Trigger Point Grid Foam Roller

Moving continents and associated moving costs focusses the mind on what you really need and what can/should be thrown in the bin. Well, that's what happened to my foam roller. As it happens a foam roller is a crucial piece of my running kit and keeps me on the road. Foam rollers are cylinders or half cylinders of hard foam, over which you roll your muscles, allowing you to stretch muscles, stimulate Myofascial tissue release and encourage blood supply to the affected areas. I find this treatment especially effective at treating Iliotibial Band Syndrome and warding off the general effects of Delayed Onset of Muscular Soreness. As a bonus, any of the exercises you do using a foam roller are quite effective core exercises. A wide range of instructional videos are found on Youtube.

The roller I threw out was more than a year old and was not made of high density EVA and so was no longer providing the benefits once had.
Consequently I was five weeks without a foam roller and my running form was beginning to disintegrate. Additionally, my muscles were increasingly tightening and aches and pains were becoming more apparent. A few weeks ago I was standing in a queue for a considerable time and my quads had become so tight that bending at the knee to walk was a struggle for the first few steps.
Hence, the search for a new foam roller began. I settled on the Trigger Point Grid Foam Roller.



This roller differs from most other rollers in a number of respects.
1. It is hollow, which makes it good for travel, allowing you to fill the hollow tube with clothes.
2. The tube is made of high density plastic, rendering it much more durable.
3. As can be seen from the photo above the rubber surface covering the plastic tube has varying degrees of density to mimic a massage from fingertips, palms, and thumbs. The marketing guff refers to this as 'distrodensity'.



I consider this primarily marketing guff. However, the durability of this foam roller is very appealing and it has worked just as well as my previous roller.
One point of note however, it its relative shortness at 13 inches. If you're new to foam rolling you might find coordinating your body with the roller such that you don't fall off it is a little challenging at first but is something you should adapt to with time. Overall, I would give this a five star rating and while ten to fifteen dollars more expensive than other it will last much longer.