10-Minute Foam Rolling Recovery

Hi, I'm Chris Freytag and I'm excited to lead you through a 10 minute foam rolling recovery workout. I wanna let you know that this video is sponsored by one of my favorite healthy snack brands Crispy Green. Their freeze dried crispy fruit snacks are not only delicious but they're also a truly healthy option when you're craving something crispy. Lately I've been obsessed with their new flavor all strawberry, but I do love them all. And Crispy Fruit is truly a perfect reward after a recovery workout. And by the way, it's a hundred percent real fruit no added sugar, so I can snack guilt-free. Now let's move on to the workout. Let me start with the equipment that we're gonna use today. So I have a massage ball and a foam roller with me. Massage balls you can pick them up in a lot of different places but it's a little firmer than a tennis ball but not quite as firm as a lacrosse ball. That's why I like this particular massage ball. But again, you could use either one of those tools. If you had them at home. This is a foam roller and foam rollers do come in different firmness's. I do like one that's a little more firm. 'Cause then you can really dig into that soft tissue but you can decide, the white styrofoam foam roller is a lot softer than some of the others. They're typically about six inches in diameter and this one is a little longer but you can buy it in a half size also. So that's our equipment. Today we are going to start from the bottom of the body all the way up. So we'll work our way from our feet all the way up our body and we're gonna do it together. Now typically I might take a little more time on each body part, but for time sake we're gonna move through it and you can always take longer on your own. After you've done the workout with me a couple of times. Let's take the massage ball put it on the floor. And we're gonna start with the bottom of our feet. Now you're gonna take that foot. You're going to balance. If you need to hold onto something, feel free to do so. And you're just gonna place it onto the massage ball. And then you're gonna roll it up and down the tendon underneath your foot. Now, if you've ever had plantar fasciitis that is super painful. Or maybe you just get really tight in your feet from the activity that you're doing or the shoes that you're wearing this feels amazing to roll it all the way down that tendon the whole length from the heel to the toe and back. It's kind of crazy because we have about a quarter of our bones in our body, in our feet. And we also have a ton of muscles and tendons and feet hold you up all day long. So it's important you pay attention to them. Make sure you do both feet. So you'll come to the other side. And if you are suffering from any kind of plantar fasciitis or anything like that being consistent with doing this is very important. So you're gonna roll back and forth and make sure of course that you have your shoes off. This feels amazing. And then once we're done with that we'll come back to the massage ball for the low back, but we'll move into the foam roller. So I'm gonna come down and I'm gonna start with my calves, the back of my leg. And I'm gonna come this way. Now there isn't no one right way to foam roll. And you may feel a little awkward at first, but just get get used to it. And remember if you're in the comfort of your own home, nobody's watching you. So do your thing. You can do one leg at a time or both at the same time I'm gonna go for one leg at a time with the calves. So when you foam roll it's kind of like a three-part system. Here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna start by rolling over the entire area that you are trying to work. So I'm going from the ankle all the way up to the back of the knee. And you wanna roll back and forth approximately 10 times. There's no exact magic but what I'm trying to do is heat up that muscle and the soft tissue. I'm trying to get some blood flow back there. Just soften it up a little bit. Now, after you've gone back and forth about 10 times, I feel that, maybe you can find a trigger point or an adhesion. And when you find that, hold it there pin it and hold it and just breathe. Notice I'm holding my body up with the strength of my upper body. If you need to put your body down it's just gonna be less pressure into the foam roller. And I kind of feel an adhesion right there. So I'm breathing into it. And then the third part is to cross fiber. So you're gonna roll across the fibers instead of the lengths and just get into that soft tissue. I might be making a few grimacing faces today. So bear with me. And then again you could repeat that three part system. I'm gonna go to the other leg for sake of time. So again, roll the whole length of the area you're working, all the way up all the way down about 10 times. And remember your body is three-dimensional. So you can kind of roll to the inside. You can roll to the outside after about 10 times. See if you find any part typically the center of the calf for me is where I feel the most tension. Hold it there, breathe into it and then cross fiber friction this way. And you might hear me breathing. It is really important to get oxygen to the muscles as you're doing this. So take your time, breathe into it. Now we're gonna move up to the back of the legs the hamstring. Oh man, hammies can get very tight. I'll start with this leg, move your foam roller around maneuver it so that you can get in the right position. I'm gonna do one leg at a time again. You can do this when you're watching TV. When you're talking with somebody at home, when you're on your own free time it does not have to be directly after your workout. Recovery is something that you wanna create a consistent habit of. So maybe it's a few minutes in the morning or a few minutes in the evening. The key is that you're consistent with this concept of self recovery. Now I'm going the full length of the hamstring all the way up and down, again that's the rolling it out. Then you find that trigger point or where you might feel some tension, get into it and then you can cross fiber if that works for you or is appropriate. You have to see how your body feels. Ooh man, and some muscle groups are going to be more sore or more tight than others. So you kind of have to just play with it and see how it feels. I'm going to the other leg. Again, if you do this work on your own, feel free to take a little extra time in whatever body part you need to, right there. And the whole idea of what we're doing is self myofascial release. So underneath your skin, you have what we call fascia. Now I'm gonna hold it. And it's kind of like a webbing underneath your skin. It can get very tight. You can feel adhesions in there where it gets so tight. It's that feeling where you want someone to stick their elbow right into that muscle. And so that's where you hold and pin it and breathe. and then you can cross fiber if it works for you. So it's a great way. It's like you're giving yourself a little self massage at home, right there. Now we're gonna move from the back of the legs, to the front of the legs. You can roll through your tibia and fibia your shins if you'd like to, I'm just gonna go right up to the quads. Again for sake of time. But if you are super sore through here, roll them out. It is no problem. And honestly, once you