For those of you who don't have chronic pain, but instead, may experience tight muscles after a workout or even soreness after a day of unusual activity or strenuous activity, here's an alternative method of treatment.
The foam roller.
Shaped liked a enlarged q-tip, this device is your new best friend in recovery and rehabilitation. The process hurts like a($!@*#$@$#$*#, but beyond the pain, there's a world of flexibility, full range-of-motion, and pliable muscles just waiting for you.
As Nate Green puts it, in his recent blog entry, " Stupid People Write Their Own Programs"
"For instance, I hate foam rolling.
Loathe it, in fact. I'd rather...shit, I don't know...stick bicycle spokes in my eyes than sit on a foam roller.
For those of you uninitiated with the devilish torture that is foam rolling, it's great for improving your soft tissue (muscle) quality, enhancing the way you feel and how your body moves, and for making you cry like a little bitch.
Most of us have collections of "trigger points"—little nodules of balled-up muscle tissue—that negatively affect our bodies. Not only do these little buggers hurt when you press on them, they're also the cause of aches, pains, and nagging injuries. You know the knee pain you get every now and then? Or the lower back pain in the morning? Or the "I'm never going to throw a football again" shoulder pain? Probably a major trigger point or two that's screwing everything up.
So we need to get rid of them, and we do that by foam rolling.
But foam rolling sucks, so I never want to do it."
If you're interested following Eric Cressey's youtube video yourself from the comfort of your own home, you can purchase your very own here.
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