Okay, I have a little bit of a secret that I feel like I finally need to confess. This may or may not surprise many of you, however, doctors are the absolute worst patients. We are the last one to get checked out when we have an injury, we aren’t great about icing and when it comes to self diagnosis, it’s impossible for us to figure out what is going on with our own bodies. Whew, there I said it.
I haven’t been great about foam rolling. Admittedly, I tell patients every single day why it’s important and why they should start doing it at least once a day. I watch Emily teaching patients how to foam roll day in and day out…..I even have one in my bedroom and yet, it seemed like an uphill struggle to make it a habit. I was great about doing it for about 3-5 days in a row and then, like most new habits, something would come up and I’d fall off the wagon.
Finally something has changed in my mind and I can’t go a day without foam rolling. I think that I have finally proven to myself that I will feel better if I do it and will feel worse if I don’t. Realistically, that’s all that it took….and, if you think about it, that’s all it really takes. If the feeling that we get from it is worth the effort, it’s much easier to implement it into our daily routine. Since foam rolling regularly, I’ve had a significant decrease in knee pain and an increase in flexibility. I have also noticed that it hurts a lot less to foam roll and I actually look forward to it!
I take about 5-10 minutes at the end of the day just before bed and foam roll my legs and back. There are definitely nights when I have the internal struggle of “Do I really need to do this?” Thankfully, the answer is a resounding “Yes!” and I’m looking forward to increasing my flexibility and function while making sure that I can do all of the activities that I want to for years to come!