start doing this, you probably will get addicted 'cause it feels so good. Now I'm gonna roll both quads at the same time here just to get started. And then I'm going to go one at a time. So again, we're getting some blood flow here then you're going to come to the side. Now my quads are tight. So I'm gonna feel this today. You can put that leg in the front or in the back, depending on how that's feeling and what side of the quad that you working, I'm going to kind of come around and then I'm gonna move so I can get to the inside of the quad a little bit. And then I'm going to hold it right where I feel it, man. And go back and forth. Aw, geez. And then we'll go to the other legs. So I'm just gonna go to the outside of the quad. That's where I tend to get really tight And roll back and forth and hold it And cross fiber right there. That was awesome. Moving on to the sides of the body, the IT band which is an area that gets very tight for most of us, it starts up at the hip and then comes all the way down over the knees. So we're gonna come on the side again place your body weight into it. And you decide how much pressure that you are putting into the foam roller. So I'm gonna start at the hip and roll all the way up to the side of the knee and back. Holy moly. IT bands can be really tight. Now this top foot can come in the front. If that works better for balance or in the back depends on how far you wanna roll on that IT band. But it is ropey and it can get very tight. So you're gonna roll all the way up all the way down. If you find a place like right there on my whew, IT band I'm gonna hold it. I'm gonna breathe. And then I'm a crossover right there. And man, do I feel it. And then we're gonna get the IT band on both sides. And like I said earlier if you would like to take a little bit more time than I am on each body part, please do this on your own, continue on. And once you get used to it and it's a habit for you, perhaps, like I said you'll just be watching TV or you'll be talking to someone and you can, or just spending some quiet time, rolling out those muscles. So I'm gonna go all the way from the hip all the way down to the knee and back. I'm gonna hold it right where I feel it. And this itself myofascial release. It helps to loosen tight sore muscles. It helps to improve flexibility because you're getting rid of those adhesions and improve range of motion. It helps to prevent injury. Oh boy, I'm gonna move this way. It promotes circulation. There's so many good reasons why we should be doing more recovery. And I have to believe that most people would admit myself included that I need to incorporate more consistent recovery into my routine. So moving up now a little further up the body into our lats. So right along the backside of our our shoulders in the big area of our back on the side of our back, not on top of the vertebrae. So I'm gonna come on the side. This it's a hard decision, which is the most painful the IT band of the lats, but this gets pretty bad. So I'm going to see how much body weight I can press into my lats. And I'm going to take my body off the ground and roll back and forth. Again, it gets a little awkward. You have to decide the angle that you want to be at. So as I roll this way, it gets a little more painful for me. So I'm just seeing where I can hold my body. And if you need to put your hips down so there's less pressure into the foam roller feel free to do that. And I can even come all the way up hold it wherever you feel that pressure. Breathe into it, roll back and forth. Holy cow. And we'll get it on the other side. Really get that whole shoulder blade, feel free to kind of roll around and get that range of motion. So let's see which side is more tight. It is interesting when you work each side of the body that you might find one side of the body is tighter than the other. That's very common. If you are right dominant, sometimes you're overusing your right side and you'll notice that. Right there. So roll back and forth then holding it where are you feel that pressure those adhesions, and then cross fiber. If it feels okay whatever is appropriate for your body. And what you can handle, right there. Now, we're gonna move into the back. So, one thing I wanna tell you is you don't wanna foam roll directly up and down your spine. Your spine is a series of 24 vertebrae. You have seven vertebrae in the back of your neck, 12 in your mid back, and five in your low back. And you don't wanna just take anything up and down those vertebrates. So if you can slightly, come on the shoulders, the upper back and not really hit the vertebrae. I really like the foam roller for my upper back. And then I switched to the other side. But when it comes to your low back, that's when that massage ball comes back into play. So I'm just going to move the foam roller out of the way for a moment and grab that little massage ball. So on either side of your lumbar, your low back. Muscles get very very tight to protect that lumbar people bend every day, you lift your hips and shorten your hip flexors. There's a lot happening in your pelvis. This little tiny ball can create so much relief. So I'm gonna place it, not on my spine, but to the side right here, where your back and everything connects your sacrum, and just press into where it attaches to your glutes. And a lot of people feel a lot of tension there. So I'm just going to place it and just see how it feels. Find that spot. To put more pressure I'm gonna lift my foot up off the ground. So I'm gonna lift the leg on the side where I have this massage ball. The minute I take my foot off the ground I feel a lot more pressure. Now I'm gonna lift that leg to the sky, even more pressure, longer lever, and then I'm gonna move my leg and I can just feel, I can just feel those adhesions. I can just feel that tension in there really sink. Now I'm gonna do that on both sides of my spine. And then you can move it up a little higher so you can get just up the sides of the spine. I can lift that leg if feels okay Right there, oh man. And you wanna do this on both sides of your spine. If moving your leg is super uncomfortable you have a ton of tension. Just keep your feet down and just press into that ball. But if you want to add a little pressure take that foot above the ground. The other thing that you can do is as you move it up your back, I could put it up like right under my shoulder blades right here. That's a good spot for me right there. But you can do this against a wall too. So you could stand against a wall and then press back. It's gonna be a little less pressure than laying down on the floor. And you can even take it up on either side of your neck. Again, just make sure that you're not placing it right on those vertebrae. I feel that, it feels really good. So if you've followed along with me then hopefully you got a pretty good recovery workout. If you were able to watch this and understand everything I was doing maybe you will do it on your own in the future. Maybe you just focus on a couple of body parts at a time, or maybe you do the whole body and it takes you about 15 to 20 minutes whatever works for you. But the bottom line is we all need a little more recovery and it will help you feel better for that next workout and for that next day of activities. Thanks for joining me. And I hope to see you again real soon.