Foam Rollers What the hell are these?

[big in vegas]

Let us know how you like it because I've been looking at something similar for a while now, but haven't taken the plunge

 

[Jenn]

What type of back pain is it? Skeletal, muscular, just tightness that you can't pinpoint the cause of? The technique could vary drastically depending on what is causing the pain. This is always the starting point especially for lower back issues assuming no unrecooperated injuries. Usually the cause for lower back pain has to do with over or under active muscles and this would address the underactive muscles. To pinpoint the remedy though, you would ideally do a fitness assessment. Overhead squat assessment, pushing/pulling assessment etc and a properly trained person could tell you what the corrective exercises/stretches would be. If you are able to be unbiased and objective toward yourself, you could even do these yourself. You might add 15 minutes a day to what you're already doing at the gym (and get some weird looks) but a pain free back is worth it IMO.

Thanks for the info. It is not skeletal. Quite honestly I think I need to get a new mattress, but also the constant training demands leads me to be believe it is overactive. Was talking to a fitness pro last night who uses these and she told me there is a difference in foam rollers, some are I guess denser than others or something like that, which makes it harder on the muscles. Is there a difference or are they all the same? Can you recommend a good one to buy? Pain free is worth any looks I would get!

 

[big in vegas]

Thanks for the info. It is not skeletal. Quite honestly I think I need to get a new mattress, but also the constant training demands leads me to be believe it is overactive. Was talking to a fitness pro last night who uses these and she told me there is a difference in foam rollers, some are I guess denser than others or something like that, which makes it harder on the muscles. Is there a difference or are they all the same? Can you recommend a good one to buy? Pain free is worth any looks I would get!

The ones I was really looking into are on liftinglarge . com...check them out, they're a little pricy, but they are nice. They even have the smaller ones that you can roll like a rolling pin on your legs or anywhere really if you had someone else to do it for you

 

[neonlizard]

There is definitely a difference in the density of the rollers. I personally use a pvc pipe but it took me a while to graduate up to that and if I'm super tight I regress to a less dense roller (usually when I skip a few days) or if I'm sore, I'll use a soft roller. You'll likely be able to find something better as far as price goes, but I've ordered from Department - Foam Rollers before and the products are top quality and they've got all 3 categories of rollers. So the progression for a normal person would be a soft roller, a dense roller, then a covered pvc roller and possibly even just simply a pvc pipe if you're struggling to find tight areas. Haha, don't be like my buddy thought and try to be all Bad*$$ and go straight to the PVC, it'll work just fine but will HURT. It hurts pretty bad even with a soft roller though if you've got overactive/tight muscles.

 

[Ox 51]

I played around with one in the gym yesterday, but it was actually made of styrofoam like a cooler. I was expecting the rubbery foam, like those noodles you see in the pool, just bigger and not hollowed out in the middle.