The foam roller is one of those sports accessories that, if you like it, you are on your way to love it. The benefits of foam rolling are plentiful – a regular routine not only provides immediate release of tension and pain after a strenuous workout, it can also improve mobility, flexibility, and improve overall fitness.
And when you figure out the proper foam roller technique and the right pressure level for your muscles, it feels amazing. If you find this accessory uncomfortable, lighten the intensity, focus on your breathing, and continue your practice.
Benefits of using Foam Roller every day
Your sports performance will increase
Foam rolling, a form of self – myofascial release , can have a positive effect on your range of motion, as well as speed, agility and strength, but that's not where your performance advantages end.
The Foam Roller helps lay the foundation for optimal athletic performance – for a muscle to function (for example, contract, contract, or stretch) the best it can, it needs a healthy environment. If it surrounded by fibrous scar tissue, which may accumulate as a result of injury or overuse simply will not function to the maximum. Fortunately, the foam roller can help break up scar tissue to make things work better.
In fact, in a small study from July 2014 in the International Journal of Exercise Sciences, researchers compared the performance benefits of doing a dynamic warm-up versus a dynamic warm-up in conjunction with a foam roller. They found that working with this accessory improves power, agility, strength and speed l better to make a single dynamic warm.
The foam roller works as a "preparatory tool" that can help ensure that you do not develop muscle imbalances. That's important since most of us use our bodies in somewhat asymmetrical ways.
Maintaining and taking care of those muscle functions is key to an active and healthy life. And you can see the benefits of the foam roller whether you do it for five minutes once a day or for five minutes four times a day.
Your flexibility will improve
Using the foam roller every day can improve muscle flexibility in people with even the most tense, stiff, and knotted muscles. Helps reduce muscle tension, keeping muscles more flexible.
The science backs this up: In a November 2015 systematic review published in The International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy, researchers found that foam rolling significantly improves people's scores on the sitting and stretching flexibility test. The researchers explain that this is because rolling stimulates blood flow to the body's muscles while breaking up tight scar tissue , encouraging a greater range of motion in the process.
For best effects, it is better to use the foam roller before exercise (to promote blood flow to specific muscle groups) and then a combination of stretching and foam roller during recovery sessions. But integrating the practice into your regular routine is a must if you hope to see results.
If you only do it once in a while, that immediate benefit wears off quickly. Sometimes a more repetitive or predictable routine may be necessary to reap the cumulative benefit. Some people come to see the foam roller as an absolute requirement for optimal physical performance.
Your muscles can recover faster
Foam Roller can be compared to self- massage in that it can speed up the body's recovery after vigorous activity. By applying pressure and friction to muscles that were involved in strenuous exercise, the foam roller breaks through knots and reduces stiffness.
A small study from January 2015 in the Journal of Athletic Training found that foam rolling helps reduce late-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), soreness, tension, and loss of muscle strength that can occur in the days after to a particularly difficult workout.
Again, the foam roller promotes blood flow, which helps the body process the chemical byproducts of exercise. When these by-products build up within the muscle, they can create a caustic environment, which can manifest as pain.
Metabolic byproducts aren't the only ones that contribute to DOMS (inflammation and connective tissue damage are also included), but this is why those who use the Foam Roller will likely experience less DOMS than those who don't.
All of this means that you'll feel less drained and sore after your workout, as long as you include it every day or as a cool down routine.
Your stress levels may decrease
Aside from the athletic benefits of using the foam roller on a regular basis, it also has general lifestyle benefits. Everyone is at war with their bodies every day, whether it's from hunched over a desk for hours or doing repetitive manual jobs. And this also encompasses the ways in which emotional stress and confusion manifest in the body.
Many people tend to maintain tension in the neck, shoulders, and upper back, which can aggravate an already poor posture. This mind-body connection is extremely powerful, and it is important to have something in your wellness routine that mitigates this stress and the discomfort that comes with it.
Foam roller, given its cumulative effect on stiffness, pain, and mobility problems, is an excellent option to alleviate those unpleasant sensations . Beyond that, direct pressure has been shown to stimulate the release of positive brain chemicals like dopamine , serotonin, and endorphins . These chemicals, in combination with slow, deep breathing during myofascial self-release, can activate the parasympathetic nervous system. As a result, the heart rate slows, hormones calm down, and the body's stress levels are relieved.
