Why Foam Rolling After A Workout Is So Important

Today we are talking about a topic most of us are not a fan of! Let’s be honest, getting to the gym for a workout is hard enough, so most of us tend to skip the stretching and foam rolling toward the end of our workout. But today we want to tell you how foam rolling can help you in the long run by improving your workouts.

Foam rolling is a way to help smooth out your fascia, the connective tissue that stretches over and through your muscles. Inactivity, repetitive motion, and injuries can cause the fascia and the underlying muscle tissue to bind together. This causes ‘knots’ or ‘trigger points,’ that lead to tightness. When you roll out, you release these knots, and this helps reduce muscle tightness and improve joint mobility.

So how does foam rolling improve your workouts?  We advise you to foam roll then workout. When muscles are not restricted by tightness, the body has more range of motion and muscles can fire at peak efficiency during exercise –  Range of motion refers to how much you can move around a joint. For example, with a better range of motion in your hips and knees, you’ll be able to get deeper into a squat.  In an ideal world, you should be foam rolling every day. The more you foam roll, the more your muscles respond to it. We recommend dedicating 10 to 20 minutes per session to foam rolling exercises at least once a day  – When you find an area of tension, work around it for about 30 seconds using short, slow rolls and follow this up with longer, slower (and more soothing) strokes over the whole length of the muscle.

Lastly, we found this cool video clip on YouTube that can teach the different ways you can foam roll.  Hope you found this article insightful – we love to hear from our audience – leave us a comment below!