Are you foam rolling too hard?

These no longer need be modern torture devices for the physically active!

I just had an idea come to me as I was working to correct a few dysfunctions of my own. I don’t always have another person or practitioner to perform soft-tissue mobilization on myself and I’m sure you don’t either. When this is the case I turn to items like foam rollers, lacrosse balls, and variations of “The Stick”. In the past, I used to think that if I wasn’t wincing and sweating from the self-inflicted pain then I wasn’t going hard enough. I also used to spread this masochistic premise to my patients and athletes. I used to believe that I was deforming the fascia/collagen/soft tissues or causing ischemic compression to “trigger points” and often left myself and others with bruises!

More recently, I have been finding that less is best sometimes when it comes to soft tissue work. I now use a model based on stimulating the central nervous system. This stimulus to common patterns results in transient reductions in tone and improved mobility. There are several advantages to using the “less is best” approach.

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