So I bought a foam roller, I’ve never used one before. It’s 6” in diameter and absolutely awkward and a little painful on first try. Is it supposed to hurt until it helps? My back is so sore right now everything hurts it. Are there smaller ones and should I get one?
ETA I just found a 4” one that maybe I should get?
Foam rolling definitely hurts, but in the really deep tissue massage way, not the injury way.
I use a 6" diameter foam roller, and yes it will definitely hurt (in the deep tissue massage way) for a little while.
I personally err on the side of caution when it comes to foam rollers and my back. Really intense pressure can be rough on your spinal muscles and cause a lot of shearing forces. They make different density foam rollers, and you may want to try one that is softer if you plan to use it on your back. If you are looking something to target specific muscles that are tight, I find a lacrosse ball works better/easier because it’s easier to hit the right spots vs. the foam roller is so big it’s hard to be specific.
Can you recommend a place to look? I’m having a hard time finding anything other than high density by simple google search.
Try here, they have several different varieties:
https://www.optp.com/Soft-Tissue-Myofascial-Trigger-Points/Foam-Rollers
I personally have the Pro Roller soft. I can’t use it on my back anymore at all, but before I had a bad back injury it was the perfect density to use on my back.
6” or 4” size?
You know, I honestly don’t know! I think mine is a 6" because it’s the pink one, doesn’t look like they make pink in 4". The 6" is nice because you can lay on it vertically for spinal alignment…I think the 4" would be too small for that
A friend uses a tennis ball. I assume it is more gentle than a lacrosse ball.
I keep 7, put have scanned 5 of the last 7 years to reduce paper/space. I scanned all supporting documents which was a pain the behind.
You also might, depending on how much your pain is affecting any ability to stand and squat if you normally do those things, try it standing against a wall instead of laying down at first.
6" is a pretty good size for foam rollers. The smaller ones don’t seem any more gentle to me. I’ve got a low(er) density roller, a very firm one, a rumble roller, a piece of 6" schedule 40 pvc pipe for rolling.
Then lacrosse balls, soft balls, and a thing that looks like a lacrosse ball with a wide flat base so it doesn’t move around when I’m trying use it (kind of like this https://www.optp.com/PRO-POINT-Myofascial-Release-Tool?cat_id=96)
I’m also a big fan of the theracane. After that, I’ve got a TENS unit and an ultrasound unit. For a while I thought it was overkill, but not being able to get to a chiropractor for the past 4 months, this stuff has been more helpful than ever
No, it shouldn’t hurt.
Like Kat says, try standing up and using it. You want gentle pressure like a kitten paw because you’re in acute pain and not being walked through it by a medical professional. You might want a telehealth appointment or to roll on a video chat while you talk to a physiotherapist. You definitely want a medical professional walking you through some exercises that are good and safe.
You don’t want to spend a shit ton of money on things that could be hurting you, but where you have no way to know. @brute owns a shit ton of things but he knows a lot about his body and a reasonable amount about bodies in general. He is very familiar with good vs bad hurts and hopefully doesn’t use any of his tools to bruise himself.
Lacrosse balls are just self harm devices to most people who use them. Self harm may have cultural or personal benefits, and it is distracting from the root cause of the mental or physical pain…but IME it is not a way to deal with MSK complaints. Tennis balls are nice because it’s much harder to self harm.
And I say this as someone who falls asleep on yoga blocks or with suction cups stuck on me, because falling asleep in a way that will cause soft tissue injury is better at that moment than not addressing the pain.
@smacky I Think 10 years because you have landlord holdings? I think I’m ten because of various self employments. But I could be wrong and it could be 18 to allow your tax records to grow up and walk free
Thanks. Old + uncoordinated + out of shape + 6” foam roller = interesting times when I tried it yesterday. 
I was like “what the heck am I supposed to do with this?” I think that as a serious newbie, maybe starting small is better?
Listen to Elle. She knows way more about how a normal human being should approach this. I wouldn’t do most of this stuff if I hadn’t had training from a licensed myotherapist and several physical therapists.
I keep 10 because that keeps it simple. I have a file with a 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. I put things in them and then forget about it. When I started getting 2020 related documents, I knew it was fine to shred everything in the 0 file (from 2010) since it was past 7 years. I like this system since I never have to think about how many years I have or whether it’s time to purge, it just automatically reminds me to do it!
ETA: This is based loosely on a description of a filing system called Freedom Filer https://www.freedomfiler.com/ which I read about on Unclutterer a million years ago. I file much more simply than most of these systems are for, but if I were just starting out and/or had more files, I would 100% buy this. At the time, they only had options that were $50+ but I see now that they have some templates for more like $10. Highly recommend. I do these 10 year files, and then also have other things divided by retention (some permanent folders, and one odd year/even year thing for things that I’ll keep a year, and then one unreimbursed HSA expenses folder).
I’ve used both, but I find the lacrosse ball better for getting that deep tissue release since it adds a lot more pressure.
ETA: I only use the lacrosse ball in one place that gets tight and it’s not my back, and I learned how to use it from a chiropractor. It really does help in that specific situation but probably isn’t a catch all.
I found foam rollers really useful for IT band issues, again I learned to use it from a PT and only use for that use. It did sort of hurt at first but didn’t feel like an injury.
This is a really good system, going to steal this for my business files.
Since my non-romance book requests all have long hold times and watching Hamilton for the 684258th time made me realize I don’t know what happened in between their revolutionary war (Tale of Two Cities) and modern France, does anyone have any good history books to recommend?
Doesn’t have to be France. Another book along those lines that I read years ago was Red China Blues (edit: GoodReads link), that covered some of modern Chinese history.