181. 7 Foam Roller Exercises for Runner Recovery with Dr. Duane Scotti

The people say like to foam roll and just doesn't feel like it's doing anything for me or You know, you don't feel any relief. You don't feel loose after it Then it might be too light like if I hopped on this blue one right here like this would do nothing for me I'd be like I don't feel like I just wasted my time right so if if that's you then think about increasing the intensity of your foam roll Are you constantly worried about getting injured or you don't know how to get faster as a runner and you want to continue to run for stress relief Then this is the podcast for you. Welcome to healthy runner The only place that provides you with training tips injury recovery and prevention tools with actionable strategies By experts in the running industry so you can develop a stronger running body and feel confident that you can overcome any obstacle as a runner I'm your host Dr. Dwayne Scotty Avid runner running physical therapist and coach educator founder of Swark Healthy Runner Where we help dedicated runners get stronger run faster and enjoy lifelong injury free running with the perfect online running coach Even if you've been told to stop running with an injury or you think coaching is just for fast runners Learn more about our signature coaching program at learn.spark healthy runner.com Every week on the show we coach you to grow as a runner Just like the process of building a strong Durable home that will last a lifetime requiring little maintenance the design and planning is your mindset The foundation is your strength training the framing is your run plan the electrical and plumbing is your nutrition The insulation drywall and flooring is your recovery the landscaping and exterior is your race strategy If you master the six parts of growing as a runner your running will be strong and last long hitting PRs well into your 40s 50s and beyond Every week we help a runner just like you build their dream home. I'm your host Dr. Dwayne Scotty welcome to the Healthy Runner podcast Hey runner, don't know what to do After your runs to optimize recovery Have you ever felt like your muscles are tight your legs are heavy or you just have that knot that needs to be released Phone rolling can help increase blood flow stimulate your nervous system and allow you to release your muscles all on your own If you do it consistently this can maintain your flexibility mobility and Prevent your muscles from overcompensating during your running to allow you to move more freely and limit your risk for potential injuries In this episode, I'm going to share with you my seven foam roller exercises that will change your running game forever No matter if you're a beginner runner just starting out or an experienced runner training for another marathon These have been the tried true and tested favorites that I have done Personally and are the very same exercises that I've programmed for clients either getting out of hip pain knee pain or even foot and ankle pain My name is Dr. Dwayne Scotty. I'm a running physical therapist coach educator and my mission is to help preserve the health and longevity of runners everywhere By allowing them to get stronger run faster and enjoy lifelong injury free running in today's training I'm going to go over what is foam rolling The benefits of foam rolling should foam rolling hurt What are the different types of foam rollers out there? And I'm going to share with you my seven foam roller exercises for running recovery And then we're going to talk about what is the best time to foam roll how long should you foam roll? And then we'll even get into roller stick massages if you have one of these when you don't have a foam roller handy So nine out of ten runners listening to this right now will get injured and one of the most common reasons Four runners getting injured during their hard race training cycles is not taking proper recovery from the hard runs They're doing and there are simple strategies We can implement to tolerate the demands that half marathon and marathon training offer Trying to grow as a runner is overwhelming and if you don't have specific exercises for recovery Here's what's at stake you do random stretching exercises without any purpose rhyme or reason your legs constantly feel heavy during your runs You just feel like you can't go any faster your muscles always feel sore for the next workout or run You keep getting hip knee ankle pain every time you train for half marathon or marathon You guess instead of following specific targeted exercises and you wind up just thinking that you are too old for running And that leads to frustration and feeling constantly overwhelmed with the amount of Information overload out there and I don't want that for you We at Spark Healthy Runner don't want that for you and we have a plan on how to recover as a runner So you can keep doing the thing that you love and run for longevity And it's not a plan that most adult runners are following as a running physical therapist and coach I've given thousands of runners a plan for optimizing recovery and our plan will work for you too Here's what you need to do all you need to do is just stay tuned and listen to why these exercises will help you Next download my seven foam roller exercises instructional video in which I talk you through all of the exercises You will learn about today So you we can do them together So the link to download that is in the show notes if you want to check out those exercises right now And then come back and listen to the rest of what I have to say and share with you about foam rolling So this is like the deep dive episode on foam rolling And then what you need to do is perform these consistently on a weekly basis And start feeling refreshed and more confident in growing as a runner So if you've been listening to this healthy runner podcast or youtube channel for a while You know that we help you grow in your running journey with our spark healthy runner six step plan Personally, I know how hard it is to grow as a runner heck It took me 12 years to come up with this six step framework and there are six parts of your running journey That need to be optimized so you can run strong and last long. What are those parts? One is mindset two strength training three your run plans and the types of runs For your nutrition so you can fuel for your runs Five is recovery Six is the race strategy and when we execute the six parts of your running journey You'll not only feel more confident In getting stronger and running faster you'll stay healthy and enjoy the process of running again And crush some races along the way. So in today's episode I'm going to teach you about the quote-unquote non sexy part of being a runner And it's filling the recovery bucket The often forgotten about the one every one ignores Recovery is actually a part of your training And you can get actually the latest spark healthy runner ebook free resource The ultimate guide to recovery for runners with a ton of supplemental resources Visuals video content that will help provide context for what you will learn about today So you can feel fresh reduce fatigue and stay healthy for running With proper recovery using this seven step plan So you will learn how to incorporate rest days Sleep Phone rolling where we're going to talk about today Massage Stretching Compression socks and proper foot care These have been the specific strategies that have kept all of the runners that I work with on a one-on-one basis As they're running physical therapist and coach to stay healthy running by optimizing recovery So they can finally learn how to get over their injury for good and never have a comeback again During the next training cycle So go ahead and download your free ebook by going to learn.spark healthy runner.com forward slash recovery And get the resource and get all the bonus content. So before we get into the exercises Last thing I want to answer your running related question on the podcast So what questions do you have for me? I know you have questions So you can actually get your question answered on the next Ask