There is a lot of information circulating the internet these days about foam
rolling. From holy praise in one article to heavy criticism in the next, it can
be a little difficult to figure out what to believe. Here’s our two-cents worth on
foam rolling — when and where it can be appropriate and where to avoid
using it.
Let’s talk about the IT Band first.
Many of us have at least heard of
this structure in the outside of our
thighs, but what do we really know
about it?
For starters it’s not a muscle but a
thick band of fascia that connects
to the pelvis and the knee, linking
a whole bunch of surrounding
musculature. And it’s notoriously
tight. But rather than being a bad
thing, the IT band is actually MEANT
to be tight. What!? Yes, indeed
there is such a thing as good
tension. Because it is not a muscle,
it has almost zero contractility and
cannot readily change length
to accommodate the actions of
the body. The primary action of
the Iliotibial Band is to stabilize the
knee, and to do this effectively, it
needs to be taut.
So the first thing we need to do is
to dispel the idea that we need to
loosen it – we don’t, and chronic
foam rolling of the IT Band can
cause issues. I’ve actually heard
someone say “roll right up onto
your IT Band, and if it hurts then it’s
too tight”. In fact, if we accept this
kind of logic we’ll all be rolling out
our IT Bands until the end of time,
because it’s always going to hurt.
This is not to say that all foam rolling
is bad. In fact, it can be quite
useful on many fronts: self-healing
in between massage treatments,
flexibility
training,
athletic
preparation
and
warm-down
protocols after intense workouts.
These benefits are found when we
roll muscle tissue.
Going back to the above
example of the IT Band — if you’re