Foam rolling seriously helps your BBP practice…
… and every other physical thing you do.
I used to be a foam-rolling skeptic. A foam-rolling-benefits denier, if you will. I generally think about what the body needs in terms of how we would have lived in prehistory and I don’t recall any anthropologist digging up ancient foam-rolling artifacts so I dismissed them. Then I found myself 7 months pregnant in 2020 with really bad back pain on one side. The only thing that worked? In tandem with my incredible acupuncturists at Acupuncture Northwest (shout out to Sarah + Steph!), regular foam rolling was a game changer. Rolling out my butt for just two minutes every other day (glute med especially) kept my back pain in check and made me a believer. It’s not a cure, but it’s a sure-fire maintenance strategy for a number of ailments including hip, back, knee, and neck pain.
I mention this because I was talking to one of my sisters a few weeks ago and it dawned on me that if you don’t work in fitness or, you know, hang around fitness studios for fun like I used to, you might know what a foam roller is, but maybe you don’t know what it actually does? So I thought to myself: Self, let’s try to persuade the good people on something really simple that could make a serious impact with very little time, cost, or effort. Let’s break it down, shall we?
First of all, this is the foam roller I have—it’s cheap, it works, and it’s big enough for you to lie on it, which is a plus.
Now, if you have pain and/or tightness in your hips, back, knee(s), and/or neck, there’s a chance that overly tight muscles are referring pain (sending a pain signal elsewhere). Think of it as though the area that hurts is being pulled by an over-active muscle somewhere nearby. If your neck is stiff, it could be that your chest muscles are seizing up and pulling on your neck, for example. Using your foam roller to help open your chest by expanding over it, can help gently lengthen your pecs, which can then assist in alleviating the pressure on your neck. Same goes for overly tight quads pulling on the hips—if you foam roll your quads, sure it’ll hurt like a bitch while you do it, but done regularly it can relieve the tightness in your quads that sends pain to your hip (this same concept applies to rolling out your IT band, upper back, and glutes—especially relevant for BBP!)
Now, if you care about science, there are two common theories for how foam rolling works. Oh, and full disclosure: I am no scientist, nor am I a medical professional. I am a person who studied English lit in college who created a workout and likes to read data. So back to those theories: One suggests it works by creating length based on the principle of autogenic inhibition—really simply put: tension placed on a muscle creates a signal that allows your spindles and muscle fibers to lengthen—and the other theory suggests friction from a foam roller generates heat which allows muscles to be more pliable.
Either way, here are a few of the benefits:
Foam rolling decreases the risk of developing adhesions in your muscles which can happen with any repetitive action OR any *extended period of inactivity* (In other words, if you’ve worked out hard, roll out; if you haven’t worked out hard at all and have been sitting on your ass for hours at time, also roll out.)
Myofascial release from foam rolling can help decrease muscle tension and tightness to *increase* your range of motion. This is what we’re aiming for as one of BBP’s 3 main goals (strength, mobility, and control). We want to strengthen a muscle in the context of mobilizing it. This is important, gang. If you just work the shit out of a muscle thereby making it overly tight, that is not a good thing. You want to strengthen and then work through your range of motion as a form of dynamic stretching. Ever notice how we don’t hold stretches? This is why.
Foam rolling can balance the tension-length ratio of your muscles, which leads again to better mobility, pliability, and length in your muscles.
Some people think it can help the recovery process after a workout by increasing blood flow to inflamed tissue, thus relieving soreness. I don’t know if this is true, but it certainly won’t hurt.
And also: it gives you a moment to pause and feel your body. This sounds small but in a world where we’re thoroughly distracted, this can be incredibly worthwhile, even for a few minutes.
Ok, so… I know it’s hard to spare the time for ourselves, but file foam rolling under things that help you do more of what you love, longer (so we can BBP until we’re 96 years young). 2 to 5 minutes a day makes a difference. If you’re having knee, hip, or back pain, especially in BBP, give it a try and let us know your experience!
-Meegan