Dwayne episode On the healthy runner podcast Simply click the link in the show notes to contribute your running injury Training nutrition or fun related question for me Or any of our healthy runner coaching team And we'll be sure to add it to the next Ask Dwayne episode on the podcast These are always my favorite episodes because I know these questions are actually coming from you The listener and these episodes are the ones in which I get to answer your questions directly So thank you in advance for continuing to add value to our podcast community And just check out the Ask Dwayne link in the show notes So let's get into today's topic Phone rolling. What is it? What are these phone rollers? Right? These are like all the rave in the past. I don't know 10 to 20 years You know, what does phone rolling really do? And before I kind of Talk about what the actual phone roller does. I need to talk to you about like what it's intended to treat Why are we using it? So we're really using it to impact our muscles and the Covering around our muscles or our connective tissue network, which we call fascia So this is like the covering around all the stuff in our body So it's interweaved patterns and it wraps around our organs our bones our muscles our tendons our ligaments and even our brain matter Believe it or not, right? So these I think of this as like this saran wrap around our muscles and This wraps around those muscles our joints and this fascia can actually become irritated or inflamed and it can cause pain and certain individuals and You know, that's kind of the the minor Like collection of individuals and the clinic we treat that like myel fascial penis syndrome That someone could have really sensitivity of that fascia and cause pain from most you listening to this right now You know, you guys are pretty much healthy You might have a little lingering injury or some runners knee or some shin splints or some planar fasciitis But you know, it is not really the myel fascial pain syndrome scenario What you most likely have is that you feel tightness and you feel that this connective tissue covering is Essentially restricted or tight and over time as runners if we leave this alone The fascia can actually harden it can impair movement and circulation So when you feel a knot in any type of muscle We know that those knots those trigger points are build up of fluids toxins adhesions and even some scar tissue within the fascia And if we leave those let's say untreated for a while then you know, it could Potentially impact like our lymphatic system of our body So when a group of muscles is like stiff That's left for a long period of time This can actually limit our range of motion or the movement we have in our joints in our body And then that leads to other muscles actually compensating and this is actually what can put you at a potential risk factor of Suffering one of the common running related injuries So what are the benefits of doing foam rolling like why would I recommend that you actually foam roll as a runner And the reason I would recommend you to foam roll on a daily basis is Foam rolling can really help loosen our soft tissue and help really increase the blood flow So research has shown that some tight fascia may limit your range of motion I already mentioned that before but There is a a relationship at least a correlation between Facial thickness and flexibility and foam rolling is actually a self Myo fascia release technique That we can actually help the fascia be more pliable so your muscles can move more easily and more efficiently And this foam rolling can help prevent the tightness feeling that you experience in a particular muscle So whether it's like you know, you're really stressed out at work And you got a lot of stress you got this like tight not in your neck right your upper trap is like a common one I'll never forget like the day of my wedding actually You know just being nervous for that like epic event Like my shoulders were shrugged up in my tuxedo I had the worst trigger point the worst not in my upper trap Luckily one of the one of the dudes in my bridal party. He was a PT Who's my good buddy from PT school So he was doing some like soft tissue work on me while we were doing like the photo shoot But yeah like I'm sure you guys have been there You can relate when like a muscle just feels like really really tight and If we can kind of prevent some of that tightness with some foam rolling then we can improve motion And then speed up some muscle recovery The other thing that I really like foam rolling for runners is to help stimulate your nervous system So it can really serve to add in sensory input when we roll over this where stimulating our sensory system We have nerves underneath our skin We stimulate those nerves those nerves send signals up to our brain our higher brain centers And then those send signals down to muscles that may be a little sleepy especially Those you know early morning runners that are up. I just had one of my clients comment And saying how much better she felt when she went for a run after six a.m Then the early morning ones at four or five So we need to like wake up our nervous system wake up the muscles that are kind of sleepy And for some of you you might have some muscles that are inhibited if you don't dedicate you know Strength training and like working your run specific muscles So doing some foam rolling is going to help add input into that nervous system through sensory stimulation So that you know your muscles are turned on they got some input before You do some of your muscle activation before your run or you do your dynamic warm up before those runs It's going to feel a lot better You're going to feel those muscles be able to engage a little bit more So should this is like a big huge misconception here because I have some you know runners who are like I tried foam rolling my tea band And you know, it's just too painful like I can't do it And or you know, they're like no pain no gain, you know, it hurts like hell, but you know, I'm going to continue to foam roll So should foam rolling hurt? The answer's no foam rolling should not hurt should not be the most painful experience in your life All right, so let's talk about the different types of foam rollers So this one that I have right here So if you're listening to this on the podcast you guys might want to watch the YouTube Video version of this because I got some samples here and some visuals. So this type of foam roll Is a little bit of a lower density. It's actually got Scotty name on it because I got this from my daughter when she was like five In gymnastics and it's not intense at all. So it's a little softer material a lot of the foam rollers that are the white color Those are like the soft foam material. So it's pretty pliable like it moves right it's not like super firm So it's not going to be as Painful or discomfort when you're rolling over something like this Right, and then as we get into increased density So the ones that are like still made out of foam, but they're usually the black color That's a more dense foam roller. I don't have a sample of that right here But I got this guy behind me if you can see that's more of a harder plastic Which is definitely a lot more intense and then You know, you really have the other ones that I'm sure you guys have seen that's like a PVC pipe on the inside It maybe has a soft covering on the outside put on the inside. That's like very firm Right, so when you put your body weight on that you put a muscle on it It's going to feel a lot more intense and then we can get to like the guy I love here, which is the rumble roller So this has got the knobs on it and they got two different intensities the blue one the black one as you can see Big fan of the black one here a little bit more intense But I guess my my main point here is that this shouldn't be Painful for you and if you're new to foam rolling you never foam rolled before then It is going to be a little sensitive for your tissues and it does take time for you to actually De-sensitize some of these tissues and maybe loosen them up a little bit So this shouldn't