With respect to the foam rolling, my legs (IT bands, parts of quads, calves, peroneals, parts of hamstrings, soleus, etc.) are a mess. I basically just reeeeally took my time yesterday, doing long pauses on painful spots, of which I have lots. They feel fine most of the time but as soon as I start applying pressure the fun begins.
Get a deep tissue massage?
Been there, done that. See my log a few pages back, all that trigger point therapy stuff is basically targeted deep tissue. It hurts like a motherfucker but once I'm done with conventional PT I'll probably start doing the manual therapy again like once a month or so.
Right-O.
BTW, I couldn't recommend deep tissue/TPT more highly. It feels great. Afterward.
Yeah, I plan to get a/some deep tissue massage(s) done when I get back to London. The guy I am going to has brought grown men to tears.
With respect to the foam rolling, my legs (IT bands, parts of quads, calves, peroneals, parts of hamstrings, soleus, etc.) are a mess. I basically just reeeeally took my time yesterday, doing long pauses on painful spots, of which I have lots. They feel fine most of the time but as soon as I start applying pressure the fun begins.
Get a deep tissue massage?
Been there, done that. See my log a few pages back, all that trigger point therapy stuff is basically targeted deep tissue. It hurts like a motherfucker but once I'm done with conventional PT I'll probably start doing the manual therapy again like once a month or so.
With respect to the foam rolling, my legs (IT bands, parts of quads, calves, peroneals, parts of hamstrings, soleus, etc.) are a mess. I basically just reeeeally took my time yesterday, doing long pauses on painful spots, of which I have lots. They feel fine most of the time but as soon as I start applying pressure the fun begins.
They do not play much of a role in jumps. In sprints, however, they may play an important role. They allow you to bring the front knee higher faster and are conducive for a faster turnover rate, due to this. There was a study done that compared Asafa Powell to a Japanese sprinter who ran 10.0 for the 100m. Asafa Powell's hip flexors (I do not remember if the study made a distinction between the different hip flexors, nor can I find the study again) were far larger than the Japanese sprinters, this is not enough to say that they make a huge difference, but does seem to point to them as having some role in sprint speed.
A common recommendation for building the hip flexors for sprinting specifically is to do high knees and B skips (search these on youtube) while maintaining correct posture. Decline situps can be useful as well. Decline situp isos with the body more or less parallel to the ground are effective for building the hip flexors in a stretched position: most people's hip flexors are weak in this position due to hours of sitting.