5 April

Foam roller for sore and tight muscles

by NuShapePT

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foam roller I’ve been asked several times by my students “what is the best thing for sore muscles?” Not that my classes are hard:) But it happens. We sometimes use muscles that perhaps we haven’t used in years and the consequences for the next few days is sore muscles. But relax, the soreness will go away as the muscles get stronger.

In the meantime, you can use a foam roller to relief some of that soreness. Further down in this post, I’ll describe what is a foam roller, where to get one, how much they cost and even how to make one.

A foam roller is a firm foam tube, which you roll against your body’s muscles (legs, arms and back) with your body weight to generate direct pressure.

A foam roller is great for sore and tight muscles. It’s almost like a deep tissue massage. Below are some things you can do with the foam roller:

stretch out tight muscles
increase blood circulation to your legs
relief soreness to the muscles
warm up the muscles

A foam roller is also a great piece of equipment for those of you who are runners and have a tight IT band (iliotibial band).

You can buy a foam roller at your local sporting goods store or other stores like Target. You can also buy it online at Amazon.com

A foam roller costs anywhere from $15 to $35. If you don’t want to spend that much money on a foam tube, you can make your own at home and spend less than $6. My husband made his from a PVC pipe that he bought at Home Depot for about $5 and padded with an old yoga mat that he didn’t use any more, using duct tape. It worked for him. I included a video ( located further down in this post) from Youtube showing you how to make a foam roller.

Now comes the fun part, how to use a foam roller. Below are some great videos I found on Youtube explaining how to use a foam roller to alleviate soreness and tight muscles. Hope you find them helpful.