Female: Hello, I am Jennifer DiDonato. Welcome to Brides Made Fit video blog. Today’s topic is a form of flexibility and corrective exercise and it is self myofascial release. I will say it again self myofascial release. But you do not remember that because it is also called form rolling. It is really simple because this is a roll and it is made of foam.
It comes in a lot of different colors but it is really easy for you to remember so you do not have to think that you are feeling stupid or anything like that if you go into a sports store and ask for one. This is a good form of corrective exercise. For mostly runners, it has been very popular with marathoners, triathletes because what happens is they are running a lot, on their legs all the time and so it is tightening up their muscles. What this does is it is almost like a massage, you are massaging the muscle and the fascia which gives the muscle its shape, that is what the fascia is. You are rolling that out and kind of soothing it and just getting the muscle tender and what it does is it inhibits any overactive muscles or tight muscles. It helps elongate it, calm it so it is not working too hard or taking over other muscles. So that has a really good form and you will notice that it can also help prevent any injuries, any pain, specifically knee pain or hip pain that you are having at the gym.
So what I am going to do first is show you how to foam roll your calves. So what you want to do is get on the ground. These can come in little sizes like this. This is portable since I travel. Home gyms, I go to people’s houses but you can also buy big ones as well. With this one you can do the same though with each. You can start with the calves. You are going to place the foam roll in the center underneath one of your calves so I am going to start with my left and I am going to cover my leg with the opposite leg to add just a little bit more weight to it when I am rolling. What you are going to do is your going to prop your butt off the ground so you get a nice tricep workout and you are going to roll it out.
Roll it all the way to the back like the meat of your calf and roll it all the way to the ankle and you can scoot your butt forward if it is hurting, your wrists and all. Sometimes it might be a little bit of too much stress on your wrist that way so you can also scoot with your butt.
Now, this is supposed to hurt a little bit almost like your muscle is cramping. But what you want to do is roll over the entire muscle and then once you find a knot or a hard spot, or unfortunately, the spot that really hurts, you want to hold it there for 20 to 30 seconds and then proceed to roll it out. You can do this for about three minutes on each side so three minutes on the left and three minutes on the right. Another one, another muscle that tends to be tight with a lot of people is the hamstrings so I am just going to scoot this down right underneath my hamstrings and I am going to do both at the same time so you are just going to scoot your butt up and keep most of the weight in the center of your hamstrings and just roll forward and roll back until you find a tight area and you can lean off to one side or even cross one leg to really isolate one leg over the other.
Same concept, you want to pause, each time you feel a tight area and hold for about 20 to 30 seconds and then proceed to roll it on again and another muscle group that I am going to show you because there are many muscle groups you can foam roll but this will be the last one because it will be such a long webcast if I continue is the glutes. The butt. It is good to have a firm butt but if it is too firm they you might be throwing other muscles off out of alignment. So you are going to start by just sitting on the foam roller and bring one leg over the other like this.
So the ankle on top of the heel. No, I am having my right leg up so I am going to lean off to the right side so whatever leg is up, that is the side you want to lean off to so I am going to lean off to the right and just dig my tush into this foam roll. It is the truth guys, you want to dig it in there and just kind of feel around for any tight spots of any knots because I guarantee you, when you sit down at first, you might not feel anything but when you really grind it in there, you might find something so I am going to switch too because usually, my left one is tight.
So that is all that I have for today. Try it out. These typically run between $20 and $40 depending on where you go. You can also get them online too and I will post some links on my blog as well for you to find some good foam rolls. That is all we have for today and if you have any suggestions or any comments, you may email me at info@bridesmadefit.com. We will see you next time.
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