be like you know riding pain worst experience of your life If it is painful for you Then you definitely need to adjust the intensity of the exercises by either taking off pressure On your legs by using more your upper body So if you push with your upper body against the floor That's going to take your body weight off of your legs and the foam roller So it makes it a little less intense or just get a lighter foam roller than the one that you have Um, and you know start with the softer ones And then you're going to probably get to a point where you feel like hey this I don't really feel like this is doing much Or if you're currently foam rolling or you've tried it before and you're like I don't know The people say like to foam roll and just doesn't feel like it's doing anything for me or You know, you don't feel any relief. You don't feel loose after it Then it might be too light like if I hopped on this blue one right here like this would do nothing for me I'd be like I don't feel like I just wasted my time, right? So if if that's you then think about increasing the intensity of your foam roll The other tips that I have for you is you can add more weight by either Putting more body weight Three or legs less through the arms or stacking one leg on top of the other like the calf muscles an easy one If you guys think about you know, just putting one leg over the other for your calf muscle. It's going to be more body weight down on the foam roll where there are some Exercises like the quads when we get into that one That you can actually do one leg at a time as opposed to both So with both legs it kind of makes it a little easier less aggressive And then you could increase the aggressiveness by doing one leg and Then even shifting your body weight toward that leg. So you'll see that in the instructional video that I mentioned before It's time to take a real quick break and before I say anymore I truly hope the message so far today has benefited you either from a running or a health standpoint maintaining healthy feet or one of the critical parts to growing as a runner staying in line with that theme I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you one of my favorite recovery brands on the market today And that is neboso It's a company that is dedicated to redefining what's underneath your feet so you can feel more to move better as a runner From a movement prep before your runs to foot recovery after those hard speed workouts or long runs Neboso's texture products lets your senses guide you and connects you to your exercises and your running By strengthening your feet and helping you recover from those runs Want to learn more on how you as a runner can activate strengthen and recover from running? Listen to episode 116 on this podcast to learn from neboso founder the diatrist and human movement specialist dr. Emily splickle herself dr. Emily shared with us the importance of foot stability for runners What is century simulation the benefits of toe spacers and barefoot training for running? There's so much value in this episode So be sure to go back and queue up episode 116 on the health runner podcast to listen to during your next long run And learn about why I just love my neboso products to get me through my personal training I've been using neboso splay which are toe spacers that are flexible to help improve circulation at least once a day Once I take my shoes off for the day, and I've just noticed a considerable improvement in my toe alignment from my hammer toes I also love the neboso recovery ball to get out any trigger points in my foot muscles as well as the recovery socks That are textured and feel like a massage for my feet after my hard runs And I even like them better knowing that they help stimulate my nervous system to enhance muscle activation and movement With their patent and textured surface on the inside of the sock I really couldn't imagine honestly half marathon or marathon training without the help and assistance of neboso's products Which is help keep me healthy as a runner You can learn more about neboso's textured products and how it connects you to your exercises and your running By strengthening your feet and helping you recover from your runs since you're a part of our healthy runner community You'll get 20% off all of your orders just use code healthy runner during checkout When placing your order using the special link we have for you in the show notes go ahead and give neboso a try And your feet will thank you for it. I know mine already have now. Let's get back into this episode So Let's get into my Seven foam roller exercises for running recovery and I am like very very excited to share this with you all because For those long time listeners of the podcast and so we're talking three years now When we first started the podcast I did create a video of my top five foam roll exercises for runners And it really hit you know the most important Five foam roll exercises, but at that time like let's be honest. I was in office. I really didn't know what I was doing Like I took some decent videos like you could see what's happening in the videos And you might have seen these before it's one of the most popular you know videos on my youtube channel But you know, I don't really explain how to do it So this new instructional video you have me talking you through the actual exercise We got some better visuals of you know what to do and then we also have two Kind of bonus exercises that I've you know been recommending to my runners for years now So those are kind of incorporated in so if you saw the old video then you're going to want to check out the new updated version This is like the foam rolling 2.0 video version and The first muscle group that I'm going to start with the first foam roll exercise Four runners that honestly all of you should be doing this one like everyone listening to this right now Needs to be foam rolling your calf muscles Why do you need to foam roll your calf muscles? This is By far the most common muscle that I find tight on runners So when we go through kind of the runners I work with we go through a run body performance assessment We look your ankle mobility. We look your flexibility This is the muscle group that tends to be the tightest on runners in general And it's also the most common impairment to be linked to the most common Injuries that runners get such as planar fasciitis. It can at least tend it off at the posterior tibial pain and then even knee pain believe it or not So runners knee or patellar moral pain syndrome has been linked to decreased ankle mobility so that's actually been shown in research And there is a link between the two so if you can actually improve your ankle mobility and your calf flexibility which Could increase your ankle mobility depending upon what your joint restriction looks like Then you can help prevent a lot of of those four common running related injuries. I just mentioned So again, it is something common that I find in a lot of runners So I would I'm always about being proactive here, right? So if you don't have any of those problems like let's prevent them Right from occurring in the first place And the reason why I think this occurs is because out of all of the muscles in our legs when we are running The majority of the time we should be doing as you know around 80% of our runs that are slow conversational easy pace, right? When we're running in a slower piece The percentage of muscle contraction out of all the muscles in our legs that are working the hardest that are working the most out of Kind of the most percentage is our calf muscle So our calf muscles are working a lot Essentially every step we take as runners and if they're contracting contracting contracting You never stretch them after a run and you never foam roll over time Months years they are going to tighten up and they're going to limit your flexibility in the ankle And then that is going to create problems because that's going to start to add stress to tendons and our tendons don't like that stress So How do we do this calf foam rolling? This is I'm going to try to give you the description again