Not To Be Trusted With Knives

Roll It!

September 13, 2012 by Beth

As I mentioned previously, my IT band hates me and I bought a foam roller to try to torture said IT band into submission. Foam rollers, for the uninitiated, are cylinders made of styrofoam that you roll your body over to work out knots (a.k.a., “trigger points”) and tightness of your various body parts. My massage therapist has mentioned rollers to me, and this past weekend at school several of my classmates said that rollers are the best thing since sliced bread if sliced bread could fix IT band issues. They also told me that rolling would hurt like a mofo the first few times I did it. They were not lying.

Now that I’ve been rolling for a few days, though, I am screaming in pain significantly fewer times than the first and second day of rolling, so I’m going to consider that progress.

Here’s me rolling out my IT band:

… and my hamstrings:

I’ve discovered that my worst trigger points seem to be in my quads, right above me knees:

There was *a lot* of screaming when I did my quads the first few times. But when those trigger points released – heaven!

And after last night’s hockey game – my first in many months – I definitely needed to roll my back:

This article says that the trigger points and IT band issues I’m getting are common for “experienced” runners rather than newbies, so I guess that means I’ve graduated to “real runner” status?

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