Foam roller exercises

So what kind of foam roller exercises can you do to get those athletic performance enhancing and pain relief benefits that I have talked about? There are as many foam roller exercises as a person can imagine, but let's go over some of the best exercises you can do with your foam roller. For all of these exercises, you are going to want to work the affected area for about twenty seconds. You can spend more time if the muscle is really tight and knotted.

One of the best places to foam roll is in the hip flexors. These muscles can be found right where the hip meets the upper leg (or quadricep). You want to put the roller on the floor, and get on top of it. Work the roller right into this groove where the hip meets the leg. Support yourself with your arms and slowly roll back and forth. This is a great way to loosen up this area before or after athletic activity.

While you are in the area, another foam roller exercise that you can foam roll is your quadricep. You are going to be doing largely the same thing as with the hip flexor exercise. Work the foam roller back and forth across your leg, all the way down to your knees. Spend up about twenty seconds on each leg.

Another one of the best areas to do foam roller therapy is the IT band/Tensor Fascia. This is the piece of soft tissue that runs along the outside of each leg. You want to lie on top of the foam roller on your side, with the only point of contact with the foam roller being your outer leg. Support your upper body with your forearm on the floor. Foam roll all the way and forth on each side.

Now we want to do foam roller stretches on the inner part of our legs. These are known as the hip adductors. Get on top of the foam roller with open hips so that you can apply pressure to your hip adductors. The idea of this foam roller exercise is the same as the others. We want to roll back and forth on each leg to get that therauptic foam rolling release.

These exercises will instantly improve your recovery, and increase performance for whatever activity you prefer -- sports, yoga, pilates, or whatever.