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If you have been ever been to a sporting goods store, gym or massage therapist in the last 20 odd years you may have come across a foam roller. These tools of the trade have only become popular massage tools in recent years. While invented in the 1980’s it wasn’t until the 90’s Era when Mike Clark (Leading Physio Therapist among sports stars) helped to spread the word on these hidden treasures.  So relatively new in the world of massage, if you feel confused about how to use foam rollers and want to know the health benefits of a foam roller, you wouldn’t be alone.

While becoming popular in the mainstream media, foam rollers are still a mystery to many fitness enthusiasts and instructors. Foam rolling is a particular kind of self-myofascial release technique that’s used by athletes and physical therapists to maximize muscle recovery. Primarily made of a roll of foam, a foam roller is cheaper and convenient to undergo as compared to deep tissue massage.

If you still don’t find a reason why you must include foam rolling into your daily workout routine, read through this piece for insight on the health benefits of foam rolling.

The Health Benefits Of Foam Rolling Explained

• Foam Rollers come in a variety of sizes and shapes. They are used to prevent knots, soreness and tightness through a process known as Myofascial Release. The Myofascia is a connective tissue that covers the muscles to help keep the muscles in place.
• Acts as injury preventative tool as well as a tension release tool. When the muscles are tense, they are prone to be damaged easier.
• Recovery tool for after a workout. After a workout the body needs to recover. Blood needs to send nutrients throughout the body, but struggles to do so after a workout. By using a foam roller you are making the blood flow much easier.

Loosens Up The Body Muscles

Missing any stretching activity including foam rolling before you work out will most likely lead to tight and inhibited muscles. This can prevent you from being able to conduct your workouts efficiently and reach your target muscles.

Foam rolling makes for an excellent way to relax your body muscles before a workout, thus ensuring an effective and efficient workout. In fact, research conducted on the importance of foam rolling revealed that athletes who foam rolled before performing their routine exercises felt less fatigued than those who did not foam roll. Many body builders use foam rollers these days for this purpose.

Foam Rolling Relieves Back Pain

Moving away from Gym, working out, yoga etc and the foam roller also acts as a pain relief device for back pain sufferers. As the back is a tricky area to reach yourself, having a tool like the foam roller is what I consider an essential if you have back problems related to muscles and discomfort.

But when dealing with the back, not just any tool will do. As its a sensitive area where many of us have problems, its recommended you use foam rollers for back pain that are of high quality. As a beginner, you should always start with a less dense roller as the pain can be unbearable from more dense rollers.

Prevents Injury and Speeds Up Recovery

If you still think that the foam roller isn’t for everyone else, then you’re probably missing out on one of the essential tools at your disposal for injury prevention, recovery, and physique-building. Treating an injury is much easier when you can avoid it in the first place.

The feeling of loosening fatigued and tight muscles through foam rolling is synonymous to deep tissue massage since your body weight is pressed against the foam roller ensuring that enough pressure is enacted on the muscles. This kind of massage aids in preventing injuries that occur during exercise and is much cheaper compared to the cost of repairing a torn muscle. Plus its much less pain!.

A Foam Roller Health Benefit For The Entire Body

Better Blood Circulation

Since the blood is responsible for carrying oxygen throughout the body, good flow is important for general well-being and health. Among many other reasons, a decrease in blood circulation can result in a whole lot of problems not forgetting impaired cognitive ability, weak immune system and numbness in the limbs. Myofascial release can aid in improving blood circulation by loosening up the tight muscle areas where the flow of blood could be restricted. With the way a foam roller works, you benefit from increased blood circulation distributing oxygen and nutrients to your entire body.

Improves Mobility and Flexibility

So you can dead lift 200 pounds of steel, bench press a car but can hardly bend down to touch your toes for 30 seconds or hug your knees to your chest? Well, with lots of information concerning stretching, pre-workout and post-workout, static and dynamic, it is not easy to know the best way to relieve muscle tension.

However, there is one simple technique that will aid in keeping your body muscles sliding and gliding with much ease, foam rolling. Using the foam roller to take care of your underlying fascia is the new secret arsenal to improving flexibility, mobility, and range of body motion. Use daily for short periods and after a few weeks, go back and comare how mobile or flexible you can be.

Foam Rolling Reduces Soreness

After You Deal With The Initial Impact Pain

Whether you’re an experienced workout lad or weekend warrior, you have probably experienced the much dreaded delayed onset muscle soreness. Though it is not a substitute for warming up, cooling down or stretching, foam rolling goes a long way in limiting soreness by increasing body flexibility and blood flow. Think of it as an extra level of preparation and

Foam rolling is a tool you must have in your workout arsenal if you want to feel better and prevent injury. It is cheap, easy to use and is beneficial to athletes and normal folks as well.

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