Should You Use A Foam Roller For Back Pain?
Foam rollers are commonly used tools to help self massage tight muscles and they have been considered very effective and relatively inexpensive, but are they really good if you’ve got back pain.
As you can likely see from the examples in this video, the main issue with the foam roller is that you have to use gravity and your own bodyweight to do the technique effectively. Invariably this involves getting your body into positions involving lumbar flexion and worse still, lumbar flexion with rotation and exertion.
The issue here is not that the foam roller is ineffective, but much like exercises like the child’s pose, it may well achieve what it sets out to, but at a cost.
The cost in this case, is putting more inappropriate stress through the lower lumbar spine which is far from ideal. In fact these sorts of exercises are often major limiters in your back injury recovery.
So what should you do instead?
It’s not viable for everyone to go to the masseuse, and vibration guns such as the hypervolt plus are not that cheap. But both these options are effective with minimal stress on the lumbar spine. Plus if you have a willing volunteer who will do the work for you (family member usually) then they can involve no strain at all on your lower back, whilst getting all the benefits of the massage work.
Nowadays you can also pick up alternative massage or vibration guns for under £100 on places like amazon. Sure, if you can afford it, we would always recommend getting the best option but when there are these sorts of affordable options it really makes much more sense to employ these.
They’re a great companion and will compliment all the hard work your doing with your gym or home-based workouts!
Your back will thank you!
