I Forced Myself to Use a Foam Roller Every Day for a Month

FOAM ROLLING IS LIKE flossing – I know it’s good for me, yet I struggle to make it part of my daily (or even monthly) routine.



The problem isn't lack of equipment; I own three – yes three – foam rollers and a whole variety of hard lacrosse balls, yet I still can’t manage to foam roll more than once every few months.

I wish I could plead ignorance too, but nope, I’ve known about the benefits of foam rolling – including better flexibility, injury prevention and reduced soreness post-workout – ever since I started working in the fitness industry 15 years ago.

It's not that I'm just someone who doesn't "need" to foam roll, either. In fact, I'm a particularly good foam rolling candidate since I’ve always had tight hips, legs and IT bands, or the connective tissue that runs from outer hip to just below the knee.

Then, I started having hip issues last fall. A visit to a physical therapist confirmed that the muscles around my hips were tight, which was causing pain and a limited range of motion. The cause? Just what I suspected: Years of tight IT bands (and doing nothing about them) combined with a job where I sit much of the day.

This was typical, the PT explained, since tight muscles (which can be caused by a variety of issues including exercise, injury and prolonged sitting), cause knots in the muscle tissue, which limits blood circulation and can lead to tightness, pain and injury. It may start with a tightness when completing everyday activities, like bending down to tie your shoe, but over time, will progress to more constant pain and eventual injury. This was exactly what was happening in my hips, and the tight muscles and knots were now causing near-daily hip, glute and leg pain.

The solution? Also just what I suspected – or feared: foam rolling. That's because the simple tool stretches the muscles and tendons and helps to break down the muscle knots. It’s a type of self-massage that's done using a cylindrical foam roller (or hard round ball like a tennis ball or lacrosse ball) and your own body weight. Foam rolling increases blood flow and circulation while loosening and stretching your muscles, helping them get back to their original length.

“When used properly, foam rolling can help improve flexibility in the short term (like before a workout), and if you do it diligently, it can also help improve your flexibility long term,” says Joe Holder, a performance specialist and trainer in New York City. “Regular foam rolling can also assist with post-workout soreness and your general pain threshold.”

It was clear that if I wanted my hip pain to go away, I needed to start foam rolling on a regular basis. To solidify this habit, I decided to commit to 30 days of foam rolling. Five minutes per day for 30 days – how hard could it be? Turns out, it was more difficult than I realized. Here’s what happened.

Day 1

I set my alarm 10 minutes early to make sure I had enough time to foam roll before work. I decided to focus on my IT band and piriformis, a small muscle located behind the glutes that helps to rotate the hip, since those were the muscles that were bothering me the most (and I was not yet ready to devote 30 minutes to foam rolling my entire body). I started by lying on my side with a cylindrical foam roller under my IT band, and began rolling back and forth along the length of my outer thigh. My first thought: "Ow, this seriously hurts." Part of me wanted to just stop, but then I realized the fact that it hurt so much meant that I really did need it. I just hoped it wouldn't be this painful every day that month.


Day 5

"Do I really have to do this? How does two minutes feel so long?" I thought. I was finding it much harder than anticipated to fit foam rolling into my day – and was not psyched to continue to try for 25 more days.

Day 9

I saw a physical therapist for the first time in months. She gave me some foam rolling pointers and confirmed that yes, I really do have to foam roll daily and yes, it will really help my hip problems. After 20 minutes of massage and manipulation, my hip and glute muscles felt looser and I had greater range of motion. Even my gait changed, since I wasn’t compensating for the tight muscles. I tried hard to note to myself: This stuff really does work.

Day 15

Two weeks in and I finally wasn't cringing each time I rolled over my IT band. The pain had started to diminish and my hip was feeling looser. While I still felt some knots in my glutes, there were far fewer kinks than before. I was still struggling with making myself foam roll every day (I found committing to 30 days of yoga easier, probably because classes gave me more accountability), but seeing some positive progress was helping.

Day 21

Here came the true test: Could I maintain my foam rolling routine while traveling? I headed to Palm Springs for a bachelorette party and packed my trusty lacrosse ball (that was going to have to do for the next three days). This was my first flight since I started foam rolling, and I was interested to see if I’d still have hip pain from the prolonged sitting. Verdict: zero pain! I sat for the entire five-hour flight and didn’t have any pain or stiffness. This motivated me to continue to roll – albeit with a lacrosse ball – for a few minutes each day during the trip.

Day 24

Three and a half weeks in, I went for my first run of the month. I foam rolled for a few minutes beforehand to warm up my muscles. I ended up doing 20 minutes of sprint intervals without any knee or hip pain. Success!

Day 27

I used the foam roller at the gym, which was softer than my roller at home. I’d used rollers like this in the past and always felt pain, but that time, it didn’t hurt at all. I then did some stretching and found that as I reached down to my toes, I was able to grasp the bottom of my feet for the first time in months.

Day 30

By this point, my yoga mat was such a fixture on my living room floor that my mom thought it was a new rug. But my home decor had served an important purpose: My hips and legs had much more range of motion, my knee and glute pain had almost entirely disappeared and ever since, I’ve been seeing improvements in both my running and yoga practice. I had been counting the days until this challenge was over, but given how good my body feels, I will definitely continue to foam roll on a regular basis.

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