Foam rollers are inexpensive, and you'll commonly see people in gyms using them. They're commonly used in physical therapy as well. The secret behind foam rolling is its ability to eliminate muscle tightness and the soreness that accompanies it. Foam rolling can help you recover faster after your workouts, and it can help you prevent future injuries as well — if you change the way that you walk in order to spare yourself from post-workout soreness, this change in gait can lead to imbalanced stress on your joints and connective tissue, which can lead to injury.

Whether you're an athlete or just need to relax your muscles after sitting all day at work, foam rolling is an inexpensive and safe way to accomplish it. Read on to find out how foam rolling works and how you can do it.

How Does Foam Rolling Work?

Foam rolling is a form of self-myofascial release. All of the organs in your body are surrounded by fascia, which holds everything in place and stops your organs from moving too much. This includes your muscles as well. Unfortunately, the collagen fibers that fascia's made of can sometimes become tangled together. This is known as adhesion.

An adhesion results in the familiar feeling of having a knot in your muscle. It's not the muscle fibers themselves that are entangled, but rather the fascia that surrounds them. However, the tangled fascia will lock the underlying muscle fibers in place.

When you use a foam roller on your muscles, you smooth out the tangled fascia and remove adhesions. Removing the adhesions from your muscles helps to extend range of motion and decrease muscle pain. As an added bonus, using a foam roller also helps to improve blood flow to muscles, which boosts your ability to recover after a workout.

How Do You Use a Foam Roller?

In most cases, you use a foam roller by placing it on a mat and then gliding over it using the muscle group you're trying to target, such as your upper back, your gluteal muscles, or your hamstrings. You're relying on your body weight to press the muscle into the roller, which gives you the force necessary to smooth out your fascia.

You can also hold the foam roller in your hands and roll it over any muscles that are tight. If you're foam rolling by hand, you'll need to use quite a bit of force in order to deeply massage your muscles.

Should Foam Rolling Be Painful?

Most people find that using a foam roller is uncomfortable. This is especially true when they first start out. However, foam rolling shouldn't be a painful experience. If you feel a sudden, sharp pain when you're using a foam roller on your muscles, it's likely that you are suffering from an injury rather than suffering from tight muscles. At this point, it's a good idea to consult with a physical therapist to determine the extent of your injury. Continuing to use a foam roller on injured connective tissue or bone can delay healing and lead to further injury, so have your pain checked out first.

Overall, foam rolling is a convenient, inexpensive form of physical therapy that you can perform on your own. Using a foam roller daily can help relax your muscles and prevent them from becoming tight and sore. If you're unsure about how to best use a foam roller or if a foam roller doesn't work to alleviate your pain, schedule an appointment with a physical therapist in your area — you may have an injury or an imbalance in your muscles that require you to perform prescribed exercises to correct it.

To learn more, contact a company like Town Center Orthopaedic Associates, P.C. today.