A little while ago I began a stretching routine for my hypertonic pelvic floor, tight hamstrings and hip flexors, and I added a foam rolling routine at the end, which was extremely painful but I went through with it. My shit were extremely tight to the point that they felt like steel, I lived with constant pain in my hamstrings that I hadn’t realized because it had became the norm for me and didn’t know that I wasn’t supposed to feel like this. My legs now feel smooth and relaxed, its a dramatic difference and although I haven’t fully recovered yet (I’d say I am about 60% to 70% recovered) even when I took like 3 weeks off my routine it didnt return to the previous state at all the benefits remained. I am more flexible, feel more relaxed and don’t live with constant pain anymore. However yesterday I decided to look up other people’s experience online and discovered that both the literature and the anecdotal reports claim that foam rollers are a meme, that they produce no lasting effect and no benefits and at most they temporarily numb pain and increase your pain tolerance. If that is the case why did I experience such a dramatic effect and why is my effect lasting? This can’t possibly be something that I am imagining because my legs were like a rock and they are not anymore, but I can’t find anywhere, anyone stating what I experienced except some people talking about “fascia release” but all mainstream sources claim that fascia release cannot occur from foam rolling.My routine is almost daily and it takes me a little bit of over an hour, I begin with diaphragmatic breaths to relax the pelvic floor, then do the happy baby stretch, a few others and at last the hip flexors stretch (i think its called a couch stretch). Then I get on the foam roller and torment myself on all sides of my legs including my calves, and when I am done I use a tennis ball and put pressure on any point of my glutes that feel painful.
Like obviously I will continue my routine until I achieve the final results that I want but I don’t understand why I cannot find anywhere anyone who experienced something similar to what I did. Admittedly my legs were fucked up due to a genetic issue I had that gave me extreme tight achilles’ tendons (I used to walk with the tip toes before surgery) and cavus foot, so it makes sense that my legs were extremely tight from all these years I walked around with these issues and I experienced a dramatic change compared to the average foam roller user but it can’t possibly be to the degree that foam rollers are being called a meme by every source online
I don’t know if I even reasonably expressed how dramatic the benefit is like I don’t constantly experience low level anxiety anymore due to the constant low level pain I had on my hamstrings I feel zero pain
>>77515521the foam rolling meme is just people rolling it over a spot - what you're doing is a full mobility/flexibility routine
>>77516307thanks anon i was worried i was becoming insane
>>77517397Rolling doesnt have to be breaking up fascia to work though. It is like massage and its probably good overall to stretch the skin and get the kinks out. I've foam rolled my back and legs for years and it feels good so I dont really give a fuck what the mechanism is, it has therapeutic value in feeling good alone.
