5 Minutes That Keep Your Body Injury Free
By: Josh Proch, CSCS, PN1
I get it, you want to walk in the door, get your workout started, do the fun stuff, and get on with your day. Why do you need to waste five minutes rolling around on the floor with a foam roller?
Well, that five minutes might be the most important five minutes of your workout, because it will help prevent injuries and keep your body healthier, via less stiffness and pulled muscles.
When we foam roll before exercising it releases knots, tight muscles, and adhesions. Along with increasing muscle core temperature, which warms up the muscle and allows us to get better movement in the workout. But, this improved movement doesn’t only last during the workout, overtime it begins to stick around improving how our body feels each day.
Think of foam rolling like this; if you have a shoelace with a knot in it. What happens when you pull it? It gets tighter, right? The same thing happens in your body if you stretch a muscle with out warming it up first. Overtime this can lead to more stiffness. Read that again. Yes, if you only stretch you can actually make your body stiffer.
While five minutes on the foam roller is most beneficial before the workout, another three to five minutes at the end can have some positive benefits as well, by bringing nutrients into the muscle to begin the recovery process by bringing nutrition into the muscle through the blood.
Sure, foam rolling may not be entirely enjoyable, but making it a regular part of your workout pays off big.
Below are two videos explaining how to foam roll in more detail.
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