As a personal trainer I am frequently approached by clients wondering what type of things they can do at home to stay feeling tip top. This question can be difficult to answer in passing, primarily because there is no perfect answer. Just like how yoga is considered a ‘practice,’ training is also a practice, but just doesn’t have that label.
Bodily maintenance is just like a prescription, there really can be too much or too little to be beneficial, and every person is different. You have to experiment and find what works best for you and your schedule/motivation. So when somebody asks what they can do to feel better, relieve muscle soreness, and be ready for the next time in class, I answer their questions with a question. Do you own a foam roller? Most of the time the answer is no, or they’ll tell me “Well, I foam roll in the gym.” Second question I reply with is, do you stretch at home?” Again the answer is usually no. We live busy lives and it’s hard to find time for these things, it’s hard enough to find time to make it into the gym. I tell you now though, that if you DO have the motivation to get into the gym, you DO possess that same motivation to take some time for yourself at home. Once you make it a routine, it will almost be like your morning coffee, you can’t imagine life without it. Would you rather sleep an extra 15-20 minutes and feel sore and stiff all day, or wake up, spend some time on yourself, and feel more energized and ready for the day than ever before? I promise you the latter will give you a much higher quality of life. I’m not telling you that you have to stretch AND foam roll every day, but give yourself a schedule. Switch off every other day. Make it your morning meditation to take just 15-20 minutes either stretching or rolling out. If you don’t know how, look online!
Experiment! Foam rolling breaks down micro-trauma in muscle fascia, promotes healthy restructuring of cells, brings water and oxygen to muscle fibers, and after a few times STOPS hurting and STARTS feeling good! Sometimes you may get tweaked from a certain exercise in the gym, but it wasn’t the exercise’s fault, it was because you were so stiff or knotted up before performing it!
Stretching is equally as beneficial and there are a million different moves to try out! These also aren’t the only tools out there, find what you enjoy the most, but just take the time! You’ll notice large differences in you performance in you gym as well! Make it a goal, and remember, goals are different than outcomes. Your goal could be, for example “Starting Monday, I’m going to start waking up 10 minutes earlier and devoting that time to stretching/foam rolling at least 3 days a week.” See how that works, and after a few weeks it could be “Starting Monday, I’m going to start waking up 20 minutes earlier and devoting that time to stretching/foam rolling at least 5 days a week.” The same goals could be applied to night time while watching TV or right before you go to bed. This is the best advice I can give and I hope you can find what works for you to live a happy, healthy, pain free lifestyle!
