Sandyspringscrossfit

Don hitting 1000 on his total.

"A Good Walk Spoiled"

4 rounds for time:

100ft Walking Lunges with 30 lb. Dumbbells

24" Box Jump 30 reps

30 lb. weighted pull ups 20 reps

FGB IV. If you don't want to donate online you can bring Chace, Jonathan, Nate or myself cash or check and we'll see that it gets in there.

I've mentioned foam rolling in passing, and showed a few of you how to do some of it. But today I want to talk more about it.

Technically speaking foam rolling full name is Self Myofascial Release. We can learn a lot from the name here. The important part is Myofascial. Muscle are made of fascia, individuals layer of muscle fibers that glide smoothly when working properly. Think of them as pages in a book or a ream of paper. When you damage your muscles they develop adhesions between the layers and as such don't work as optimally or efficiently. This damage can be felt as pain, soreness or tightness in some muscle and can be transmitted to joints. In worse cases these adhesions can develop in tendons and connective structures causing more pain.

What we want to do is release these adhesions, and we do this by rolling on the foam roller. Prescriptions vary but essentially you want to roll back forth ont the foam roll near a sore area. When you find a point of pain (and it will be excruciatingly painful) hang out there for as long as you can take, back off and then go into that area again. What's happening is that your releasing the adhesion's developed by working out, causing the muscle to work better by letting them slide more easily. If you start experience joint pain look up or downstream of the joint for tightness in muscles. When my knee acts up and it's not weather related I'll look for soreness in either the Quad, Hamstring, IT band or Soleus and Gastrocnemius. And then I'll go after them with the foam roller. Sometimes the foam roller isn't enough to really dig deep into the adhered muscles (or to get past the superficial muscle) so you'll need to move to the lacrosse ball, the ball is especially useful for places like the piriformis, the shoulder girdle, and hip musculature.

I try not to foam roll till at least 4 hours after a workout, but I'll hit it before a workout and throughout the day especially if I'm really sore. And if I am immediately sore, than those 4 hours go out the window. If you cant get to your masseuse for some trigger point therapy or Active Release Technique, than take a roll on the foam roller. A good foam roller costs between $10-$30 and are available from numerous resources, lacrosse balls are available for around $3 at any sporting good store and last essentially forever. Make sure to get one that is fully 6" around and no more than 36" wide. Now, no one says you have to be foam rolling( not yet anyways), but you'll feel better, you'll move better and it'll increase your performance.