It's going to be better for you to watch the video version But those listening on the podcast as you're running right now. I want you to kind of envision this right you got a foam roller on the ground. You're going to place your calf muscle over it You're going to turn your toe in to release the inside part of your calf muscle your calf muscle your big calf muscle the gas Muscle is made up of two heads you got a medial head on the inside the lateral head on the outside So go ahead and scan the inside part of that gas stock muscle and See does it feel tight? Do I have some trigger points in here and then scan the outside part Does that feel tight up at the top part? You might actually feel a trigger point. That's a common spot for a trigger point Some runners are going to feel tighter on the inside Some we're going to feel tighter on the outside It usually depends on what your foot type is usually those that have a higher arch Keep us foot type rigid are going to have more issues on the outside calf muscle And I found those with the flatter foot types the over pronators usually have more Issues on the inner calf muscle But you're going to roll that inner part you're going to roll the outer part and then you're going to place your foam roller Right between where your calf muscle meets your Achilles tendon that is what we call the musculos tendon is junction So this is like a group band muscle and fascia connective tissue goes into the heart Achilles tendon, which is very rope like I find a lot of restrictions here So a lot of soft tissue restrictions there So when I was in the clinic we would do a lot of instrument assisted soft tissue release So the grass in right you've probably been to rehab before you see these stainless steel instruments and the therapist would roll over that area You can do that with your foam roller right so roll over that area spend a little time there And then the big key thing that I love for the calf muscle for runners is to incorporate active motion as you do this So I want you to actually flex your ankle and point it flex it and point it go back and forth as you roll over the foam roller That will help get some more blood flow into the area remember that's what we're trying to do is increase blood flow stimulate our nervous system and really kind of promote more of this looseness feeling that we sense and that we feel So that's how you do the calf muscle and then second muscle that we're going to release is the hamstring muscle So this kind of works easily because you start it to calf you go up you just Place foam roller a little higher than the knee So now we're on the hamstring muscles, you know, who do I recommend rolling the hamstrings definitely are hamstring tendonopathy runners of you have upper hamstring pain PhD proximal hamstring tendonopathy Many of you have seen my resources for that I got a whole ebook on it, but You know a lot of times we get trigger points in the actual muscle belly Even when you're having that hamstring pain Other runners that you know are going to really have issues with some tightness in the hamstring that might cause problems is If you're hamstring dominant and you have a Achilles tendon pain A lot of times that because of the pain that you're in you wind up like compensating with the hamstrings Other runners that it's common see this if you've ever been told You know that you've been to a therapist and they're like well your glutes aren't turning on or you know Got some glute amnesia and they're just like not activating where you just know you have issues with your glutes and using your glutes with running Maybe got like a little flatter butt back there And you know when you're standing your hips like go forward And you know you're not really using your glutes a lot most likely you're running a lot with your hamstrings So what we need to do is to actually activate your glutes and strengthen those glutes and we actually have a whole glute guide On my website learn.spark healthy runner.com To get your glute guide to learn how to actually Strengthen those glutes, but we want to release the hamstrings So we want to relax the hamstrings treat some trigger points in that area How do we do it? We actually take the same approach that we did with the calf muscle We're going to release on the inside part of the hamstrings We have two muscles that go on the inside part and then we have a Outside hamstring muscle your biceps from Morris not your biceps breaky in the arm there So we want to spend some time there find out which one's tighter on you if one side feels tighter than every time You formal spend a little bit more time on the inside or on the outside You find out what feels tightest what feels restricted and then you're going to spend some time in that area and wait for it to kind of release All right, so that's the hamstring muscles. So it's muscle number two So now muscle number three or muscle group. How do you foam roll the glutes? The quick answer is you really don't foam roll the glutes Because usually don't have to foam roll your glutes tell you the truth But what I do recommend you really foam roll is the muscle underneath your glutes Called the pure form of this muscle you might have heard about it before you might have had a spasm You might have a history of SI joint dysfunction Which is pain on the one side of kind of your lower back buttic area We actually did a whole episode on five types of low back pain and runners if you want to check that out to see if you have SI joint this function This would be someone who would want to release the piriformis or if you have the rare what we call piriformis syndrome And you have this deep buttic pain not at your sit bone not the pht that I mentioned before But it's higher than your sit bone and it's kind of like right in the center of your butt area And it just feels tight it feels like it's in spasm That is what we call piriformis syndrome and your piriformis could be a little tight. It could be in spasm Um a lot of times I find this muscle tight and over working or weak In runners with posterior tibial pain because the piriformis muscle is the anti pronator at the hip And those that get posterior tibial pain It's due to overpronation where that muscle or tendon I should say is being kind of overloaded So usually we'll find those that kind of go hand in hand So those would really be the runners that I would recommend you know rolling out the piriformis muscle Especially if you are one that you know you overpronate a lot You're gonna want to definitely make sure you spend a little time on the piriformis muscle How do we do this we cross one leg over the other so we sit on the foam roller Cross one leg over the other Find that tender spot in the muscle you're gonna kind of need to angle your body roll a little bit in one direction versus the other Find a tender spot you will find one in there like most of you will find a tender spot once you find it Now you're gonna roll over that tender spot. You can also do like what we call a little pin and stretch here like a release Where you actually just hold it in that spot that is tender All right, the fourth muscle group or structure that you're gonna use your foam roller for and this is one that pretty much Recommend for all runners is the dreaded IT band but but I'm gonna tell you there's this big butt here because well back loops, right? so The IT band guys don't roll directly over it So I will repeat again for those of you in the back row Do not roll right over your IT band. All right, this usually will be just very painful very unpleasant experience for you I have found a lot better results Rolling just in front of the IT band and just behind the IT band. So let me share with you first who Would want to roll their IT band or why it's important for runners to roll their IT band It's really preventing two of the most common running related injuries in runners Number one is runners knee which we see a lot in our beginner runners or you're just taking up running for You know the first couple years of your running journey. So that's this diffuse pain on your front ear knee cap It's gonna be painful