Knowing my obsession with
foam rolling and
yoga, my sister bought me what I now consider the greatest gift ever, the
Travel Roller
. The highlights:
- Hard plastic roller
- Three varying tension balls
- Compact design and easy to travel with (get your roll on anywhere)
- Made from earth friendly materials, TPE Foam
- Includes an instructional DVD from the creators who are both Kinesiology grads.
Admittedly I didn’t watch the videos until after I had been using it for weeks. No one knows my body better than I do and I enjoy trying to figure things out on my own at times. Rolling on top of the tennis ball sized tension balls provides localized pressure that I found really effective for targeting pain spots.
While I continue to be a major proponent of foam rolling (and myofascial release in general), I needed some way to make this practice portable. I was on the hunt for a 12″ version of a foam roller when I stumbled across the Pro-Tec Athletics Roller Massager (acquired at Dick’s Sporting Goods in Buffalo, NY but available on Amazon
). Decided it was worth a shot since I was aware of trainers and professional athletes using something like this. I distinctly recall seeing Brett Lawrie on TV using it on his own quads while sitting in the dugout during a Toronto Blue Jays game.
Like the foam roller, you HAVE TO get one of these if you are active or if you have nagging chronic muscular pain (or if you have a body that moves at all). I find for some body parts it’s easier because you can use your hands, rather than rolling on top of something, which requires some balance and coordination. The trigger point ends are also quite useful and provide something different to rolling.
Best part? With a friend/partner you can roll each other.
After owning an Energetics foam roller for about 20 minutes, I felt like a blind man who could suddenly see. How could I not have had one of these all this time? If you do any kind of sport, you know that flexibility is critical to performance and injury prevention. The foam roller enhances your ability to stretch yourself. Ergo, if you partake in vigorous physical activity regularly, you should have one of these.
I picked mine up at the Fitness Source in Vaughan but SportChek has them as well. It’s a high-density foam cylinder, 36 inches by 6 inch diameter (like a short, fat, dense pool noodle). Decided to take it easy and get the softer one just to try it out but I hope to graduate to the more hardcore ones.
My daily routine now involves what I consider to be some kind of super yoga involving this foam roller. There seems to be no limit to which muscles you can stretch using it. Don’t forget your breathing!
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Interested in the science that is happening here? Try this link. It’s essentially a DIY deep tissue massage.
One thing people might not know about me is that I practice yoga regularly (~4 times a week). In the morning before work and always before exerting myself physically (running, playing sports or snowboarding).
My routine borrows poses learned from two Yoga instructors. The first was the only real instructor I had, it’s been so long ago since her early morning classes at the Sports Clubs of Canada that I forget her name but she was born to be a yogi. Her voice was so soothing and I credit her with teaching me how to visualize my breathing (the most important aspect of yoga in my opinion). The second set of poses I learned from Eoin Finn’s DVD. He’s a surfer and I conjecture this translates to snowboarding. After all, conditioning my body to be a better snowboarder was a primary incentive for getting into yoga.
Recently I’ve been experimenting with using an electric blanket. It’s nothing fancy , picked it up at Shopper’s Drug Mart. I apply it directly or wrap it around a particularly tight or problematic body part while holding a pose that also targets the area. I call it localized hot yoga.
I credit my general good physical state to my yoga ritual, certainly it’s not due to my diet, sleep or drinking habits. To me, yoga is the fountain of youth. It keeps my body feeling young and speeds up recovery time. Something crucial to focus on as the years continue to add up. I’m in better shape now than at any other point in my life and it’s because of yoga.
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