I am looking to put more emphasis on recovery in my training. Have you guys used foam rollers, have they helped, and when do you use them? Also, do you guys use heat or cold to help with sore muscles or pain?
Thoughts on foam rolling/heat and ice packs?
pseudoscience scam
Isn't it literally self massage? If so why wouldn't it have benefits? It's a thing that has been practiced for thousands of years, just in a different form. Which is more effective because you are putting your own bodyweight on the muslce, thus achieving way stronger massage. And it's basic knowledge that massage can relax your muslces and improve circulation and therefore can be good for recovery.
the foam roller is most beneficial for the scapula, lats, lower back, and upper traps.
Sadly for legs, arms, and chest it's not nearly as effective.
For legs and arms to get the weight needed to properly pull the muscle is near impossible.
For chest mechanical design of the human body means you can't get really deep stretches.
You can hit the pec minor a bit through the armpit laying on your stomach, but the rest of the chest is very inefficient and you should look elsewhere to stretch the chest. as you put weight on the foam roller your torso, waist, and knees prevent the deep stretches needed to hit the chest correctly.
However foam rolling back and scapula are god tier especially if you can manually set your scapula and maintain form throughout the roll. Very few stretches are as effective for scapula treatment as foam rolling. It's almost worth buying a roller for this alone.
>set scapula for OHP foam roll
>set scapula for squat foam roll
>set scapula for dead lift roll
>set scapula for bench roll
i mean pretty much every shoulder/arm position known to man can be hit by a foam roller.
Why does it have to be useful ONLY as an alternative to stretching? Against why can't it just serve as a tool for effective self massage?
Why are you acting like massages aren't just stretches?
That's all any of this issue, individual stretching of the tissue.
A foam roller and massage balls exist solely so you can hold one position while manipulating once section of tissue using a pivot point.
When you stretch your tricep for instance you are stretching the teres, the rotator cuff, the teres major, jesus christ there are so many muscle involved.
So by pinning your lats with a foam roller you can effectively go into external rotation to very specifically focus on the triceps.
Massages are just tissue stretching dude.
ive literally never experienced a point where foam rolling was useful yet i see people do it all the time
ice packs stop inflammation. if you're working to the point of inflammation, you're going way too hard. heat does nothing.
Great for arch warmup for bench
Any amount of strenuous exercise will cause inflammation. It's part of the SRA cycle and necessary for building muscle. Reducing inflammation reduces gains.
foam rolling can be useful if you are actually rolling against the muscle. Otherwise it's just you rolling around like a moron.
Also don't spend any money on any fancy roller, buy the cheap ones.
You'll hear people say it doesn't work at all, and that's moronic logic. by design they work as a means of resistance against taut muscle tissue.
However if you're just doing general stretches with no clear goal in mind look elsewhere.
Heat packs do more for the body than ice packs do. RICE was proven to be ineffective or specially the Ice part of RICE. It does nothing to promote healing in any way. Cold treatments do not stop inflammation, they just stop the neural sending of pain.
I used to roll out my back after finishing my shifts at a warehouse job. It helped a ton. The first two posters are retarded. It's a form of massaging the muscles, which is proven to be beneficial.
I don't roll out my muscles after working out, I only did it when I was working in a warehouse cause I was constantly bending over and lifting heavy shit.
I use a foam roller as a warmup. It activates the muscles before I use them which helps me with mind body connection. There is no benefit using them for recovery as mentioned
>stretching a muscle provides no benefit to recovery
absolute state of newfags
Thinking foam rolling is stretching
SwoleShack knowledge
>foam roller stretches muscle
>some newfag thinks this isn't stretching
absolute state of zoomer newfags
It really isn't the same bro. Foam rolling before stretching will increase the effects and ease of stretching, but it really doesn't do a lot on it's own.
>foam roller stretches muscle
>bro it's not the same bro even though it stretches the muscle it doesn't stretch the muscle
what do you not get newfag?
>Newfag
Sorry bro your lack of knowledge about new information makes you the retard in this case
A massage doesn't stretch the muscles, a foam roller is just a massage. It relaxed the muscles, doesn't stretch. Yes they will be loser, but the natural range of motion does not increase from them.
Gay oldfag lmao, go on a youtube binge or something before you open your mouth
This thread is so fucking gay. You want massive recovery, better blood circulation and improved protein synthesis?
Do high intensity cardio for 15 minutes 6 hours before or after resistance training.
>foam rolling
If looks gay it probably is
Light therapy especially Infrared light works great.
Healed 2 injuries that I had for years.
Blood circulation is very important for recovery. You can do LISS cardio as well.
>ice packs stop inflammation
>heat does nothing.
Lmao
Massage ball is better.
Heat can be ok if youre actually injured, not for general recovery.
In theory ice is also at the very acute first stage of injury. Im generally anti icing if the pain is bearable, but some therapists swear by alternating heat and cold.
It's good for say calfs and back and not as good on hammies okay on quads but you can fuck up your back doing it too much / with a roller not deigned with a space for spine in the middle
It feels nice for a few seconds but doesn't help recovery.
Ice actively slows down recovery by reducing inflammation like NSAIDs. Inflammation is part of the recovery and adaptation process.
In terms of "recovery" in the weight training sense, useless.
In terms of mobility, I've heard it's pseudoscience.
In terms of anecdotes, foam rolling always makes me feel better. Calves, hamstrings, glutes, quads, it loosens me right up and makes me feel fresh. I like it, so I will keep doing it.