How do you stretch pecs w/ foam roller?
Foam rolling helps my back immensely, as I was rather unkind to it when I was young…
Are people using this Foam Rolling before every workout? Or every so often?
[quote]Null wrote:
How do you stretch pecs w/ foam roller?
[/quote]
www.coreperformance.com/knowledge/movements/foam-roll-pecs.html
There you go.
I use the foam roller pretty regularly to work on my hamstrings, lower back and IT band. It has made a substantial difference.
[quote]ParagonA wrote:
The Mighty Stu wrote:
My personal issue is in attempt to bring up my quad sweep. As I’ve been just killing 'em in the gym, I wonder if I should be addressing some issue besides just the training aspect.
S
My calves are pretty pathetic and are lagging behind my quads and hams. This is the first thing judges told me after competitions. I’ve really been killing them in the gym. I hoped to bring them up a bit by doing foam rolling, massages (once a week) and deep stretching (after every workout). Very decent success, though, after 8 weeks now.
They seem to be less sore or at least soreness goes away quicker now. I’ll keep doing the foam rolling and start to work them on a higher frequency now. Since they seem to recovery faster this may lead to bigger (at least some!) gains.
But up to now I have mixed feelings towards the effectiveness of foam rolling.[/quote]
Also not specially foam rolling but along the same lines, i had a mate who gained about 1/2 an inch on his upper arms in about a month from weekly massage.
I believe it was basically due to released/regenerated tissue damage he had (unawarely) carried… so if that wasn’t there in the first place then his arms wouldn’t have responded as such.
Look at it this way, foam rolling (although it can not give the same affect as a proper massage) is still gonna aid recovery and increase the quality of your muscles as well as helping your flexibility and mobility.
I also believe those DC fellas are onto something with their stretching protocols, but that’s another topic.
My experience has been more like a journey than a single event of any one thing. I like foam rolling to get out some knots and stiffness, but it wasn’t until I had an ART session where I REALLY saw and felt a difference. I went to an ART practitioner to address my rhomboids and hip flexors, and the hell he put me through was worth it.
I heard pops in the soft tissue, and immediately felt better. I was much more relaxed and fluid in my movements. I recall I went to the gym for a back workout right after my ART session, and added 4 more pullups to my max. Not bad huh? But because I used foam rolling and ART, I was more flexible and allowed to stretch further, so in essence I had growth since I was no longer stiff and inflexible.
Bushy I want to ask you this question, do you think something like ART is more effective at addressing muscle stiffness and/or knots within a muscle than foam rolling? Is a massage type of therapy better than foam rolling in your opinion?
I foam roll every time I go to the gym, unless I go twice that day. In fact sometimes I go back at night for an hour of nothing but foam rolling and static stretching on a workout day. Aids in recovery big time.
As other’s have stated, the main reason I see improvement is due to the heightened flexibility. Helps me get through the hole in squatting and helps me get the bar off the ground easier for deadlifts. This obviously in turn leads to strength and muscle gain.
In other words ART makes you flexible, a flexible muscle is a strong muscle, a strong muscle is a big muscle.
I didn’t foam roll today and I don’t like it.
I have never noticed any size increase in muscles from foam rolling.
But after I regularly did some fascial stretches in a book by Ming Chew, I noticed differences in shape of most muscles, but especially calves. The stretches are unusual. In all of them, you pretty much position every part of your body in some weird way designed to stretch along a whole “line” of fascia, and you always actively contract all the antagonists for 60 s.
In many of the different stretches I would feel tightness and stretching in my calves, even for stretches that don’t specifically target calves. After a month or two, I noticed my calves have a better shape, more round and full instead of flat. I saw similar improvements in many other muscles, but the most dramatic was in the calves, which also happen to be the tightest.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
With all the hub bub in the muscle rags lately about stretching the muscle fascia I found myself wondering if anyone has actually been able to achieve noticeable growth by means of fascia stretching, or, more specifically, utilizing foam rollers or similar apparatuses.
S
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How much “hub bub” is there? That was always my reason for bulking up and why I believe those who do can possibly experience more muscle growth. There is more than one way to “stretch muscle fascia” and considering I operated under this idea since I was in college, it’s weird that this is now becoming some widespread idea of muscle function.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
The Mighty Stu wrote:
With all the hub bub in the muscle rags lately about stretching the muscle fascia I found myself wondering if anyone has actually been able to achieve noticeable growth by means of fascia stretching, or, more specifically, utilizing foam rollers or similar apparatuses.
S
How much “hub bub” is there? .[/quote]
The idea of tissue quality and optimal length tension in order to produce maximal force has been around for decades. People who don’t actively work in the fitness/massage/strength industry just haven’t been exposed to it. But it is slowly reaching the masses, albeit with the usual attitude people have when they fear what they don’t understand.
Coaches/Trainers who REALLY (i mean REALLY) know how to address tissue quality were, and still are in the minority, but slowly the dripping water wears away the stubborness of the rock.
Manipulating tissue quality, length tension and mobility is purely an individual thing though. Just because your favourite bodybuilder/athlete or even yourself, has never needed it/was exposed to it/benefited from it, is no reason to say others won’t.
Quality trainers/coaches who can properly assess an indiviaual and give them what they need, instead of giving them what little they know, are also still in the minority. That’s the nature of an industry with a turnover rate of 18 months. So unfortunately right now we have people claiming foam rolling to be the next best thing that everybody needs. Well the truth is not every body does. Only those who need it. And only on on particular muscles. What’s good for Joe is not good for Jim.
