Everyone Needs A Foam Roller … A What?

We are four weeks into our Biggest Loser Challenge at Sarasota Orthopedic Associates and our staff has been providing helpful fitness information and diet tips. This week we hear from Andrea Gildar in our awesome Physical Therapy department. If you know Andrea, you’ll agree she is full of energy and very fit! Here is her suggestion about a simple, inexpensive fitness tool to make a healthier “you”:

FOAM ROLLING is a great way to self-massage. The rollers work by using pressure against your body to break up adhesions, release rough tissue restrictions, flush out metabolic waste, increase circulation, and speed up workout recovery time. Wow, that’s a lot of benefits for one simple routine.

Foam rollers are approximately six inches in diameter and made of foam or plastic. They can be color coded based on firmness. Using a foam roller is easy:

• Position yourself over the roller and use your body weight to roll back and forth over trouble spots, or, trigger points.
• Gradually increase the pressure and hold on the area for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
• Use the roller for fascial release. Fascial tissue, or connective tissue, surrounds muscles and allows for movement.
• Target trigger points where knots have developed. Trigger points respond to direct pressure.
• Rolling increases the blood flow and may also be followed by gentle stretching.
• When you are foam rolling, it SHOULD hurt, a “good” hurt, but not be painful. Do NOT roll over inflamed areas.
• Foam rolling is good for foot issues, back issues, tight quads, calves, and shoulders.

The great thing about foam rolling is that it can be done in the privacy of your home. That means it can be part of your daily routine as well as a part of your new healthy lifestyle.

The Physical Therapy department at Sarasota Orthopedic Associates has several foam rollers and our staff will be happy to evaluate you and demonstrate these techniques. The commitment of SOA is to get our patients back on their feet, back to work, back in the game and back to life. We have four locations and offer same day appointments when needed. Call us at 941-951-2663 for an appointment with one of our orthopedic physicians or our physical therapists. You may also make an appointment through the home page of our website at www.SOA.md