs quicker. Put differently, if you don’t own one already, you are missing some significant benefits.
This post will help you realize some of the various benefits of a foam roller as well as how to use one.

1. Massage Your Muscles (Self-Myofascial Release)

Essentially, a foam roller is an affordable way to treat your body to a deep tissue massage. A foam roller can help you break up scar tissue and adhesions by slowly rolling various areas of your body over it, which will help speed up your healing and recovery process.

Additionally, you can use it for loosening up common areas of tightness like your upper back, quadriceps, and outer thigh. To do this, you need to position yourself correctly on the top of the foam roller and utilize your body weight to roll slowly to and fro over it – do it the way you would roll dough with a rolling pin. Allow your body weight to relax over the roll as much as you can by avoiding using your arms for support.

2. Pick Up Your Plank or Pushup

When you execute exercises on an unstable surface, you will be able to engage more core muscles as well as make total body exercises like planks or pushups more challenging.
Place both of your hands, (or even one), on the top of your foam roller when doing a full pushup or plank. During either of the exercises, you can slide your foam roller under your toes. This way, you will force your body to work more arduous to stabilize, thereby reaching most of your core muscles.
To make it a bit easier and executable, you can start exercising with a half foam roller, which has a flat bottom before your body is ready for a full foam roller.

3. Strengthen Your Core

Use a foam roller to take your abs workout to the next stage. A foam roller forces your core to work harder with the aim of balancing your body on the unstable roller surface.
For a strong core, try this marching crunch exercise: Lie on the foam roller, (ensure it is in line with the length of your spine), feet flat on the floor and with your knees bent. With your elbows out, clasp your hands on the back of your head. Ensure your shoulder and head are lifted up off the roller and try to lift your right foot slowly, slightly off the ground. Step your leg back down and switch to your left leg. Continue to march your feet, and alternate your legs each time for ten reps.

4. Extend Your Stretch

The gentleness and softness of the foam roller make it a full prop for stretching. You can significantly increase the range of motion through a hamstring stretch. Prop your foot, (alternate between your left and right foot), up on the foam roller. You can as well do the same thing but with your arms to deepen the stretch for your lats.
You can also make use of the foam roller for extra support in poses such as the hip flexor stretch.

If you are occupied most of the time and you have limited time for a foam roller workout at the gym, you can buy one and utilize it at the comfort of your home. For better results, ensure your workouts are consistent. Have a plan and follow it.