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Top 5 Foam Rolling Mistakes

1. Only foam rolling AFTER exercise.

Foam rolling is a great way to warm up your body BEFORE exercise.  Foam rolling followed by a quick dynamic warm-up is a great way to prepare your body for movement. To learn how to foam roll and perform a dynamic warm-up click the following link: The 6 Characteristics of a Good Dynamic Warm-up by Eric Cressey. 

2. Rolling over the greater trochanter.

The greater trochanter is a bony prominence of the femur.  If you google it, you can see pictures of it.  If you run your hand down the side of your thigh, you will feel a bony bump at the top.  When you are rolling the side of your leg avoid rolling over that bump.  It can irritate the bursa that is over top of it.

3. Hyperextending low back.

The foam roller is a great way to mobilize your mid back (thoracic spine) into extension.  If you go to the 1:35 mark in the following video (Foam rolling Series) you can see how to perform this.  You will notice that he doesn’t go near the low back (lumbar spine) when performing this movement.  The low back and mid back work differently and hyperextending the low back can irritate it.

4. Using the foam roller on every muscle.

The foam roller works great for most muscles but it doesn’t work that great in the calf area. Try using a massage stick (The stick) instead.  Make sure the calf is relaxed in order to get the deep calf muscles as well.  Sit down lifting your knee straight toward the ceiling let your foot relax so it points toward the floor and relax as much as possible as you roll/massage your leg.

5. Using the foam roller to treat pain.

Foam rolling shouldn’t be used to treat pain. Foam rolling may reduce or eliminate your pain temporarily but ultimately it only delays you from getting the proper treatment.  Proper treatment involves removing adhesion, which the foam roller cannot do. To learn more about this topic click the following link: Can foam rolling remove adhesion?

If you are experiencing pain or have any questions regarding your pain, please click the button below.

Can you really “work through” the pain?

The short answer is maybe, but eventually it will catch up with you.  I have many patients that come in and say they can usually work through the pain but this time it will not go away.  This response indicates to me that they never actually worked through the pain.  Their body compensated by loading up another area.  Eventually there will be no other areas to compensate to and pain will result.  Most of my patients are between the ages of 30-55.  This is the common age range when the body runs out of areas to compensate to.  One of the most common under diagnosed sources of pain is muscle adhesion.  If you have a nagging injury that will not go away or you have been “working through” the pain, please call our office to schedule an exam.  This way you will know if adhesion is at the root of your pain.

Preventing Shoulder Pain: Installment 2

Avoid upright rows and never perform empty can exercises.

Both of these exercises create impingement in the shoulder.

The position of the arms causes the bones in your arm and shoulder blade to jam into the bursa and rotator cuff tendons. This can cause irritation, inflammation, and pain.

If you have to perform vertical rows, make sure you shrug your shoulders at the top.  The shrug will move the shoulder blade out of the way and decrease impingement.

The empty can exercise should never be performed. It has been shown that you will get better muscle activation without the injury risk if you perform the same type of exercise with the thumb pointed up.  So if you are doing the empty can exercise (thumbs pointed down) perform it with the thumbs up.

Preventing Shoulder Pain: Installment 1

Preventing Shoulder Pain-Installment 1

Shoulder pain is one of the more common reasons patients come to Muscle and Joint Chiropractic. We have excellent results using Integrative Diagnosis™ with MAR™ and IAR™ and ART® to treat the soft tissue surrounding the shoulder, but understanding how the shoulder works is crucial to preventing you from having to visit the Chiropractor’s office. The shoulder (glenohumeral) joint is designed for movement.  This becomes obvious when you look at the structure of the joint.  The amount of support from the bone is minimal.  If you think of a softball sitting on top of a golf tee, then you can imagine how much bony support (the area that the golf tee is in contact with the softball) that the shoulder receives.

Since the support doesn’t come from the bone, the soft tissue surrounding the shoulder plays a huge role.  The group of muscles that cross the shoulder (rotator cuff muscles) contract to stabilize the shoulder. Read more