Foam Rollers?

[pakora]

What is the deal with using foam rollers on IT bands? I started with a PT who seems kind of fanatical about some things. She had me lie on the floor and put all of my weight on my right IT band (I'm right handed) and... wow.

It's not even that it hurt per se, it so flooded my brain with panic and endorphins that it was more like snow on a TV screen.

Brief web searching the pro camp talks about "stuck fascia" which sounds like bunkum to me (they also suggested one can "lubricate" fascia by drinking a liter of water an hour). The anti camp suggests among other things that causing intense sensation and then relief from it makes it seem like you're doing something (wasn't Socrates' definition of pleasure relief from pain) which, ok, but skepticism isn't evidence.

I think this is a controversial subject because searching I find threads with choruses of YES with lots of other deleted and edited posts. I have not seen or read any explanation for or against that seemed like more than opinion.

Is there a point (besides some people just like to do it, which I'm aok with)? I went to her for my lower back and her suggestion was I'm loosening my overdeveloped bike/run muscles so my spine can decompress and lengthen.

[benb]

What color foam roller did they start you on? They are not all the same, and if you are injured even the soft ones hurt a lot.

The reaction you had would indicate you're super tight, have lots of adhesions/trigger points/whatever.

I had that experience. Once you "fix" this it will never hurt anywhere near 10% of that and you won't have to do it every day or anywhere near as long as the PT will prescribe initially to maintain it.

It will make a difference. They started me on the "white" soft foam roller and it hurt like hell and I couldn't put all my weight on it.

Once I got loosened up I have been using the hardest rollers I can find and I do a plank position for the IT band where I just have my elbow on the ground and don't put my feet/legs on the ground at all so that I get maximum weight on the roller. And it doesn't hurt.

IME it has a ton of preventative value for avoiding knee issues. I can be buried in fatigue and I'll start to feel my knees aching/whatever. Hit the foam roller and it will go away, even post big ride. My knees have been WAY better from 30 -> 46 since I started the foam roller than they were from 20 -> 30 before I learned about it.

I use it on my back too of course. The hardest thing to hit with it IMO is hamstrings.

I think you should trust the PT and work through it.

[pakora]

The roller in her office is gray and pretty stiff.

She had me do like you say, side plank and feet on my side, but it was too intense and then she had me support myself by crossing a foot over.

Today was the second time and it was not as intense as the first time but still quite intense.

[reuben]

Wot? I have a gray one similar to the ones on my old gym. I knew that they came with or without knobs/bumps, but softness/rigidity is news to me. Can you elaborate?

[tellyho]

Rolling out fascia definitely makes a difference but I totally hear you on the crazy sound of it. My IT bands are chronically tight and I don't roll nearly as often as I should.

20 years ago, before the advent of commercially common foam rollers, a great chiropractor diagnosed my hip bursitis and told me to roll it with whatever I could use. I still sometimes use a rolling pin, but my favorite was my wife rolling it with a liter glass beer bottle in Germany

[rkhatibi]

I'd classify the science as generally positive based on my reading of the meta study here https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6465761/


In regards to lower back pain PT in my experience are going to run you through a very generic program that hits a little bit of everything. Foam rolling various muscle groups, stretches, the McGill three, maybe some strength exercises like 1 leg RDLs. Some of it will help, some of it won't, but nothing is too opinionated. Rolling the IT band tends to be on the list because it affects the hip joint. Hip, sacrum, spine all interconnected.

Honestly I think the problem of lower back pain is too complex to diagnose without a large investment so you get barrage of tactics that are usually successful, but leave you without an understanding of your particular causes. At least that's how I felt afterwards.


The snow on TV sensation (such a good description) went away within a month of casual rolling. Never had similar sensations in other spots.


I foam roll legs and lats after weightlifting sessions particularly before bed and in the morning. Occasional lacrosse ball work on the chest. Seems to help with cramping and sleeping through the night as well as feeling less sore post > 80%+ days. It's not life changing for me, but 30-40m a week while watching TV has been worthwhile.


