My ART guy wants me to roll my calf muscles 5 minutes a day. I started using the quad baller and recently switched to the foam roller. seems I have more sore spots and tightness compared to where I began over a week ago and I haven’t worked out hard for a few days. I don’t think this is helping my foot issue.
I cannot comment on your specific case and whether 5 minutes is over doing it or not.
But my PT regales me with stories of guys who’ve over-cooked it on a foam roller…bruising all kinds of tissue. My PT still recommends it, but he suggests 2-3 minutes only and often recommends I use a towel over the roller to soften the effect.
My personal experience has been that the foam roller is something the body has to become accustomed to using. When I first began “rolling” it was extremely painful and I was forced to limit my time. As I continued to use it, it actually started to feel good to work out the knots and kinks in my muscles. My advice is to start slowly and build up time gradually, but stick with it. You may grow to love it!
I use a roller, I got it from Target, orange “bumpy” balls. It is great. (I also like trigger point stuff too.)
A few years back I had a sports oriented massage therapist work on me. I didn’t have any injuries; but, lotsa tight spots & knots. She told me something that made a lot of sense (would love to hear if it is true or not).
Regarding a “knot” in a muscle: In order to get the muscle fibers back to “normal” it will take a bit of time where you break down the knot slowly. You don’t want to go so hard that the body sees it as an injury, because you’ll be right back to where you were. You want to break down the knot a bit at a time. Of course, I don’t know how much time.
I know many of us here on ST can really “get into” the pain of digging into a muscle - at least I can. But, that might actually be counterproductive. I’ve had better luck working an area with discomfort, but, backing off after a bit, then of course working that same area the next day and so on. In my case the area just above my R Achilles must be a repository of scar tissue from 30 years of running. So, I’ve been working on it for months. I’m sure I’m making progress, but, nothing dramatic day to day.
I don’t know if working an area for an exact time is the answer - This is somewhat of an “art.” I think
Best of luck.
My PT says the same
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Your body needs time to adjust. Start slow and work your way up. Once you do it for some time then your body will respond well. After a couple years you will be looking for significantly more pressure:)
I used one once. For 30 seconds. Tore my calf and had 3 weeks physio… wouldn’t recommend it
As a qualified sports massage therapist I can say you absolutely can “overtreat” a muscle. A foam roller is quite a blunt instrument so it’s no wonder some people find it easy to cause more harm than good.
My PT/MT has told me to never go above a 7-7.5 on the pain scale when treating knots and tightness. Regular consistent work, as with most things in physiology, seems to be the way to go. I’m religious with my rolling but I always make sure not to try and solve any problems the first time I find them. I make a mental note and spread the work out over a number of days while in the sauna. I don’t know if the heat helps at all but I figure it would add some extra “looseness” to my muscles and tendons before I work them out. Also I typically stretch prior to rolling to attempt to stretch the muscles out as long as I can before beginning the process.
Common misinterpretation when using the foam roller is to roll directly on the injured area. Focusing on the painful area can create more inflammation and stress on the already injured muscle and fascia, leading to more tension in the area. You may move to other connecting muscles that can be contributing to your injury.
Another one is you may be staying on the painful spot for too long. I would suggest spending a maximum of 20 seconds only to avoid irritating the inflamed area more. Also, it would be better if you could start gently,first with just half your body weight and slowly progress it into full body weight. Also, instead of 5 minutes, you may limit it to 2-3 minutes only so as not to cause more inflammation in the area.
Releasing the scar tissue and adhesions in your muscles takes time, and usually does not disappear in one sitting. For better results, stretch your muscles too after using the foam rollers. This way, you improve the flexibility of the just loosened scar tissue.
I hope this helps! 