If you have never had the pleasure of using one of these, you must experience it for yourself. To recap: race season is over and my body started feeling tired soon after. I then started experiencing pain in my lower butt, right where it meets the upper thigh. I thought: “Oh, I’ve pulled my glute, I’ll just stretch it more.” It was’t getting better. It got so that running
and/or walking was painful. I have started going to a masseuse who has quite a few clients who are runners and she said it wasn’t my butt, it was my hamstring. Apparently it connects right where I was feeling pain and stretching makes it worse, just inflames it. So she got her elbow on there and started working away. I joined the gym and laid off the running and stretching for a few days. Elliptical running caused no pain so I did that some. I ran a bit after about 5 days and still some pain. Back to the Elliptical. And, after doing some research, decided to try a foam roller. This is basically a self-torture device that innocently looks like a piece of sturdy foam (which it is). But once you lay your body, more specifically your hamstrings and iliotibial band (which runs the outside of your knee and up your outer thigh and is a common running injury) on the roller and roll back and forth, putting your body weight on the roller, you finally understand why all the articles and first person accounts on running podcasts say it hurts. You are basically giving yourself a pseudo-deep tissue massage and can mimic the pressure of a fist or elbow, say, digging into the tight knots. Since I am not a physiologist, I can’t explain the biology of what it exactly does, but it works out the kinks and knots and breaks apart all the little gristle spots that build up and cause tightness, inflammation, and soreness. Surprisingly it feels fine afterwards, it just is painful while doing it. But you can feel the roller crunching out the build up under the skin. It has helped the hamstring issue. I ran 5 miles yesterday and felt a bit of pain going up hills but it didn’t last as long nor did I have any residual soreness. I am also getting at least monthly deep tissue massages. Today’s was a doozy. She worked my ITB by running her forearm hard down the outside of my thigh. My leg was involuntarily tensing and pulling away from the discomfort of this. But I could feel the knots and gristle loosen and I feel great now. My hamstring is better and I used the roller a bit earlier to work on a couple of tight spots. In addition to rolling you can isolate a knot or tight spot and just bear down on the roller until you feel it loosen.

Just roll with it baby!