GoFit Revolve Foam Curler Overview

I’m an enormous fan of foam rolling to launch muscle pressure, however I discover it’s often simpler for my decrease physique than my chronically tight higher again and shoulders. That’s primarily as a result of the sore muscle groups in these areas, particularly across the shoulder blades, will be onerous to hit in simply the best spots. Flat foam rollers don’t all the time attain these upper-body nooks and crannies, whereas the raised factors on grid rollers will be too intense or put stress on the mistaken locations (ouch!).

However as a health author, I do know there’s a wealth of analysis exhibiting utilizing a foam curler can enhance muscle soreness, flexibility, and efficiency. As an example, 20 minutes of froth rolling on a high-density curler instantly and 24, 48, and 72 hours post-exercise was discovered to boost restoration and cut back muscle tenderness attributable to delayed onset muscle soreness, in keeping with a 2015 research¹ within the Journal of Athletic Coaching.

My quest to search out an efficient strategy to foam roll my higher physique took a brand new flip after I tried the GoFit Revolve Curler, a curler with adaptive therapeutic massage rings you’ll be able to swap as much as create a novel number of ridges and patterns designed to focus on even hard-to-reach muscle groups. May this newest innovation be an answer for my ongoing higher physique tightness?

Learn on to search out out extra concerning the significance of froth rolling on your higher physique, why it may be difficult, and my expertise attempting the GoFit Revolve Curler.

Associated Tales

The advantages of froth rolling your higher physique

Foam rolling is an effective way to launch muscle pressure, promote higher mobility, and improve blood movement that helps muscle restoration, says Ramon Felix, CPT, founding father of Stretchergy.com, a mobility and suppleness on-line platform. With regards to your higher again, foam rolling additionally has a protecting impact.

“By relieving tightness within the higher again, foam rolling protects the shoulder joints, as overly tight muscle groups can pull the shoulder blades upward doubtlessly inflicting ache, discomfort, and even shoulder impingement,” says Felix.

However concentrating on your rhomboid muscle groups (positioned between your shoulder blades) and your rear deltoids (working from the again your the shoulders to your higher arms) will be difficult with a regular curler due to the muscle groups’ smaller measurement and deeper placement, explains Felix.

Neck pressure may contribute to a good higher again and shoulders. “The trapezius and levator scapulae muscle groups, which connect to the neck, could cause discomfort when they’re shortened,” Felix says. “Foam rolling the higher again and shoulders can assist launch these muscle groups, decreasing neck ache.”

Tight biceps (entrance of your higher arm) and lats (slightly below your shoulder blades) may spherical your shoulders and elevate your shoulder blades, negatively affecting your neck and posture, explains Felix. “Tending to those areas with a foam curler can not directly relieve neck tightness,” he says.

Methods to use a foam curler in your higher physique

For hard-to-reach higher again and shoulder muscle groups, Felix suggests utilizing a higher-density or grid foam curler—the GoFit Revolve Curler is principally an adaptable mixture of the 2. “As a substitute of rolling backwards and forwards, lie on the curler till you find a young spot, then maintain stress for about 30 seconds to launch pressure and enhance blood movement,” he advises.

As a result of extreme foam rolling can irritate muscle groups and worsen ache, Felix recommends foam rolling three to 5 occasions per week, spending a mean of 1 to 2 minutes on every muscle group. Athletes or these with bodily demanding jobs may profit from foam rolling 5 to 6 days per week, he provides.

To make use of the Revolve Curler (or any foam curler) in your higher again or shoulders, Felix presents these three suggestions:

1. Don’t neglect to breathe. Correct respiratory is important. Holding your breath can enhance muscle pressure, elevate blood stress, and cut back the effectiveness of froth rolling.
2. Don’t roll your neck or decrease again. These areas are delicate and rolling them could make current points worse.
3. Sluggish your roll. Foam rolling shouldn’t be meant to be accomplished shortly. Maintain stress on tender areas for a minimum of 30 seconds to permit your muscle groups to launch successfully.

My expertise utilizing the GoFit Revolve Curler

The GoFit Revolve curler has two most important parts: a 13-inch hole curler and adaptive therapeutic massage rings that match over the curler and will be taken on and off to create totally different configurations. The therapeutic massage rings have dimples and raised factors and are available in three diameters—crimson low profile (the least diameter), gray mid profile, and inexperienced excessive profile.

The curler was created to be a conveyable, reasonably priced possibility you’ll be able to swap up relying in your wants, explains Mark Ish, president of GoFit. “Every configuration is like having a brand new curler, so that you don’t want to purchase 5 rollers to get outcomes,” he says.

I attempted the 423 mannequin curler, the deluxe model that comes with 4 inexperienced, two gray, and three crimson therapeutic massage rings. (Two lower-level fashions include both crimson or crimson and gray rings; you may as well purchase further rings individually.) With Felix’s ideas in thoughts, I began utilizing the curler about 4 occasions every week for a month, often later within the day when my higher again and shoulders have been tight from sitting at a desk for hours.

With so many potential mixtures, it was onerous to know the place to start out, however fortunately, an instruction booklet with configuration ideas was included. After attempting a number of of them, my favourite was “the cradle”— three crimson rings within the center, then one gray and two inexperienced rings on every finish.

Putting my backbone on the center crimson therapeutic massage rings and rolling up and down from the bottom of my neck to my mid backbone allowed the upper profile gray and inexperienced rings to hit all the best spots. Because the title suggests, it was like mendacity in a self-massaging cradle. Once I hit a very spicy set off level, per Felix’s suggestion, I might maintain there for about 30 seconds on the curler’s raised factors.

I used the identical approach, together with slowly rolling aspect to aspect, on my biceps and lats. Certainly one of my favourite components of utilizing the curler was shifting my physique place let me fluctuate the session primarily based on how I used to be feeling that day. For instance, when utilizing “the cradle” on my lats or biceps, if I wanted extra depth, I’d merely transfer a few inches to the denser inexperienced rings. If issues bought too spicy, I’d simply slide over to the crimson or gray rings.

Due to the dimples and factors, the Revolve curler is unquestionably steadier than flat rollers—you gained’t go rolling off of it onto the ground. The cons have been minor—reconfiguring the rings took a couple of minutes and I struggled to get the top screw-in caps that lock the rings in place on and off. These have been solely small drawbacks in comparison with my general expertise, although.

My outcomes and ultimate ideas

After simply a few periods with the Revolve Curler, I felt particular enchancment within the tightness and pressure in my higher again and shoulders. If I skipped greater than a pair days, I may inform—I’d really feel these downside areas progressively tensing up because the day went on and know I wanted one other session. Inside a few weeks, my shoulder and higher again tightness was noticeably improved and continued to be, so long as I persistently used the curler.

The adaptive therapeutic massage rings actually made all of the distinction, permitting me to focus on hard-to-reach muscle groups (particularly round my shoulder blades) far past what I’ve been in a position to obtain with a flat curler. Whereas grid rollers have raised factors much like the Revolve, you’ll be able to’t regulate them. I’ve tried a whole lot of foam rollers and by no means discovered one which supplied this degree of adaptability. I severely can’t wait to strive it out on my decrease physique.

As a aspect be aware, rookies would most likely profit from watching tutorial movies or a private coaching session to verify they’re utilizing the curler correctly. Even in case you’re an previous professional like me, the curler does require some trial and error till you discover configurations that work greatest for you. However if you do, in case you’re like me, the outcomes shall be value it.