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Self Massage and the Foam Roller

You are here: Home / Health & Wellness / Self Massage and the Foam Roller
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April 23, 2007 by Jimson Lee 4 Comments

Last Updated on November 21, 2012 by Jimson Lee

It was reported that Michael Johnson, 4 time Olympic Gold medalist and World record holder in the 200 meters and 400 meters, had daily massages of 90 minutes!

90 minutes! Nice! As an athlete, my budget was usually 1 or 2 times per week of 60 minutes.

An alternative way to have a daily massage is with the use of a foam roller, or even tennis ball. They are beneficial for enhancing performance, preventing injuries, and speeding up recovery from injuries.

I was introduced to this concept at the Sports Medicine Institute International, or SMI, formerly known as the Stanford Myofacial Institute.

I found they worked really well on my glutes, hamstring, and the IT band (no, not your garage rock band of your computer department, but the Iliotibial band) They come in 2 sizes, 4 inches and 6 inches in diameter. I like the smaller one when traveling for track meets.

There was a rumour for a deeper pressure point massage, athletes used the tennis ball for the glutes, filled the ball with water, and froze it. In essence, they are massaging themselves with a hard frozen ball that ices the area too.

I won’t go in detail on how to use it, as it is well explained in the guide found at:

http://www.smiweb.org/massage/downloads/roller.pdf

Give it a try and send me your feedback.

See also  Trigger Point Therapy and Self-Myofascial Release, Part 4

Category iconHealth & Wellness,  Injury Prevention,  Recovery Tag icon200 meters,  Michael Johnson,  speed

About Jimson Lee

I am a Masters Athlete and Coach currently based in London UK. My other projects include the Bud Winter Foundation, writer for the IAAF New Studies in Athletics Journal (NSA) and a member of the Track & Field Writers of America.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Ben says

    August 9, 2009 at 4:21 am

    Thank you so much for this pdf, but the link is broken.

    Here is the updated link. The guide is listed on the right side with some other guides about injury prevention and whatnot. http://www.smiweb.org/omt/guides.html

    Anyway, thanks for the link to SMI. Didn’t know about this before but it’s definitely now a bookmark.

    Reply
  2. Jimson Lee says

    August 10, 2009 at 5:01 am

    @Ben – thanks for the update for the broken link!

    If you ever do visit SMI (in Palo Alto, CA) say hello to Mark F and Doug C for me.

    Reply

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