Best Times to Foam Roll

Audio Transcript

Michael: Hey Runners Connect fans. Welcome to another episode of the Run to the Top ,Xtra Kick podcast.

Today, we have a question from Brad. It’s about foam rolling and the best way to implement it in your training and recovery program.

“I’ve been foam rolling daily for about 10 months, typically first thing in the morning before I run to go to the gym.

I find rolling out, first thing, gives me time to wake up and also identify any niggles before I head out. I’ve seen how to articles and do’s and don’ts, but not much written about optimal timing on foam rolling.

What are your thoughts on foam rolling before versus after workouts, advantages and disadvantages?”

Michael: First off, I want to say that this shows good recovery mindedness to begin with.

Foam rolling, if the fact that you’re simply out there foam rolling, that you’re doing it even for a little bit of time per day, shows that you’re definitely concerned with recovery and that it’s going to help make a huge difference in your training regardless.

Foam rolling can make a huge difference over time.

It’s not necessarily something that makes a massive difference just by doing it once, but when implemented consistently in your training, it can make a huge difference. I’ll give my basic answer first and then I’ll get a little bit more specific.

The basic answer is honestly, it really doesn’t matter all that much.

The fact that you’re doing it is what’s best. I look at it the same as when I advise people on strength work.

A lot of times people will ask me about doing their strength work, their core, their hip routines, Achilles stuff and stuff and they’ll ask,“You know what time of day is the best? Is it best before the run? Is it best after the run? Is it best later in the day? When is the best time to do strength work?”

I think that misses the point, because what’s most important is that it gets done.

Same with the days, same with whether some people will ask to weight lift or to do strength training, you do it on your workout days; you do it on your easy days; your rest days.

Again, I think it’s kind of missing the boat because the biggest thing is that you’re getting it done.

If you’re getting it done, you’re doing it right even if it’s just on weekends or if it’s not necessarily every workout day. If it’s just a rest day, it doesn’t really matter.

The fact that you’re doing it is really important. In terms of foam rolling, it doesn’t really matter all that much.

I think what’s best is to typically find what works best for you specifically.

Now, getting a little bit more specific. ,I’m going to give the pros of each because there’s no disadvantage to either one, but I’ll give the pros of each, and for your particular situation, you can decide what you feel is going to work best for you.

Before the run, as you mentioned, you can work out those niggles. You can loosen up any knots especially in your calves.

That’s a classic place to have some knots build up, and you can work those out and loosen them up before you even start running.

It’s also going to help warm up your muscles, which is really important and sometimes we don’t get a proper warm up before we run.

I know we’re big advocates of the lunge matrix, more of a dynamic warm up, but a little foam rolling can certainly help, especially if you have some particularly tender spots.

Another one is activation.

If you have weak gluts that don’t activate very well, you can foam roll a little bit and get those pumping because it’s going to get that blood to them, and get him started before you even start running.

Those are the benefits of before.

For after, probably the number one thing – and this is really what makes me a little bit more inclined to say after – is that your muscles are already warm, your muscles are warm from the run and that’s going to make them so much easier to roll.

You don’t have to build into it; you can just go at it.

Obviously, you don’t want to go crazy when you start, but your muscles are warm, they’re ready to go and that’s usually the best time.

They say the same about sports massage or deep tissue therapy or anything like that. Ideally it’s when your muscles are warm.

A lot of massage therapists will have you put up, like a hot pack or a hot pad on your muscle, wherever they’re going to work.

They’ll have you put that on or sit in a hot tub before you get the massage,as it helps get some blood flowing, get them loosened up and they’re much easier to work on.

Same goes with foam rolling because foam rolling, when it comes down to it, is really just self-applied massage.

The same thing really applies there after you run. Muscles are warm and so it’s much easier to roll.

It also helps to boost recovery immediately, kind of right after you run, when your muscles are at their most tender in a way, because they’re warmed up and you just ran, but you’re going to immediately boost that recovery.

