Foam Rolling or Rolling Out

Have you heard of it? Because you know... Everyone's doing it.

I'm fairly late to foam rolling, which has been around for years. Everyone I mention it to, are like: Oh yeah, a foam roller. I've got one. Then why haven't you mentioned it to me? I could've really used it, when I was telling you about my leg pain weeks ago.

It's a solid cylinder of dense foam that varies in length from 18 inches to 36 inches. Their diameter is larger than I would expect, at 6 inches. It's a way of massaging yourself on the floor, using body weight, by rolling various body parts on top of it. I only use it on my legs for the calves, quadriceps, iliotibial band, tensor fascia latae, and the soleus muscle. (It was probably the soleus muscle I strained, along the medial border of the tibial shaft.) Rolling on foam doesn't really work for my hamstrings, a harder surface like a PVC pipe would probably work better. One thing to note, is to not roll your joints, like your knees.

I did go to the doctor, just to make sure it wasn't something serious. He told me to stop running for a week or two, take an anti-inflammatory like ibuprofen, and ice it. He also said it was ok to continue rolling out.