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Did you know foam rolling exercises help rehabilitate the muscles after an intense workout? It’s a manual therapy you can do to ease the soreness and improve muscle circulation. However, we need to address some of the common foam rolling mistakes people do. With that said, let’s talk about getting most of the foam rolling benefits and breaking up those scar tissue build up over the years.
3 Biggest Mistakes When Doing Foam Rolling Exercises
Mistake #1. Going Way Too Fast
One of the most common foam-rolling mistakes is going too fast. The first tip is to slow down and ease up. Going fast is basically rolling back and forth on the foam roller.
It doesn’t create enough pressure in a single spot to break a scar tissue. The idea is to slow it down and concentrate on specific parts. Find those trigger points, sit on it, but not for too long.
Mistake #2. Sitting on a Specific Spot for Too Long
You can sit on a specific spot for 30 seconds in a minute but refrain from going beyond that. It’s not a good idea to extend the time and do it for about 5 or 10 minutes.
Doing this will put you at risk of injuring your tissues or nerves. It may even cause more long-term negative effects on the targeted spot. This mistake will just eliminate the reason why you should foam roll.
Mistake #3. Foam-rolling on the Wrong Body Spot
Be careful of which spot exactly you are foam rolling. Let’s take for example foam rolling for knee pain. There are many reasons for having knee pain and one of them is due to the IT band (Iliotibial Band) being extremely tight.
This is the band that runs on the upper leg connecting to the knee. So when you have knee pain due to tightening of the IT band, you would think of foam rolling this part of your body. This is not how it is supposed to be.
The IT band inserts to the glutes so you’d rather hit this part than where the actual IT band runs. Roll out your TFL (Tensor Fasciae Latae) as well.
Rolling out these areas instead of the actual spot where you feel the pain will help loosen up your muscles and relieve the soreness. It’s not always the smartest to roll out the spot that has the most pain.
Watch this video to get a visual of how people are actually making mistakes in foam rolling:
All this is about the proper way to do foam rolling exercises. Always make it a point not to do the exercise too fast. This will only go by the affected muscle without achieving anything at all. The three key points are to go slow, don’t sit too long in the same spot, and hit the spot that’s creating the pain. Taking note of these will help you benefit more from the exercise. This will also improve your flexibility and maximize your workouts minus the pain.
Did these tips help with the effectiveness of your foam rolling exercises? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
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