You get the blood flowing to those areas especially the areas that really need it and it’s going to help you over time feel more recovered for the next day’s run.

Which is better? It’s hard to say in general. I would probably say after.

I think it’s much easier, especially for beginners, to go after their run. Your muscles are warmed up, and this is kind of the classic way to do it, kind of the usual way.

I’m not saying it’s far superior, just in general. If I were talking to a beginner, someone who just starting to foam roll, I would definitely say that the best time for you to do it is after.

For more experienced people, you can get to the point where you know what you’re doing and before, it can be really fantastic too.

If you do it right; if you start slow because you don’t want to start and go right deep into all those muscles.

You want to start slow and gradually build up the intensity to where the end is where you’re foam rolling the hardest.

At first, it’s a very light roll and you’re going to gradually work at the intensity to where you’re really digging in those muscles at the end.

The activation benefit is huge as well, but you do get this from doing it at any time.

We’re talking about the glutes, your back and your hamstrings. The activation benefit is definitely, probably the most prominent before running, but it’s actually going to help any time.

Even if you do it later in the day, you’re going to help keep those activated by foam rolling them, even if it’s totally away from the run, not even close to the run.

Some quick notes. First of all, don’t roll an injured area.

If you have an injury, for instance let’s say you have a calf strain, that’s a fairly common injury. The last thing you want to do is take a foam roller to it because you can irritate it even more.

There’s inflammation and that means that you don’t want to roll. You just want to leave it alone and you want to focus more on ice and rest.

Another huge one – and this is probably the most important thing I can say in this whole podcast is, you want to do it with proper foam.

If you’re not foam rolling with proper form, you’re wasting your time and you’re not going to get anything out of it.

If you do it with proper foam, you don’t even have to foam roll that long. You don’t want to overdo it, that’s another thing.

I knew a guy who would foam roll for about half an hour before every single run, and that is ridiculous.

It makes no sense and it doesn’t really help anything.

It gets to the point there’s absolutely a point of diminishing returns with foam rolling, and I think 30 minutes is a little bit beyond it.

I would say 10 minutes is all you need.

Maybe if you’re foam rolling your entire body and you’re taking it slow then maybe 15 or maybe 20, but I would say five to 10 minutes for most people. If you do that, you’ll get a huge benefit and if you do it with proper foam, you’re going to get a whole lot more benefit.

If you want more information on the foam, go to runnersconnect.net/foam-rolling-for-runners-mistakes.

You’re going to get the top four mistakes that runners make usually and I just talked about them, but number one is foam rolling directly on injured area.

Number two, is foam rolling too quickly, which we talked about taking it slow.

Number three, is something I haven’t really talked about, but it’s staying on one spot too long.

I think I kind of alluded that, when I said you don’t want to overdo it, but basically you don’t want to go crazy. You don’t want to foam roll one spot for 45 minutes. It doesn’t make any sense and it’s going to hurt you more than it helps you, because you’re going to be extremely sore and potentially cause even worse injury.

Mistake number four is using bad posture and foam, which we just talked about.

You know what’s absolutely best?

If I was talking about ideals, it would be both. You would be doing it before and after. That would be the absolute ideal, but we don’t usually talk in ideals at RunnersConnect because we don’t work with professional athletes.

We work with people who have a profession and then run on the side. Running is a hobby, running is fun, and running is a way to relieve stress.

Most people will not have an hour of their day where they can devote to stretching and foam rolling.

For most people, that’s just not a reality. If I had to choose one, I mentioned this earlier, if I had to choose one, I’d say go with after.

Even later in the day, let’s say you run every morning, even if you can only do it for five to 10 minutes before bed or while you’re cooking dinner in the evening, that’s going to help as well.

Anything helps. Whatever time works best for you is going to be the best for you because it’s going to lead to the most consistency with the foam rolling.

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Runners Connect fans, that’s it for today. Enjoy your run and don’t forget to submit your questions and we’ll feature you on the show.