whenever you go up and down stairs whenever you squat whenever you run up hills That's what we call patella formal pain syndrome or runners name just to use the common public term Runners knee can be caused by maltracking of the knee cap One of the structures that could be tight and cause contribute to that maltracking is a tight IT band. Okay the other Thing that you've probably heard about before is IT band syndrome. So ITBS or this sharp pain on the outside And this is more common in our marathoners So more the experienced runner especially training for your first marathon second marathon third or really starting to like get more consistent training And more like hardcore training. So maybe you invested in working with a run coach now And you've never done that before and now you're doing speed work And now maybe you're adding in like faster running workouts into your long runs Or now you're actually training at different elevations and you're doing long runs that are very hilly Those are the runners who get iliotibio band syndrome and it's usually on that 14-16 18-miler leading up to the marathon and this unfortunately causes such sharp pain a lot of times It prevents most runners from actually Getting to the start line in the marathon because it is very very painful where they just have to walk and then they wind up You know a couple weeks out from the marathon. Unfortunately not getting to the start line So again, I have ebook on that as well If you've had IT band syndrome and didn't know how to kind of get over it but Those are definitely going to be the runners that you're going to really want to roll your IT band and you know Make sure that you dedicate time to that So there's a couple of tips here First off the IT band is technically a tendon. It's a super long But it's it's like connective tissue. It's it's literally fascia like what I mentioned before It's not a muscle the muscle is a small muscle up your hip called the tensor fascia lata No, that is not a Starbucks drink, right? It's called the TFL and it's this muscle on the front corner of Our hip This muscle actually is very overactive in so many runners who are not using their side hip muscles the glute medius muscle so What we want to do is definitely glute me strengthening and we've talked about that many times before how to do that We have exercise for that But then also releasing the TFL and the IT band and how do we do that with the foam roller right so How I really love to do this first is release the muscle first So you'll see you have to kind of lie on the foam roller not like totally on your stomach Not totally on the side halfway in between like a 45 degree angle you're getting to the front outside corner of your hip Find that muscle underneath the big bone in the front of your hip So it's right under the pelvis you're going to find that muscle and it's usually going to feel pretty tender Because like I said a lot of your runners are overusing it to begin with and you probably have some trigger points in there So you're gonna find that muscle you're gonna find the tender spot You're gonna hold there You're gonna roll it a little bit And then I like to do a little hold and actually rotate over that muscle So you get a little pin and stretch get a little thoracic rotation a little more bang for your buck who doesn't like a little bogo, right? So improve your thoracic Rotation as you actually release that muscle and then when you go to release the band remember how I said before Not to actually go right directly for the kill on the outside We're gonna do is you're gonna angle your body slightly forward So you get just in front of the band then you're gonna roll there and then you're gonna angle your body slightly behind the band Backward so you get just behind the band this will cause a decompressive effect to the IT band and actually feel much more comfortable And I found such better results once I started doing this I really took this principle that I learned in a continued education course the grass and technique with the instruments I mentioned before That's how they promote actually treating the IT band is releasing just in front just behind So then I was like, well, why don't I actually do this with my foam roll? Let me try it out Let me give it a whirl, right? So guys, I'm always constantly learning and implementing just like you And I tried it out and I loved how it felt on myself tried it on many many patients and worked wonders I was getting better results with my IT band patients and my runners knee patients So that's how I recommend you roll your IT band is just in front just behind I know it's a little complicated to describe so please check out the video so you can see what I'm actually talking about All right fifth muscle or fifth foam rolling exercise for runners is gonna be the quads So why would you actually roll your quads? Because many of you quite frankly are quad dominant especially if you come from sports such as soccer field hockey lacrosse right like all of those like running sports are very very quad dominant You probably have really well-developed quads and You probably get really tightness and you get a lot of tightness in your quads So if you've ever had front of the hip pain if you've ever had low back pain and you've been told like your back arches a whole lot or you have an anterior pelvic tilt You know those are kind of the classic Folks that will have tightness in the quads Or if you've had runners knee So one of the contributing factors to runners knee is tightness of the quad muscle So if you have some decreased length in your quads specifically the rectus muscle Which is one of the four quad muscles and it's a two joint muscle across is your hip that's why I kind of I'm talking about the hip a little bit here Then we want to release that muscle. So how do we do that? Best way is actually to start out by doing both legs and this is why I show in the instructional video is start out with both legs I like to actually do both legs and then I definitely like to incorporate the active motion just like we did for the calf muscle So where you actually bend and straighten your knee as you're rolling the front of your thigh And then also scanning the inside part of your quad versus the outside most of you I would imagine 99% of you are going to be tighter on the outside part of the quad Because again that connects to the IT band and we're usually tighter on the outside part of our quad muscle And then find a tender spot The other thing I really love to do is to actually Go up at the top attachment of that rectus muscle that I mentioned and hold it there and then bend and straighten the knee So you're doing the self release of the muscle kind of you're pinning it and then you're bending and straightening the knee Which gives a little release and then you can release the rest of the muscle in the thigh area And then you can progress this to doing one leg at a time to make it more aggressive kind of mention that earlier And then also add more weight on that side so you can like lean your body weight Really to that side to make it even a little bit more aggressive But you want to start out gentle guys like again, it shouldn't be painful You want to think about this fascia is layers And we want to think like the outer covering layer Like let's be gentle and release that layer and if all feels good then we go deeper into the tissues We don't like directly go for the kill right away Right like if someone you know just grab your muscle that had a big trigger point like jam their thumb into right You're gonna jump right your body's gonna like what the heck did you just do right? So the same thing you want to do With our foam rolling exercises I hope you are enjoying this episode and it is providing value for you I wanted to take a brief moment to share a story of a real runner like you who is struggling with a common problem that you may be facing Here is one of our athletes who got the guidance support and accountability from our healthy runner coaching team to get clarity and Structure on the six steps to growing as a runner with personalized strength nutrition