Summary
Dimity McDowell and co-host Adrian Martini bring on Colleen Riddick-Losh, a certified personal trainer and senior master trainer for Trigger Point therapy, to discuss the fundamentals of foam rolling for runners. Colleen emphasizes that foam rolling is best used as a movement preparation tool rather than just a recovery method. She recommends targeting both lower body (calves, quads, hips) and upper body (pecs, lats, T-spine) areas, spending deliberate time in each section rather than quickly rolling up and down. Adrian and Dimity share results from their self-imposed 30-day foam rolling challenge, where they each committed to 10 minutes of daily rolling. Adrian noticed increased body awareness—she could feel her muscles sliding and identified perpetually tight areas. Dimity experienced significant reduction in knee pain after focusing on her quads and inner thighs. Both found that attaching foam rolling to existing habits (evening stretching, post-workout cooldown) was key to consistency. Colleen provides practical guidance on technique: break muscles into sections rather than rolling the full length, combine pressure with range of motion movements, use breathing to enhance the experience, and avoid tools that are too hard like lacrosse balls or PVC pipes. She compares daily foam rolling to brushing teeth—it needs to happen consistently for results. Rolling before exercise is preferred over rolling after, as it decreases injury risk, increases range of motion, and improves performance.
Key Points
- Foam rolling is more effective as a pre-workout preparation tool than a post-workout recovery tool
- Target both lower body (calves, quads, hips) and upper body (pecs, lats, T-spine) for best results
- Break muscles into sections and combine pressure with range of motion movements rather than rolling full length
- "The victim cries out, but the criminal never does"—pain location is often not where the problem originates
- A 30-day foam rolling challenge showed improved body awareness and reduced knee pain in runners
- Consistency is key—Colleen compares daily foam rolling to brushing teeth for soft tissue maintenance
- Avoid overly hard tools like lacrosse balls or PVC pipes; moderate density foam rollers are sufficient
- Follow foam rolling with corrective exercises like glute bridges to maintain the gains in mobility
Key Moments
Foam rolling is a performance tool, not just recovery
Colleen explains that foam rolling's best use is preparing the body for movement, not just recovering from it. She compares it to brushing your teeth—it should be a daily practice that bridges the gap between sedentary time and exercise.
"So many people use foam rolling as recovery, a recovery tool. And while that is good, it's not the best use for it. And so in society today, we sit too much, we don't move enough, and then we get going, right? So we go from sedentary to movement, and we don't have anything in between. Foam rolling for me is what prepares the body for movement."
Target areas runners should focus on for foam rolling
Colleen recommends three areas below the belt (calves, quads, hips) and three above (pecs, lats, T-spine) for runners. She emphasizes that hamstrings are usually a victim of problems elsewhere and that upper body rolling is important for breathing and posture.
"I always start with the calf complex. I usually move on to the quads and I explain to people, everybody wants to go to their hamstrings. Everybody, when we say start foam rolling, they put it on the back of their leg, they sit on it, and they roll their hamstrings. And the hamstrings are just a victim of other things that are going wrong in the body."
The victim cries out, but the criminal never does
Colleen's memorable coaching cue explains that where you feel pain is often not where the problem originates. You should always look above and below the affected joint to find the real source of dysfunction.
"The victim cries out, but the criminal never does. So we tend to roll where we feel the pain the most, right? But oftentimes that's not where we need to be rolling. There's something else going on."
Rolling before exercise beats rolling after
If you can only pick one time to foam roll, do it before exercise rather than after. Pre-exercise rolling decreases injury risk, increases range of motion, hydrates the body, and improves performance. Most people use it solely as recovery, missing its potential as a performance tool.
"And stretching is not enough to do that. And in fact, if I've got to pick rolling or stretching, I'm always going to pick rolling beforehand. It decreases risk of injury, it increases range of motion, it hydrates the body, and it really gets you out there and you can perform much better."
