5 Pre-Workout Foam Roller Exercises to Prevent Injuries

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Specifically, the 5 most important foam rolling drills every lifter should preform before their workouts to prevent an injury.

For each of these foam rolling drills, perform 2 sets of 15-20 seconds on each side.

1. Mid-Back Foam Rolling Drill​

The first foam rolling drill Scott shows us in how to foam roll the mid back. To foam roll the mid back, start off by placing your foam roller on the ground, then lay on it so it’s hitting your mid-back. From here, roll through from your lower portion of your back all the way to the top of your back.

This movement helps warm up your thoracic spine, which helps promote spinal extension. It also loosens up your shoulders, which helps when pushing or pulling with your arms overhead.

2. Lats Foam Rolling Drill​

The second foam rolling drill is perfect for loosening up your lats. Loosening up the lats is very important because tight lats can lead to lower back pain and can affect your form on a number of different exercises.

To foam roll your lats, start off on your side with the foam roller in your arm pit. Once you’re in place, you foam roll through your lat until you reach your hips.

3. Hip Adductors/Abductors Foam Rolling Drill​

The third drill Scott covers is one that targets both the inside and outside of your hips. Tight hips can mess with your form, especially during heavy deadlifts and squats.

To foam roll these areas is really easy. To target the adductors, place the foam roller in line with your groin and roll out towards the knee.

To target the abductors, place the foam roller on your hip crease and roll down through your quad to your knee.

4. Calf Foam Rolling Drill​

For the fourth foam rolling drill, Scott targets his calves. If you’re one who experiences knee pain, you might have really tight calves that are causing the issue.

All you have to do to foam roll your calves is place the foam roller just below the calf (you can do one leg or both legs at a time), and roll up through the calf up to the back of the knee.

5. Pec Foam Rolling Drill​

The final foam rolling drill Scott shows us is one to target your chest. To foam roll your pecs, lay on the foam roller with it placed in the middle of your chest and roll it out all the way towards your shoulder.

Foam rolling the chest is important to help loosen up the chest (and biceps to a lesser degree) to help eliminate some of the risk of pec tears during heavy press movements.

Wrap Up​

Foam rolling takes time to do, but it takes a lot more time to recover from an injury.

Start performing these 5 drills before your workouts to help eliminate some of that risk and prevent an injury.