and run plans I hope their story inspires you that there is hope to either get over your running injury or to continue getting faster Or running longer so you can continue to get in those mental clearing miles and enjoy your running journey again Here is their inspiring story Hi y'all my name is Ann and just wanted to share my story and journey with spark running So I had developed shin splints about 12 years ago To the point of actually almost having stress fractures in both of my legs So at that time I done physical therapy all that good stuff But pretty quickly had this label kind of put on me of like I'm just always gonna have chronic shin splints And that's just that's just it um My sister Luckily had worked with Dwayne a few years ago and had kind of gotten me set up with spark So I was like falling into social media I always got all of the emails and I always read them and I would read them be like oh That's awesome for everyone else, but I like I know that that's not gonna work for me. I have chronic shin splints um Last fall I decided, you know, what's the harm and at least talking to these the so-called Dwayne Here kind of what his spots are Set up a phone call Explored what the program was and everything and he immediately let me know that like running what's for me And just because I have had you know these experience in the last 10 plus years doesn't mean that it's not for me so despite my A little bit of reservations, right like I um I've always really enjoyed running and I've felt a little intimidated of like wow This is like a whole running program like this is only for real runners um Was very wrong So I ended up signing I ended up signing up for the 16-week one-on-one coaching with Dwayne and it was Incredible um not once did I ever feel like self-conscious or embarrassed by my speed like Regardless of where we were in this entire program that he created the focus was always on what is my form? What am I doing and am I at a point? To be running pain-free One of the coolest things about it as well was I actually I mean North Carolina So I was a little hesitant to of like like how can I possibly do this program when I'm not even like actually located in Connecticut But it worked out just as well. I Had the ability to reach out to Dwayne when I ever had questions and I did I had a few other I wouldn't say injuries, but things that came up along the way and Dwayne always responded to me You know sent me up for the resources that Would help me be able to continue to run If you are considering doing any one of these running programs working with a running coach I just like this is your sign. I can't encourage you to do it enough It has truly opened up all of these different doors to me to the point of I'm actually in half marathon and about eight weeks or so And the ability to be doing this half marathon pain-free and feeling confident in my abilities to do that is something that I didn't even know that I was going to be getting outside of doing this program I hope sharing that story inspired you and provided you some hope If you want the one-on-one structure accountability and support from our healthy runner coaching team of experts Check out the behind-the-scenes video tour of our signature coaching program You just heard about including other stories from runners who are just like you and we're struggling with the same sticking points Before they signed up for our program just head to learn.spark healthy runner.com to learn more and book your strategy call with me today Now, let's get back into this episode All right the sixth muscle that we're going to talk about this is a new one So here we go. So the first five guys were in that five video that I mentioned earlier So now here are the two bonus Pomerola exercises one's a muscle and then the other one isn't even a muscle believe it or not So our inner thigh muscle or adductors So why would you do this? Why would I recommend it for you? This is definitely going to be important if you ever feel tightness in your groin area You've had a history of adductor strains or pulled groin. We call it or if you're doing a lot of speed work Especially inner-roll runs or running at 5k pace or faster for your training because that's when they these muscles these adductors Are even utilized a little bit more when we're really pushing the pace we're opening up our stride a little more It has to contract a little bit more when our foot hits the ground to help stabilize our leg So those are the runners I really recommend kind of spending some time on those inner thigh muscles and those groin muscles So how do we do this? This one is a bit complex Hence why did not include it in the original five because You know just trying to keep it simple right that almost everyone can do But if you have issues in this area then this is where we're going to actually put the foam roller more longitudinal and we're going to lie in our stomach with our leg out to the side So we can do this either with our knee straight And then I like as a progression and have your knee bent which puts a little different focus on a different adductor muscle So we got a bunch of muscles in your inner thigh believe it or not and It also makes a little bit more aggressive when we bend our knee So you're going to kind of roll in this area it does take a little more coordination it takes a little more upper body strength So if you know you have some upper body issues in your shoulders or your elbows or your wrists And it might be a little tough for you So you know that that might be a little challenge But for those of you who are pretty mobile and you can kind of get on the floor and you know do most of these exercises that we've already talked about That's how we kind of roll our adductor muscles And you can even increase the intensity by kind of side bending your trunk away From the leg that you're stretching and you really feel like a pretty aggressive pull So you got to go easy honestly on the adductors because it is a little bit more sensitive So I would definitely recommend you go a little bit easier than some of the other muscles And then the seventh and final exercise that I really recommend all runners do is to actually formal your mid back Or what we call our thoracic spine Why would we do this? Mainly for posture and running form purposes So most of us spend way too much time on the computer most of our day Or if you have any job where you're doing things in front of your body with your hands Most likely you're leaning forward you're hunching forward Right and or if you ever feel like your mid back is stiff and you just need to pop it Like I just did right now Or if you have I really hope that pop like came out in the audio probably didn't but that would be pretty cool if it did Or if you have a lot of neck pain or neck tightness in your upper trap muscles So a lot of times those neck issues can be caused by stiffness actually in the thoracic spine Because if the thoracic spine is stiff and it can extend Basically if you think of standing up tall right like extending your spine Then what happens to your head is it does this forward head posture thing And then that puts more stress on the discs in your neck the joints in your neck and the muscles in your neck So a lot of times that creates neck pain So how do we do this so you're gonna actually see Three different exercises technically of how I like to do this and this is like man, this is such a daily staple multiple times throughout my day because I do spend a lot of work on the computer And this has been a trouble spot for me. I've had a stiff mid back thoracic spine for many many years And I can always improve my posture a little bit And this is an area that I frequently need to Mobilize so this is actually called more of a self mobility exercise as opposed to all the other ones because we were Kind of targeting muscles those were called like self-myo fascial release techniques So this is actually a self mobility So the first thing I like to do is you're gonna place the foam roller horizontal On your back and you're gonna roll over the foam roller segment by segment Extending your