How to use a foam roller correctly
I've watched people foam roll like they're tenderizing a steak. Vigorous back-and-forth, hard pressure, wincing in pain. That's not how foam rolling works and it can actually make you sore or bruise yourself. Done properly, foam rolling is slow, deliberate, and surprisingly gentle. You're not 'rolling out' tightness — you're applying sustained pressure to specific points in the muscle to release tension in the fascia (the connective tissue around the muscle). The technique is closer to a sustained thumb press than a rolling pin. Most people use foam rollers wrong and conclude they don't work. They do work. Just not the way the aggressive-rolling-pain videos suggest. Here's the actual approach that produces real results without making you feel beat up afterwards.
