Foam Roller for Cyclists
1. Foam Roller in Cycling
2. How to Use a Foam Roller?
3. 7 Benefits of using Foam Roller
4. Exercises with Foam Roller
1. Foam Roller in Cycling
Do you spend a lot of time on your bike? Have you ever experienced muscle pain after many kilometers of riding? Maybe you don’t care about the condition of your muscles. While riding a bike you work in one position all the time with the same movements, it can cause the elasticity of the fascia to deteriorate and trigger points – more painful points on your body. What is fascia? Imagine it as a thin membrane that connects skin, muscles, and ligaments together like a spider web. When glued together, it restricts the mobility of the area and causes pain. It also reduces the proper circulation of blood, which leads to poorer nutrition and muscle oxygenation, and limits the proper removal of metabolic products. The longer you ignore these problems, the more they will start to annoy you. A great solution to this problem is a musculoskeletal and fascist massage performed with a foam roller blind.
2. How to Use a Foam Roller
You need to know how to use it in order to achieve the expected result. How you use the Roller depends mainly on the purpose you want to achieve with it, you can use it both during the warm-up and during the training mute.
Before training, your goal will be to stimulate the tissues properly and give them the necessary flexibility, blood supply and nourishment of the muscles that will work most intensively while riding a bike. To do this, you need to focus on the trigger points present in your body – very painful points within the muscle – when you roll, and to eliminate or reduce the pain at that point. Ischemic and pressure therapy works best in this case, it consists in finding the trigger point within a given muscle by pressing it with the surface of the foam roller and working in the form of stretching and loosening the developed muscle, the whole sequence of stretching is repeated to reduce pain or relieve pain – it will be a sign for you that the condition of the area has improved.
After your workout, your main goal will be to drain metabolites from your cycling routine and relax the muscles you use most during your workout. In order to do this, you should slowly roll along the course of the muscle, adding
The ischemic-resistance therapy described above is worth adding. Massage time of a single muscle group should be at least 1-2 minutes for best results. For cyclists, it will be very important to roll the quadriceps, IT bands, adductors and calves.
The most important thing in rolling is to do it regularly, then its effects will be the best. If it is a training role, wait a while and cool down after you finish your training before rolling.
3. 7 Benefits of Using Foam Roller
Thanks to rolling, you can gain many benefits, such as
– increases mobility and flexibility of the motion system
– accelerates and facilitates muscle regeneration after training
– prevents muscle pain by relaxing the muscles
– maintains a proper muscle balance (balances muscle tension)
– prevents overloads and injuries
– stimulates blood circulation and blood flow through muscles, which results in more effective tissue nutrition and the removal of unnecessary or harmful metabolites
– Release trigger points
Remember, however, that in order to benefit from the advantages of furling, you must do it regularly. If you’ve never done this before, you should be prepared for a lot of pain, but if you can hold on to it and continue to do so despite the pain, you will notice an improvement in your muscles with each session.
4. Exercises with Foam Roller
4.1 Foam roller for IT band
The IT band is a place where cyclists should take special care, neglected often causes severe pain on the side of the knee. This is a specific region because it has a significant tendency to lose flexibility and trigger points. When rolling, you must position yourself sideways as if you were on a side plank, the leg you are going to massage is straight and placed on a roller. Place the opposite leg in front of you and support your weight on it. Massage the area below the hip plate by going down to the knee with the roller, but not on the knee.
4.2 Foam roller for legs
Another sensitive area is the group of adductor muscles, which, if neglected and shrunk, can affect knee swaying, and the hamstring group (back of the thigh), which tends to shorten and contract. To roll the adductors, position the roller perpendicular to the massaged leg and move it from the hips towards the knee, but without getting on the knee. When you feel a more painful place, stop in it by straightening and bending the leg several times, thanks to which the roller will penetrate your tissues more strongly and will allow you to loosen the trigger points.
To roll the hamstring group sit on the roller and position it below the buttocks, support yourself with your hands behind your back and massage the entire rear part of your thigh without entering the roller under your knee! It is worth to weigh down the opposite foot of the massaged one, in order for the roller to enter the muscles more strongly.
4.3 Foam roller on calves
Calves is an area which, when there is too much muscle tension in it, can lead to contractions, especially in the case of increased activity. In order to relax the calves we massage in a position similar to the hamstring group, but the roller is placed on the crus and massage in the direction of the Achilles tendon. If you come across a painful place, stop for a moment in it and move your foot away from yourself and towards yourself. You can also make circular movements. To increase the load you can use the opposite leg and increase the load on it.
4.4 Foam roller quads
Riding a bike you spend a lot of time in a sitting position, in which there is constant tension in the straight thigh muscle (one of the quads head), and while pedalling most of the work is done by a whole group of quads, if you do not take care of their condition in time, it can lead to their overload and as a result of injury. In order to develop this muscle group well, you place your thigh on a roller, the opposite leg is bent to the side. You massage the entire front thigh along the course of the muscles, i.e. from the hip to the knee – without getting on the knee! When you come across a trigger point, you stop there and stretch your leg for a moment alternately relaxing by bending and straightening the leg in the knee. At first, it will certainly cause you a lot of pain, but you have to withstand it because with time it will get better and better.
Do not be discouraged by the initial considerable pain of these exercises, because only regular use of them will allow you to fully take care of the good condition of your legs, and yet for the cyclist is most important to cover long distances without the occurrence of pain.
