Release tight hips, hamstrings and back muscles with these 8 foam roller exercises. This guided, 10-minute foam rolling routine is perfect for your next recovery day. Release sore muscles, increase range of motion and flexibility, and reduce risk of injury.
Reduce muscle soreness, increase range of motion, and ultimately improve your workouts with these foam roller exercises.
If you do my home workout plans, you’ve likely seen this full body stretch and active recovery yoga on your rest days.
Today’s foam rolling exercises are a great addition to your mobility and recovery sessions.
According to research published in The Journal of Athletic Training, foam rolling after a workout significantly decreases soreness up to 72 hours after a workout.
Add these 8 foam roller stretches to your daily mobility routine to increase range of motion, decrease soreness, and aid in muscle recovery.
Foam rolling, or using a hard foam tube to roll out your muscles, is a form of self-myofascial release (SMR) that uses pressure to increase blood flow to tight muscle groups. It’s a self-massage technique commonly used by physical therapists and personal trainers to relieve pain. This form of stretching releases tension in ways that traditional (or passive) stretching cannot.
Foam rolling improves range of motion, decreases soreness, alleviates tightness or trigger points, increases blood flow and flexibility, aids in injury prevention, aids in muscle recovery, and increases flexibility without hampering muscle strength. Foam rolling is for everyone, whether you maintain a rigorous fitness routine or sit at a desk all day.
Both are great options that serve different purposes. Foam rolling before a workout will increase blood flow to that muscle group (which is ideal for warming up). Foam rolling after a workout will force your muscles into a deep relaxing state. I recommend foam rolling on recovery days (when you have no workout scheduled) to decrease muscle soreness and increase mobility.
Improve mobility, reduce muscle soreness and reduce risk of injury with these foam rolling exercises.
Use these foam roller exercises in your warm up to increase blood flow and range of motion, or use this foam rolling routine in your cool down to release tension, relieve tight muscles and speed up muscle recovery.
I suggest incorporating recovery workouts like this one to your home workout plan 1-2 times per week to protect and maintain healthy joints and muscles.
A foam roller.
If you’re more advanced in SMR, you can use a trigger point foam roller or lacrosse massage ball.
Follow along with the guided Foam Roller Stretches on YouTube, led by certified personal trainer, Lindsey Bomgren.
Your Workout Looks Like This:
Foam Roller Exercises
Targets: Upper body (specifically the chest muscles).
If you spend your day hunched over a computer (or baby), this chest opening stretch is going to feel amazing. I have a shorter foam roller, so I also use a yoga block to support my head and neck.
Targets: Upper back and shoulders.
A lot of people tend to carry their stress here, so this is a great way to work out muscle knots, kinks or tightness.
Targets: Hips and hip flexors.
Slowly roll back and forth to open and release tight hips.
Targets: Mainly the quads (which are involved in almost every workout we film. In fact, many people tend to be quad-dominant).
There are four quadriceps muscles and they all attach to the knee cap. Foam rolling the quads can improve the flexibility of the knee (and decrease knee pain) and improve hip mobility.
Targets: The glutes (the largest muscle in the body) and the piriformis (a deep, small muscle located between your glutes and hip joints).
If you want better squats (improved hip mobility and range of motion), foam roll your glutes.
Targets: The hamstrings, hips and low back.
This stretch is great for anyone who spends their day sitting down as it lengthens and releases tense muscle along the back of the legs. This improves hip mobility and decreases stress on the low back.
Targets: The calf muscle.
If you’re a runner or do workouts with jumping, this calf stretch will increase ankle mobility.
Targets: The hips and all the muscles along the back of the body (posterior chain).
This stretch provides extension, creating length from the tailbone to fingertips (or thoracic spine).
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I was so excited when I saw you publish this and just got to try it! These are definitely some moves to consider adding into the routine I’ve been doing. I really like your full-body stretch routine, but this is a calmer, slower way to get into the muscles and good for changing things up. Thanks for sharing!
Sarah! So glad you’re putting these foam roller exercises to good use! Keep up the great work and stay tuned for another mobility routine coming soon! -Lindsey
Love your workouts! Friendly correction: its not “pirifemoris” its “piriformis”, pronounced “peer-uh-form-is”.
So glad you’re loving the workouts Rachel! And yes, if you read this post you’ll noted I have it written as piriformis! Thanks, -Lindsey