spine in the opposite direction of like being a hunchback So we're actually segmenting extension Each bone as we go over and then you're feeling or you're scanning just like we do with muscles And finding like what segment feels like really stiff and there's usually going to be one or two That you feel like ooh that is either sensitive So it's a little painful and the muscles like guard up a little bit or it just feels like stiff And it just wants to pop like you feel like oh, I feel like this should pop And then what you're gonna do is you're gonna hang out on that segment So you're gonna actually stay at that segment and then do some active extension Over the segment. So that's like the second exercise where we're actually isolating a specific segment or two We're doing active extension over the foam roller So we're trying to bend our spine backwards essentially And then the last exercise is we're gonna get extension of our upper thoracic spine So those are the segments that connect to the cervical spine. So you're neck, right? So it takes stress off of the neck and it actually mobilize that upper thoracic area Which is very hard to do and you can't do it by active extension What we have to do is do what we call a chin tuck with our neck So you're gonna actually stabilize the thoracic spine with the foam roller and then you're gonna Tuck your chin back. So you might have been to therapy before they showed you like chin tucks before you're like What the heck is this thing doing? There's actually like three different rationales and purposes. Why someone would give you a chin tuck one of the Benefits is it can promote extension Straightening of the spine in the upper thoracic area So if you guys think of like that Dowager's hump. I don't know if you have like Aunt May or something, right? She's got like this Dowager's hump and you know your mom told you like stand up tall because you don't want to get like a hunchback This can actually really mobilize that area of the spine is what I'm talking about like that upper area of the mid back So can be very effective. So again, it's really hard for me to describe this without showing you that that's why I have the instructional video Hopefully I did it some justice Talking you through it and you can it can visualize what I'm talking about On how we mobilize that area But extremely important for runners because if you don't do any of that and if you continue to lift if you continue to do some upper body strength training You use some like bench press chest press pushups all that stuff Like over time as we age that flexion Rounding of your thoracic spine is just gonna get worse and worse and it's gonna impact your running form essentially so You're less efficient as a runner the more flexion you have you don't open up your chest cavity You don't expand your diaphragm as well. You're not gonna breathe air into your lungs. You're not gonna be exchanged oxygen as well So it's gonna affect your breathing. It's gonna affect your performance and it's just not as efficient if you're running with You know leaning forward hunched over as opposed to thinking sternum out Shoulder leads down when you're running and having nice relaxed arms way So it will impact your running form and if you don't mobilize it if it's very stiff Then you can't actually get that thoracic extension in your spine when you're running So you need to mobilize and like I said if you spend a lot of time in front of a computer like I do Like you need to do it. I do it immediately before all my workouts before all my runs After all my especially long runs because you're out there for a while right or now that summertime If you're out there with a hydration vest like that's gonna add some weight So you definitely got to mobilize after your runs you'll get a couple pops those are okay. Those are good Those are what we call cavitations. They're just releasing some gas pressures in your joints You're not cracking bones. You're not gonna develop arthritis, right? So none of that is true We even told if you crack your knuckles you'll get arthritis. That's not gonna happen So there's actually a funny story of a scientist who actually cracked only one knuckle one hand And I forget the number of years he did it like 30 or 40 years and he took like x-rays to see like Compared the hands to see he had zone like control study To see if he developed arthritis and he's not developed arthritis Of his hands and cracked one side and didn't crack the other So no change but Yeah, those that release of gas freshers those joints those those those segments will move a little bit better So you can get into a better postural alignment when you're running All right, so those are my seven foam roll exercises So some common questions. I get a lot from clients is how long should you foam roll? And this is short guys. This is 30 to 60 seconds per muscle You should not be taking more than five to eight minutes to do these foam roll exercises So remember strength training will yield more return and give you better bang for your buck as a runner So make sure you dedicate your time to strength training for running Instead of doing like 30 minutes on your foam roller. All right, and then consistency is key So I guess at five start with five minutes, right go 30 seconds through all the muscles I mentioned you you can do it with me on the video And just be consistent with it So like everything that we do is runners the more consistency that we have The better benefit we're gonna get And then when is the best time to foam roll very common question I also get and I'm gonna give you the answer that I give all my clients in how I recommend and there's just this the Scotty personal You know recommendation based on honestly personal experience and kind of what in my mind make sense from a rational standpoint in in terms of order of operations so your exercises That I describe and I like customize for all my clients how I laid out for them is I'm gonna put the soft tissue prep first So the goal is to improve blood flow stimulate the nervous system. So this is where the foam rolling goes And then we really want to go to our mobility and stability So if you wind up doing some lower back mobility some hip mobility Depending upon what you need to focus on as a runner maybe ankle mobility as I mentioned ankle mobility is a common issue Right, that's where you had that and then your stability exercises So whether you're doing the short foot stabilization and kind of turn on your deep foot muscles before you run Which I highly recommend all of you should be doing or your hip stabilizers You're doing some specific exercises to turn on your side hip muscle the glute medias muscle or the Deep hip external rotators, right? So that's where the stability exercise come in then I recommend doing a generalized Five-minute dynamic warm-up. I have one on my YouTube channel if you want to get some ideas But that's where you go through like your movement prep and this really primes the body for running And then we go for our runs So that's where we enjoy the mental clearing miles now. I know that seems like a lot for most of you who are just used to Waking up thrown on your running clothes thrown on your running shoes heading out the door going for your run I know that sounds like a lot trust me All of the clients that I work with tell me The feedback I get is I can't believe how much more I enjoy my runs Now that I'm actually warming up before I get out the door Especially as we age guys like we need to actually bring some blood flow into the muscles into our joints Get the body ready to actually run Trust me. It will be a more pleasurable enjoyable experience for you During your run. So then you do your run and then after your run That's when if you have time again not priority You can foam roll again or do some general stretching flexibility. This is where we can do our static stretching So to summarize the foam rolling piece I would definitely recommend you do it before a run And before workout quite frankly you're strength training and then if you have time After the run, I'm going to be completely honest with you