Ellicotville Rodeo

Using a foam roller in your yoga practice will transform and heal your lower back pain. However, there is a lot of detail you need to get the angle just right on your foam roller to release your lower back. Learning how to use a foam roller will be worth it and even life changing!

Before getting into the foam roller exercises it’s important to go over the fundamentals.

First, understand the pelvic tilt. Your pelvis is like a bowl full of contents.

So if your pelvis has an anterior tilt, meaning you’re sticking your booty out, the contents of the bowl will spill forward. If you’re too rounded the contents in your bowl will spill backward, called a posterior tilt.

In this foam rolling lesson, you want your pelvis to be in a posterior tilt. Otherwise, you won’t feel the benefits of the foam roller and it simply won’t work.

To get started, grab your foam roller. Also grab a bolster, pillows, a couch cushion, blocks anything that you have and put them around you because again finding the right angling is very important. You need tools to prop yourself up to achieve a comfortable angle for your unique body.

Directions:

1. Come onto the foam roller by just sitting on it to start.
2. Walk yourself back and come onto your elbows.
3. Have something that you can rest your head on behind you. This resting of the head on something is really important because it’s going to help round your lower back more.
4. Adjust so that your pelvis is curving under in deep posterior tilt.
5. Take your legs off the mat.
6. Begin experimenting with pulling the knees in maybe hen taking them farther away from you.
7. Dip one knee out to the right. Bring it back to the center.
8. Bring the opposite knee out to the side. Search for the sweet spots where you could stay for a good 10-20 breaths. If not, then you can reposition the roller by setting the soles of the feet on the ground. You can move the roller more towards you a little bit farther away.
9. Continue playing with the legs once you have a good hip position on the roller. Move the knees forwards and backward. The roller will apply pressure into different parts of your lower back depending on where your knees are.
10. Stay in each spot for 5 to 10 minutes. Go slow and be patient, which will ultimately transform your low back.
11. Melt into the roller and let traction against the body do all the work for us.
12. Fire up your yogic breathing here will help relax the muscles. So do a slow 3 count inhaling into the place where you feel the tension. Then slow 3 counts to exhale. Visualize sending breath into those areas.