Foam Roller Exercises

Flexibility Exercises With A Foam Roller Are A Great Way To Loosen Up Tight Muscles

Foam roller exercises are a simple, yet effective, way to improve your flexibility. Improving your flexibility will not only affect your performance with athletic activities such as golf, but it will also help posture and muscle efficiency, among many other things.

Rollers act in a similar manner to a deep tissue massage. They put deep pressure onto your tissues which helps them to relax and loosen. However, they should not be used as a replacement to traditional stretches as a sole means to increase flexibility. Use them as an adjunct to those exercises, or as a warmup or cool down to your workout.

For a more complete view of the benefits of stretching, please follow this link.

This page will focus on some general foam roller exercises for your core and upper body. Please follow these links for my other pages of foam roller exercises for your legs, and back.

When looking at the upper body exercises that you want to assess, the two largest muscles will be the pectoralis major and the latisimus dorsi, or lat. Even though the lat attaches to fascia around your low back, it primarily works on your shoulder, so I will simply classify it as part of the upper body.

Not only are these two muscles large, but they are quite powerful as well. However, problems arise when either one, or both, are tight. Since they are so strong, they can very easily over power smaller muscle groups which leads to imbalances. This can have significant implications on your golf swing, sapping your of not only range of motion, but power as well.

I normally utilize a roller in two ways: rolling back and forth over the muscle group, and then holding the pressure over tender areas for about 30 seconds. But feel free to experiment yourself!

1. Pec Stretch:

-Lie on your back on top of the roller, with it in line with your spine. Your head should be resting at one end of the roller, and your tailbone at the other.

-Bend your knees for stability.

-Move your arms out to each side, so that both arms and your body form a "T". Bend your elbows to 90 degree angles.

-Let gravity do the stretching! Perform 3-5 reps, of 20-30 seconds each.

2. Pec Stretch 2:

-Lie on your stomach with your arm extended overhead and the pec resting on one end of the foam roller.

-Using your arms and legs, move your body back and forth, rolling out your pec.

-10 to 15 reps.

3. Lat Stretch:

-Lie on your back on top of the roller, with it in line with your spine. Your head should be resting at one end of the roller, and your tailbone at the other.

-Bend your knees for stability.

-Keep your arms straight and lift them overhead, and feel the stretch.

-Hold 20-30 seconds, perform 3-5 reps.

4. Lat Stretch 2:

-Lie on your side, on top of the roller, with your arms overhead.

- Use your legs to roll back and forth around your shoulder blade.

-10-15 reps.

5. Mid Back:

-Lie on top of the roller, with the foam roller perpendicular to your body and contacting you between your shoulder blades.

-Bend your knees.

-Slightly elevate your rear end, and roll your body back in forth from your shoulder blades to the bottom of your rib cage.

-10-15 reps.

6. Rotator Cuff:

-With the foam roller perpendicular to your body, lie on top of it with the contact area being the outside of your shoulder blade.

-Use your legs to roll back and forth 10-15 reps.

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