How to foam roll 

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Although that's a funny statement to make as “how can someone foam roll wrong” i have never seen anybody foam roll correctly in the gym. The problem is in the name foam “rolling”. Yes, I know its a roller.

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It should actually be called “foam holding” on a roller as this is why the tool was developed in the first place. When we foam roll the way most people do. I.e vigorously roll the muscles out as if we are rolling out the badness. We can stimulate blood flow and warm up tissue however when we find a tender spot people think of grinding out the tissue and most people speak of rolling out knots. The problem is this is not how the body works and we cannot roll out knots. Instead think about why you're rolling.

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So why do we foam roll?

Pain and recovery. Which means we could have two different kinds of rolling.

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Rolling for pain

If we have a trigger point that is actively causing pain we can use a foam roller to aid in the deactivation of the trigger point. If you don't know what a trigger point is, I have a blog post tagged below which explains which you should read first . https://www.mikeynichollsnmt.ie/post/myofascial-trigger-points-what-are-they-and-how-do-they-form

The person should roll out the muscles as normal 10-12 times to increase the blood flow and “warm up” the tissue. Then the tender point should be found. Once the tender point is found instead of vigorously rubbing and rolling it, The person should instead gently sink onto the roller and apply more pressure for 20-30 seconds. This should be repeated 4-5 times and if a second tender point is located the same can be done. This is a good idea if we have ongoing pain and tightness in the muscle and can be repeated a few times. This should also be done in conjunction with advice from an NMT, physical therapist or physiotherapist.

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Rolling for recovery 

If we are rolling for injury prevention,people think of flushing the body. My only problem is that most people will forget about the fact that the body is a tensegrity structure and will only roll out calves and hamstrings. In reality one should think about going up the front and down the back 10/20 rolls each muscle group and if a tender spot is found using the framework above to treat it. After going up the front and down the back, then move to the sides, peroneal and TFL and inside to the groin. Again using that framework above to treat any trigger points. 

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Two small changes in approaches can make foam rolling one of the best tools available. But blindly rolling a tight hamstring while 1. Ignoring the rest of the body and 2. just rolling without compression will yield poor results.

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Why is compression important ?

We utilise something called ischaemic compression when adding compression in which we will essentially starve the area of oxygen which once released will be flooded with fresh blood flow, done on repeat acting like a hydraulic system to pump fresh nutrients into the tissue. Also we increase the hyaluronan content of the tissue with constant compression which will aid in the softening of dense tissue and aid in the hydration of this tissue for slide and glide. Although foam rolling is rolled out “excuse the pun” as a myofascial release tool, Every single thing we do to aid our myofascial system will be deemed the same. However the goal is not to release tissue , it is to stimulate and soften. If tissue needs to be released then a different approach is needed and again a Physio, NMT or physical therapist should be contacted. 

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If I have an injury, should I roll it ?

If you suspect any acute tear to a muscle or other injury you should get this assessed first by a therapist. I would advise against going into damaged tissue untrained. If you damage tissue and a week passes by and it feels better you could assess the tenderness of the area with a roller again not pushing into tissue which is extremely tender.

What kind of roller is best ?

If the roller is full of spikes and is hard then it is too hard. Use softer options as the compressive force is what you need not to aggravate each point of your leg and cause further damage. Smaller circumference options are great but are harder to access certain parts of the body. For a good all rounder soemething like the below would be great.