all I rarely have that time It's maybe once or twice a week. I'm getting it in after a run and I run six days a week And then it's a nice to do if you have time again in the evening Or in a rest and recovery day And especially if you're feeling tight or your muscles are sore you had a really good workout you had a speed session You had a long run You know, you're feeling tight you're feeling sore Because the more blood flow we get into those muscles that's going to help stimulate the recovery process And the recovery is where the magic happens And that's why you should all be doing a rest and recovery day by the way if you're not So again recovery is part of the training and recovery is like the key Honestly in helping keep you healthy as a runner So what happens if you don't have like a smaller foam roller like this one You only got the big one and you're like I'm traveling a lot like I'm not bringing my foam roller with me Like I just actually got back from a flight this morning I did not bring my foam roller with me. This is where this can come in handy These are like the massage sticks some of them have knobs on them These are great for travel. So races you want to bring it to a race You're not going to hop down in the parking lot like on your foam roller You want to actually do some of the soft tissue work before a race after a race These are great So that would be definitely one instance when I would recommend one of these The other one is for the shin muscles for you runners who get shin splints It's really hard to foam roll your shins on the foam roller So I recommend honestly a stick or percussion gun for those muscles So I actually have my bonus How to use you know the massage stick for your calf muscles your hamstrings your quads And your shin muscles within that foam roll video instructional video that I mentioned Now remember that you can download that instructional video of exactly how to do the foam roller Plus the massage stick exercises. I'll talk you right through it. I'll let you know the key points to kind of watch out for And this will really be key in optimizing your recovery so we can run stronger Run faster and enjoy lifelong injury free running Just make sure you hit the download link in the show notes to save your video So you can go through it you and I together virtually every time you want to do it before or after a run And if you want to get clarity and focus on how to integrate recovery exercises like these Into your run your strength plan for running And the actual like run plan to either get consistent with your runs like get a PR to half marathon Or like run your first marathon or you know get a BQ right like we got some big running goals right continually challenge yourself as an adult runner That's exactly what we do in our spark healthy runner coaching program We teach you how to grow as a runner to not only crush your running goal But a void feeling frustrated because you either get injured or you're not getting faster Be act as your personal guide in master in the six key steps of your running journey Really the mindset piece the strength training Structured run plan. We take away the guesswork. You get the structure run plan structure strength training the nutrition That you need for running the recovery that we need in which we talked about today and then also the race strategy So when you execute like Those six key steps in your running journey with the structure that we provide you're not only gonna feel more confident and getting stronger and faster But you always stay healthy and you enjoy the process of running again And then you get to like hit those big running goals and dreams that you have So as I say in my analogy just like a well-built home will require little movements and bring you a lifetime of happiness and memories For you and your family. So will you're running? So learn more about our spark healthy runner signature coaching program and schedule call with me today by going to learn That spark healthy runner.com lastly remember Earlier how I said if you don't implement these principles You're going to like feel frustrated your legs are gonna feel heavy on your runs. You're not gonna feel fresh for your next run You may get injured and You know you're you're really not gonna get faster as a runner today We talked about one element of recovery Meanly foam rolling right be sure to get you download the ultimate guide to recovery for running today Learned out spark healthy runner.com forward slash recovery or just click the link in the show notes So just recapping guys, you know what we really cover today what you learned about today is What is foam rolling? What are the benefits of foam rolling like why are we doing it? Why do I recommend it am I recommended just because it's a fad? No, right like recommending it based on some evidence to show some support for self-mile fashion release and then You know what I've implemented personally and what I've implemented with all the clients that I've worked with and how I can help you You know Should it hurt? We talked about that and how to actually make sure it doesn't hurt when you're foam rolling and the different types of foam rollers We got into as well as the seven foam roller exercises for running recovery We talked about when the best time to foam rollers we talked about how long you should foam roll And then we even talk some roller stick massage When you don't have a foam roller so My question to you is did you learn something today? I would imagine you learned at least one thing Out of all of what I shared with you today So if you did learn one thing if you don't mind Copy the link to this wherever you're listening to it watching it share it with a running friend of yours Who can use it because I want our running community to continue enjoying lifelong injury free running And the only way we can do that is if we're proactive as runners Like yourself that you're actually listening to this you're taking the time to learn and grow in your running journey So please share this information with others so we can break like the Cycle of injuries and the misconceptions about running within our society that it's like bad for your knees and you know You're just getting too old you know to run all those miles We know better than that and you're here obviously because you know better than that and you're like our healthy runner Ambassador so thank you in advance for sharing this content and our mission honestly with your running network of friends I greatly appreciate it And you taking the time to do that. So as always let's maintain a strong mind Strong body and let's just keep on running until next time Thank you as always for listening to the healthy runner podcast where we help you get stronger run faster and enjoy Lifelong injury free running if you found this content valuable here's five ways we can help you grow as a runner for free One grab a free copy of our six steps to growing as a runner framework at learn dot spark healthy runner dot com forward slash grow To follow our Instagram page at spark healthy runner Three join our free group by searching healthy runner in facebook For subscribe to our youtube channel at youtube dot com forward slash spark healthy runner Five leave us a five star review so we can gain access to more experts in the running field and bring those lessons and trainings Back here right to you Don't forget hit the subscribe button on apple podcast or the follow button on spotify So you don't miss the next episode of healthy runner so you can maintain a strong mind a strong body and just keep running Lastly if you've been struggling with the constant injury cycle not eating the right foods for running or not getting faster as a runner And you are ready to invest in becoming a lifelong injury free runner head to spark healthy runner dot com forward slash Coaching to apply for a one-on-one signature coaching program Thank you again I really truly mean it from the bottom of my heart that I appreciate you for listening and sharing this podcast With a running friend who can use the help now go and crush your run today. See you next week