2 Easy Ways to Get More From Your Foam Rolling

By djpope

January 8, 2017

foam rolling, mobility, physical therapy, range of motion

I like to use foam rolling a lot to help gain new range of motion for my clients.  It’s fast and easy to do.  It’s also a great option for people who have pain with stretching or at their end range of motion (think shoulder impingement or femoral acetabular impingement patients).  In these folks we can gain motion without causing more pain or irritation.  Here are 2 ways we can gain even more effectiveness with this intervention

1: Pre-stretch the target muscle

  • If the objective is to gain more length in a given muscle it makes sense that adding a stretch to the rolling can help

2: Contract the opposing muscle group

  • Contracting the opposing muscle group will force relaxation of the target muscle through a concept called reciprocal inhibition.  Use this technique to gain new range when rolling

Want more strategies to improve your mobility?  Check out my latest assessment and correction digital product:

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They see me rolling, 

Dan Pope DPT, OCS, CSCS, CF L1