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 Foam rolling saved my life. I am not kidding. Foam rolling stopped the chronic muscle tears in my calves. It took away any chance of back pain after a strenuous deadlift workout. Foam rolling is something you need to learn and do. When you foam roll you restore your body’s optimal muscle function. The basic idea is that the foam roll is used to apply gentle force to release knots or adhesions in the muscle that wind up creating altered movement patterns (hence, the reason I was getting torn calf muscles while running). Foam rolling will reduce your chances of injury and will relax the muscles in your body. It is like a self-massage. The reason that foam rolling is important is that it loosens up the muscles. Tight muscles restrict the range of motion for your joints. This modifies the normal neural feedback to the central nervous system. This will lead to poor movement patterns, which can cause fatigue and injury. Foam rolling is also known as self-myofascial release. Self-myofascial release has the following benefits:
There are some specific areas that really need self-myofascial release. Iliotibial Tract (IT Band) The IT band runs down the outside of your leg. Chances are that if you do not foam roll you can run your hand down the side of your leg just above the knee all the way up to just below the hip and you will feel tenderness. This is the IT band that is sore. Rolling the IT band daily relieves the pain you are feeling, relieves back pain, aligns the leg muscles and frees up your knee joint. Piriformis The piriformis muscle is one of the causes of sciatica. When that muscle tights up it presses against the sciatic nerve, causing major pain. Rolling the piriformis muscle daily will relieve lower back pain and stress in the back. Hamstring The hamstring tends to be tight in most people. Foam rolling releases the trigger points in the hamstring that cause it to contract tightly. Daily rolling of the hamstring will cause it to loosen. This will help your running movement. Quadriceps It feels awesome to roll your quads. The tension that you get in that area after a good workout gets released when you roll the quads. Stretching Always stretch your muscles after you foam roll. They are primed for stretching when you complete foam rolling. Frequency I recommend rolling daily. You can use your foam roller to roll your upper and middle back (lower back is not recommended). You can even roll your lats and shoulders using a foam roller. The benefits will become evident right away. Give it a shot by purchasing one from Perform Better. PS: To an unnamed person, thanks so much for your encouragement. I think you should check back on Day 84 for the shock of your life. The website link you sent me was not impressive to me at all. I guarantee I will look better than that when the 84 days is over. Thanks again for your encouragement. It was much appreciated.
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 Mike’s Workout Log: 
Matty’s Workout Log: After this workout, Matty and I discussed form. We are going to drop the weights even more than the last time and really perfect the form on every single exercise. We both feel that you get maximum results by doing things with maximum form. I generally use an electronic metronome to time the repetition and that won’t change, but we decided to really study the form on every exercise, make changes and perfect the form we are using. I expect to see maximum results from both of us when we do this. Watch for our Wednesday workout to see the changes. |
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 Your body needs balance to function properly |
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 What techniques are you using to maintain balance in your body? Comment this post to answer the question. |
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Until tomorrow…GET BACK TO LIFTING! |
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Feeling overwhelmed by the information you get on the web? Not sure if that guy is a "guru”? The answer is finally here! |
