As you walk into a track practice it is not uncommon to see the athletes on the ground rolling out their bodies as if they were kneading dough. You see them going back and forth on a gigantic piece of foam in a rhythm as if they were dancing a song or had a rhythm in their head. Using a foam roller to self-massage the body has become a very common practice in most athletic circles. The foam roller is an effective tool to increase circulation into the muscle tissue while at the same time separating the muscles in a way that allows them to be able to lengthen and shorten without irritating the surrounding tissues. This method of self-massage has developed over time and can be found to help with soft tissue therapy near me.
Back when I was in high school I could tell that I had pain in my legs and out of pure desperation I would grab a rolling pin and just begin to roll my thighs and lower legs as hard as I could to work the soreness out of my body. As fate would have it I was not alone and what I was experiencing. Over the years people have begun to get more creative and how they’re able to self massage their body. Some individuals have used PVC pipe to self-massage but found that it was so painful that they cannot tolerate it. At one point someone had the brilliant idea to use hard foam as a replacement to the PVC pipe and thus the foam roller was born.
Once the foam roller was established designers continued to become more creative with the foam roller. Those who were consistent practitioners of self-massage with a foam roller figured out that the density of the foam roller determined how deep you would be able to get into the muscles of the body. If you were to use a soft foam roller you would not be able to get very deep into the tissue. In the same breath if you had a very sensitive area that you were self-massaging you would want to use a foam roller that had softer foam because you would be able to tolerate it better.
As for those individuals that were more developed muscularly, they needed a foam roller that was harder and denser so they could get deeper into their muscles to have a more productive and effective result when they were using a foam roller. Just changing the density of the foam roller wasn’t enough for some people. Most recently a company called Rollga came out with a foam roller that was not flat but contoured which allows you to self-massage areas of your body in a way that truly gets in between the muscles and provides an even greater benefit when self-massaging. The Rollga is just one of the tools we use here at McBrearty, your soft tissue therapy near me.
If you are looking for soft tissue therapy near me and would like to experience new tools and exercises using a foam roller or Rollga, reach out to us at 330-491-0381 to schedule an appointment.