Rolling muscles after training is extremely important, but still underrated. Muscle rolling can be done both before and after training. Roller is a device that can replace more than one visit to a physiotherapist. Regular rolling several times a week is enough to reduce muscle pain, speed up regeneration and increase their flexibility. Check how to roll individual muscle groups.

Rolling muscles is quite unpleasant, but definitely worth the effort. The more areas in our body hurt, the more we should focus on rolling them. Unfortunately, this is how it works, but it is worth trying, because the pain we will feel may soon turn into a pleasant feeling of "letting go" and loosening up a tense muscle.

You can roll your muscles both before and after training. When we choose the first option, it will improve the blood supply to the muscle, warm it up and prepare it for exercise. If we decide to roll the muscles after training, we will speed up the regenerative processes of the muscle, loosen too tense places and eliminate the pain caused by overtraining.

Rolling has many great he alth effects, but the benefits you get depend on the equipment you choose, the rolling technique and the season you choose.

Muscle rolling - what is it

Rolling involves massaging the muscles with a specially designed roller. This movement can be compared with rolling out a dough. The same happens when you put your weight on the roller and slide up and down on it. The roller itself can also be likened to a rolling pin, but the roller is much thicker than it, it is made of a special plastic and its surface is often covered with additional protrusions.

Rolling is the best way to fight muscle pain and stiffness. By massaging the muscles, the roller also massages the fascia - thin protective membranes that can stick to the muscles.

This is often the case when our training is repetitive and based on the same movements, e.g. frequent and prolonged cycling or bodybuilding training. Then the flexibility of the muscles decreases, which results in weaker access of blood, oxygen and nutrients to the muscle, and toxic products begin to accumulate in them.metabolism. Thus, trigger points are formed and pain occurs. And that's what rolling is for! It aims to restore the fascia-muscular balance, relieve pain and increase sports performance.

Muscle rolling - what are the effects

Rolling has a lot of he alth benefits, it is worth keeping them in mind and not delay when you notice the first symptoms of "stuck" muscles. The effects of rolling include:

  • detachment of the fascia from the muscles
  • elimination of muscle and joint pains
  • better muscle efficiency
  • better muscle supply
  • skin firming
  • cellulite reduction
  • acceleration of regeneration after exercise
  • reducing the amount of lactic acid in the muscles, less soreness
  • increasing muscle flexibility.
Roller - massage roller

For rolling you need a specialized foam massage roller, also known as a roller. There are many types of rollers on the market, you can find, among others

  • smooth rollers- can be divided into hard and soft. They are intended for beginners and those who focus more on training with a roller and rolling, e.g. on the spine.
  • rollers with protrusions- there are small protrusions on the shell, additionally massaging the empty drains in the body. They will be perfect for people who are tightly pinched and sore. They are recommended only to those with a high pain threshold!
  • long rollers- intended for full body massage. Very universal.
  • short rollers- are suitable primarily for rolling specific places in the body, e.g. calves or forearms.

It is also worth paying attention to the degree of hardness of the roller. There are three types of hardness: soft, medium and hard. Soft rollers are recommended for beginners, hard ones - for people used to rolling.

The soles of the feet are rolled up with tennis or golf balls.

How to roll muscles?

Rolling is not a difficult activity and it often happens that we intuitively know how to move on a roller. However, it is worth familiarizing yourself with the basic technique of rolling before proceeding to it:

  1. Each part of the body should be rolled no more than 3 minutes. This means that we should ride a given muscle about 8 times up and down.
  2. When rolling, remember not to roll the roller over the joints, e.g. knee or hip joints.
  3. Correct rolling should be done slowly moving toconsecutive sectors of the muscle centimeter by centimeter.
  4. If we come across a very painful place, we should stop there for several seconds. If the pain starts to stop, it is a signal that the muscle is letting go, but if this place starts to hurt us much more, we must quickly change the center of gravity. This could mean that this trigger point is a strongly glued fascia to a muscle and we are gluing it together even more. In such cases, the help of a qualified physiotherapist is needed to loosen the trigger points with manual therapy.

Rolling your muscles step by step

  1. Calves.To roll your calves, you should support your hands with your backs. The roller should be positioned exactly on the gastrocnemius muscle and, supporting itself on the hands, move forward and backward. Steer your body left and right so that the roller can also reach the muscles on the sides of the calf.
  2. Quadriceps muscles of the thigh.Lie on the roller so that it is just above your knees. Then move forward on it until it is under the hip spine and return to the starting position.
  3. Muscles of the back of the thigh.Lie on the roller and place it on the hamstring muscle. Using your hands, work your way forward and backward from the popliteal fossa to the beginning of the gluteus maximus muscle.
  4. Gluteal muscles . To massage your gluteal muscles, sit on the roller with your buttocks and push your legs back and forth from the mat. Remember to go left and right from time to time, where the middle and small gluteal muscles are located. Also, don't be afraid to ride the roller a little higher up the iliopsoas muscle.
  5. The iliotibial band . Lie on the side of the roller so that it is on your hip. Make gentle up and down movements. Before you start rolling, position your body so that it is tilted slightly backwards.
  6. Muscles of the inner thigh . Lie on your stomach, bend one leg and place it gently to the side. Place the roller under your bent leg on your thigh. Massage the adductors as you move forward and back on the roller.
  7. Ridge . Lie on your back, bend your legs at the knees, and place the Roller on your back, near your shoulder blades. Move on the roller, but do not ride it over the cervical and spine areas.
  8. Lower back muscles . To massage your lower back, you need to sit on the roller so that it is about the same height as your hips. Then move over it, but remember aboutnot to massage the protruding vertebrae, but only the extensor muscles of the spine.
  9. Plantar fascia . When massaging the feet, pay the most attention to the middle part of the foot. You will need a tennis ball or a golf ball for this. If you have a roller with insets, you can also try massage performed with it.

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