And there are better and more effective ways to lengthen muscles than a foam roller. The foam roller is a poor mans deep tissue work.
How do you know if you need it? You won’t be finding out anytime soon from your favourite author who writes articles on the web for free. But it surely won’t hurt. In my experience, the less genetically gifted you are for movement, the more you will need to address tissue quality AS YOU AGE.
Specificity aside, the bottom line that everyone on this website needs to take away from mobility and tissue work is this :
A short/facilitated muscle, 9 times out of 10, is a weak muscle. So maybe your not as strong as you could be.
In response to the question on probable hypertrophy from foam rolling, Yeah, actually, my wife is a Physical therapy assistant and some years back she noticed i had significant adhesions on my lower traps, spinal erectors and front delt (adhesions, i believe could be visualized by picturing a bundle of muscle fibers that are overly tightend and covered by saran wrap)
By loosening the wrap it give those muscle fibres the volumization it was much due to have, And that is exactly what happened to me. my front delts got significantly larger the day after only one session, and my spinal erectors blew up to thick “cable like” proportions, as witnessed by my wife’s camera and even the feel of my erector thickness, + my performance in many movements went “sky high” after it. so yeah it got me larger and stronger. I recommend ART, trigger point and foam rolling.Great stuff
[quote]andersons wrote:
I have never noticed any size increase in muscles from foam rolling.
But after I regularly did some fascial stretches in a book by Ming Chew, I noticed differences in shape of most muscles, but especially calves. The stretches are unusual. In all of them, you pretty much position every part of your body in some weird way designed to stretch along a whole “line” of fascia, and you always actively contract all the antagonists for 60 s. In many of the different stretches I would feel tightness and stretching in my calves, even for stretches that don’t specifically target calves. After a month or two, I noticed my calves have a better shape, more round and full instead of flat. I saw similar improvements in many other muscles, but the most dramatic was in the calves, which also happen to be the tightest. [/quote]
Im definitely gonna check out that book, sounds good, but I had to give u a thanx in order to feel comfortable to do so. So thanx.
I’m certainly not suggesting that this is the great solution for those ‘stubborn’ body parts by any means, simply trying to find out if I should bother spending my time even trying some sort of practice in an effort to improve for next Spring. Obviously every bodybuilder has parts that seem to lag bit behind others, and I would want to know that I did everything I could to address my own issues.
When I first read a few years ago how Cutler would get deep tissue massages once a week, it made sense, but then I just dismissed it as him just sort of pampering himself as an athlete. I’d hate to find out in a few years that I could have made a lot more progress if only I had done one thing that seemed passe -lol.
S
I’m sure Arnold got deep tissue massage on pumping iron for the same reason, not that it proves anything… But at least demonstrates it’s not a “new” idea.
Can someone post a link to the roller they have? I just want to check one out and see if its something I’d be into.
Thanks
IMMORTAL
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
With all the hub bub in the muscle rags lately about stretching the muscle fascia I found myself wondering if anyone has actually been able to achieve noticeable growth by means of fascia stretching, or, more specifically, utilizing foam rollers or similar apparatuses.
I myself made use of a roller only when I injured myself a few years back and was going to PT 3 times a week, and getting bigger was the least of my concerns. Sure there’s been a lot of writing and questioning on here about rolling, but to be honest, I never gave it much credit (my brother the DPT treats some pretty high level athletes, and he thinks it’s a bunch of BS if you’re not actually rehabbing an injury).
Thoughts?
S
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I don’t get any growth from foam rolling; I do this after leg and back day and works wonders on recovery and elasticity.
Another plus I get from self foam rolling or the massage I get once a week, are some incredible spasms/pumps up to 3 hours after workout.
[quote]plateau wrote:
I’m sure Arnold got deep tissue massage on pumping iron for the same reason, not that it proves anything… But at least demonstrates it’s not a “new” idea.[/quote]
Many bodybuilders get deep tissue massage because they feel it helps remove toxins and get rid of scar tissue. They aren’t doing it because they expect to grow directly from it.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
plateau wrote:
I’m sure Arnold got deep tissue massage on pumping iron for the same reason, not that it proves anything… But at least demonstrates it’s not a “new” idea.
Many bodybuilders get deep tissue massage because they feel it helps remove toxins and get rid of scar tissue. They aren’t doing it because they expect to grow directly from it.[/quote]
I thought he talks on camera about it spliting tissue and thus causing growth?
There’s definitely something to it, by allowing more flexibility and frequency o workouts as mentioned.
If anyone wants to check out the Ming Chew book ‘Permanent pain cure’ here’s an open source (free to read) copy here
I started foam rolling when I read some shit by Eric Cressey and Tony Gentilcore. I went to Menards and bout a dowel and foam think for like 4 dollars and it was a great buy.
I believe that it has made me much more flexible, especially in the hips allowing me to deadlift with better form, allowing for more weight. I am also able to do atg squatting very easily now and never experience any pain there now. I’m sure this has lead to strength and some lbm gains, but it has increased my quality of life, which is reason enough for me to continue doing it.
I guess I should also mention that I do a lot of the mobility work found in EC and Mike Robertson’s Magnificent Mobility video too.