Mobility WOD, CrossFit, YouTube, and the sheer influx of numbers of people training like athletes has made “rolling out” a common practice. Thank goodness!
However, if you’re hurt, put the lacrosse ball away. Injury is different than soreness and the usual nicks and bruises of the game. Let’s first get that straight. If you’re sore, fine. Stick a lacrosse ball in there or a rumble roller on there and work through it. I can’t back you up, however, on this notion that your injury will be made any better by putting it through the paces with a lacrosse ball.
Death by foam roller?
Injury is manifested, in part at least, with inflammation. Let’s say you’ve got a hurt shoulder, for example. You can’t put a barbell overhead, it hurts to raise your arm, and you wake up to pain during the night. What you need to do is mitigate inflammation and, as a result, pain. Try some of this. And, some of this. This would help, too.
Once the injured area has calmed down we can talk about your lacrosse ball again. But, the logic surrounding jamming an odd object into an aggravated part of your injured body doesn’t make much sense. This is one area that I’ve seen the pendulum of athletes’ proactivity swing too far. Rolling out is good. But, irritating an injury with a lacrosse ball or foam roller? Not so much.
Injury is part of being an athlete. Managing those injuries, however, will take some patience. So, continue to use foam rolling and lacrosse ball relief to recover. Work out soreness and open up tissues. But, leave your injuries alone.
Logan Gelbrich
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Tuesday’s Workout:
Complete three rounds for time of:
30m KB OH Walking Lunge (53/35)
300m Run
30m KB OH Walking Lunge
30 Hollow Rocks