My New Best Friend

As you might imagine going to boot camp three times a week, and the gym twice a week for cardio has led to some major muscle soreness. Enter my new best friend the foam roller.
The foam roller not only stretches muscles and tendons but it also majorly reduces soreness.  Did you know that just below your skin you have soft connective tissue that wraps and connect your muscles, bones, nerves and blood vessels that’s called the superficial fascia. Together, muscle and fascia make up what is called the myofascia system. For various reasons including disuse, not enough stretching, or injuries, the fascia and the underlying muscle tissue can become stuck together. This is called an adhesion and it results in restricted muscle movement causing pain, soreness and reduced flexibility.



The foam roller uses your own body weight to perform self-massage or myofascial release, break up trigger points, and soothe tight fascia while increasing blood flow and circulation to the soft tissues. My favorite exercise on the foam roller is to work on my glutes. I start by sitting on the roller with the soft, meaty part of my buttock directly on top of the roller. Begin slowly rolling back and forth and then target each side of my glutes I alternate putting each leg on my knee and continue to roll slowly.  It’s that kind of hurt that feels SO good, it’s almost as good as a massage, and after just a couple of minutes it really release any tight spots that I might have. I bought mine at sport authority and it was around $20.00, then I found another one on amazon for $12.50 with free shipping they are well worth the money.