Day 13: Release Total Body
This workout is part of the Kettlebell program, but it's not in there until month two. I wanted to play with foam rolling, so I did it early. It's important to note that if you plan on doing this workout, your foam roller needs to be long enough so that if you were to lay on it, it needs to support your head and your butt at the same time. My foam roller is too short to do the entire workout.
This was my first experience with foam rolling. I've wanted to do it for awhile now since so many people say that it's so wonderful. The instructor for this workout is very cheerful and very calming at the same time. She has this smile on her face the whole time. She seems really likeable. I'm interested in doing more of these foam rolling workouts with her.
If you've never foam rolled, you should give it a try. It's a rather interesting experience. However, since this was my first time doing it, I didn't experience the full benefits of it because we moved relatively quickly from one move to another and there wasn't enough time for me to get the release. I think this is an awesome workout to do a few times to learn how to use the foam roller, but then work on the different moves on your own while watching TV or listening to your iPod. We only spent about 30 to 60 seconds on any specific body part and that was enough time for me to find a lot of tension spots, but not enough time to hold them and let them release.
Okay so foam rolling......You basically roll on the foam roller or on a tennis ball until you find something that hurts. You then stay there and breathe until the pain gets worse and then goes away. I got to the pain gets worse part, but never got to the pain going away part. I talked to a friend who foam rolls and she said that it can take up to five minutes for the pain to release. I had planned on experimenting with that last night while watching TV, but I've only done the workout once and thought I should run through it a few more times with the instructor to make sure that I'm doing the moves right.
This workout started out with the feet. We rolled a ball under our feet. I never found a tension point on those. Then we were on our knees and put the foam roller behind our knees and rolled a bit. This one was really hard for me because of the enormity of my thighs and butt. I didn't really have the chance to roll the roller. It just kind of slid so it was between my butt and my ankles. I didn't find a tension spot on this one.
Then we sat on the roller and had our hands back behind us and our feet out in front of me. We rolled our butts over the roller. We were supposed to lean to one side to hit one glute more than the other. I found some tension spots on this one! Then we got the ball back and rolled the outside of the hip area. I'm not sure if I did this one right. I wasn't feeling it and then it hurt really bad. It didn't feel right so I eased off of it. I'll pay more attention to this section the next time. We did each side separately.
The next one was awesome! Imagine like a side elbow plank with your hip sitting down on the foam roller and then you just roll up your hip over over the roller. I found lots of spots on this one! Then we rolled forward a bit so our quad was on the roller. This one was another fun one! Then we did the inner thigh. We were in an elbow plank and took one knee and pointed it out as it rested on the roller. Then we rolled. This was hard for me to hold the plank position while rolling. I just don't have the strength or co-ordination to handle this move. It felt good in my thigh though.
We got the ball out again and did the hip flexor. This was similar to the outer hip thing that we did. It was another one that I didn't feel anything and then all of a sudden it felt really bad. I eased off because it just felt like I wasn't supposed to feel that much pain. I'll try it again though.
The next one was pretty awesome too. We got into a low lunge position and had the foam roller under the back shin and rolled. I did more of a runner's lunge since I suck at the hands on either side of the front leg. I felt several tension spots on this one. Loved it!
I really liked the next one too. We laid down on our side and put one arm out above our head. The roam roller went under our armpit. Then we rolled up onto the roller. This felt really good on my lats. I found a few tension spots, but wasn't able to hold anything long enough to release it.
The next one was fun. We had our arms up on our chest and our feet out in front of us with our back on the foam roller. We used our legs to roll up and down on the roller. It felt really good just doing this even without stopping on the tension points. This little move made me want to get the rumble roller with all the bumps on it!
Next we laid down with our knees bent and the foam roller behind our next. We rolled our head from left to right which didn't seem like it was going to do anything, but I found some tension spots. I kinda liked this one.
This is where I had to stop using the foam roller since mine is short. She laid down on the foam roller so it was supporting her butt and her head at the same time. She lifted her butt up off the foam roller and did some pelvic tucks. After she did some of those, she did a chest press move. She pushed her arms up to the ceiling and then brought them down while trying to touch the elbows to the floor. The last one looked like it felt really good, and I'm excited to try it. She was still on the foam roller and then took her arms and laid them down on the floor. From above, she would have looked like a cactus and it was called cactus arms. That was the last of it.
I really liked doing this in the parts that I could figure out what I was doing. I love love love Pigeon pose and this was like Pigeon for the whole body. I can't wait to try this all again!! I forgot to start on my BodyMedia device. The Daily Burn people say I burned 58 calories. I'm sure that's about right.
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