If foam rolling works for you, I like this one. The fully foam ones are too squishy for me. https://www.amazon.com/TriggerPoint-...006GUC9KC?th=1

[jkbrwn]

I have one of these. I really like it. https://rollrecovery.com/products/r8-new

Much easier to use than a foam roller.

I don't know the science behind it, but when my legs are feeling tight, using this definitely helps make them feel less tight.

[benb]

I think it's one of those things where studies seem to indicate it does work.

But they are not necessarily sure they really understand the mechanism behind why it seems to be working.

The ones I have are OPTP. The gray one is medium. The white one I have is a soft, but it seems they don't make the soft ones white anymore. The Black Axis Hard is what I use day to day now. The Softer ones you'll kill after a while, the hard ones seem to last forever.

https://www.optp.com/Foam-Roller-Therapy

Amazon has some AmazonBasics Black ones which are a rip off of the OPTP Hard, and IMO they are even harder than the OPTP hard. I'd probably rather have one of those but I've never bothered to "upgrade".

Almost all the gym ones I've seen are fabric covered and quite soft.

For back pain for a cyclist I think the Illiopsoas stuff is usually a prime suspect.. hip flexor flexibility and strengthening help a lot. But if you run you probably have better flexibility there than those of us who are more cycling only. Doing lunges in the weight room helps keep them flexible as well.

[MikeD]

I bought one of these. I use similar ones at the gym https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This one is pretty hard. I started with a softer one and worked up to this. Did wonders for my back pain.

[AJosiahK]

always painful no matter what/where, personally (esp IT bands) Advise to be careful too though, too much can cause as much damage as potential good. Start easy and soft.

We have a black one at home, not sure its density rating but its enough to roll out sore muscles.

I have an ex, who is a talented bike racer/athlete who would use that spikey one, good god. I guess that relationship ended for good reasons, yikes.

I really like using a theracain, can still lay on it and get hard to reach spots but also can reach same spots with a more sensible initial pressure.

[warren128]

I use a muscle roller stick, mostly for my legs after cycling. Yeah, it hurts so good, LOL. You can really tell when you work the IT band, it's easy to target specific muscles with a relatively short stick, but you have to go easy because the rollers are hard plastic, not foam.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Peter P.]

Another alternative to the foam roller is the Original Massage Stick.

Rather than a foam roller where you have to position then move your body over the roller, with the Massage Stick you move the roller over the muscle. This gives you better control of the pressure as well as ease of application to the muscles.

I have the red version which works fine for legs. They used to be color coded by stiffness but I think they eliminated that system.

[dustyrider]

I have no idea what the science says, but I love my Stick! I also love my LAX ball. Never paid for the ball since I find them around from time to time. I don’t use the rollers but have friends that swear by them. There’s even vibrating rollers for the high dollar flexers that like all things electric.

[pakora]

hm it is true that when rollers first were a thing I was skeptical because they were very expensive considering they're a piece of foam plastic/rubber.

I observed my friends/teammates who were super into rollers, they ran home to roll, just as me and some others ran to chug a beer and pat ourselves on the back for riding hard.

They also seemed to be the types who were always nursing themselves for something, but I think I see now the beer swillers injured themselves just as much, they just made self-care some anti-virtue.

I guess if I spend $30 and a couple hours a month it's a lot less of an investment than PT haha.

[pakora]

Originally Posted by rkhatibi

I'd classify the science as generally positive based on my reading of the meta study here https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6465761/

Honestly I think the problem of lower back pain is too complex to diagnose without a large investment so you get barrage of tactics that are usually successful, but leave you without an understanding of your particular causes. At least that's how I felt afterwards.

Ah, this makes sense to me. Which is also a reasonable explanation of the "if it works for you, it works for you" phenomenon.