We present foam roller exercises developed using soma system foundational principles. As compared to traditional foam roller exercises, soma system inspired foam rolling emphasizes comfort of the practitioner, breathing and alignment. We focus on three types of techniques: rolling, pin & stretch and postural stretching.
While foam roller is a great introductory tool, it lacks specificity of more advanced self bodywork tools. Picture below shows comparative size of the traditional foam roller compared to soma system tools. Smallest soma system ball is substantially smaller and therefore provides much better means to isolate and release small tight spots of tension, which are impossible to isolate using traditional foam roller.
Therefore, at the end of this section we present more advanced techniques using soma system tools.
Rolling Techniques
Pin & Stretch Techniques
- Exercise 4: Upper Body Twists
- Exercise 5: Pelvic Tilts
- Exercise 6: Lifting Hips
- Exercise 7: Hip Twists
- Exercise 8: Hip Side Movements
- Exercise 9: Hip Circles
- Exercise 10: Arm Extension
Postural Stretching Techniques
Advanced Techniques
- Exercise 14: Rolling with soma system double tracker
- Exercise 15: Upper Back Trigger Point Exploration
Foam Rolling Techniques for Upper Back
Exercise 1: Foam Rolling
Rest your upper body on 3 foam rollers: lower foam roller under sacrum, middle foam roller under upper back and upper foam roller is supporting head. Make sure you are comfortable and sensations are not too intense. Close your eyes. Take three slow abdominal breaths. Use your feet to push off the ground and move your upper body away from the feet by 1-2 inches and then return to the initial position by bringing your upper body closer to the feet. Pay close attention to your sensations coming from upper back and you may discover that some spots are more tender than the others. Repeat 5 times.
You can also perform this exercise on two foam rollers, but you will have to maintain your pelvis in the air. This is not idea as it is better to allow entire body to rest comfortably, so that you can focus your awareness on upper back.
Rest your upper body on two foam rollers. One foam roller supports your head and the other is under your mid or upper back. Push off with your feet and perform five mini-rolls with each mini-roll being only 1-2 inches. Maintain neutral pelvic tilt and keep pelvis above horizontal line going through your upper body. Control intensity of your experience in the upper back by moving your hips slightly higher (for more intense experience) or lower (to lessen the intensity).
You can also perform rolling with one foam roller. One traditional way to foam roll upper back with one foam roller is by resting your hands on your chest. We strongly advise against this technique.
Leaving your head hanging in the air without any support has following disadvantages:
— Your body will engage neck flexors to support your head in the air. Engaging muscles in one area of the body is likely to cause your body to automatically engage and tighten muscles in other parts of the body including your upper back.
— To provide most effective muscle tension release, you need to place your nervous system in a relaxed state. Tightening neck flexors stimulates nervous system and thus may prevent you from getting the most out of the foam rolling.
— When foam rolling, you need to focus your sensory awareness on relatively small area you are foam rolling. This is absolutely essential for many reasons, one of which is very simple – you may encounter very tight and tender spots and you have to have enough bodily awareness to notice this and work carefully on these spots.
If you do choose to work with only one foam roller – you will need to support your head with you arms as shown on this picture. Also keep your core gently engaged to maintain your upper body parallel to the floor preventing anterior pelvic tilt.
Go To Exercise 2: Side Rolling
Exercise 2: Side Rolling
Hug yourself, turn your upper body and hips to the right and by pushing with your feet against the floor perform five mini-rolls ny pushing with your feet off the floor and moving your upper body closer and away from your feet.
Turn your upper body to the left and repeat on the right side.
Go To Exercise 3: Rolling Across Foam Roller
Exercise 3: Rolling Across Foam Roller
Hug yourself, inhale and roll your upper body and hips to the left. Exhale and roll your upper body and the hips to the right. Repeat five times.
Go To Next Section: Pin and Stretch Techniques
Pin and Stretch
Exercise 4: Upper Body Twists
Hug yourself, inhale and twist your upper body to the left while making sure your hips don’t move off the foam roller when you twist and stay parallel to the ground. This will allow you to experience a nice twist throughout your spine. To expand the twist along myofascial chain into the neck, turn your head to the left.
Repeat on the right side. To intensify the twist along myofascial chain into the neck, turn your head to the right.
Go To Exercise 5: Pelvic Tilts
Exercise 5: Pelvic Tilts
Discontinue rolling. Inhale and gently bring your pelvis into anterior tilt; Exhale and bring your pelvis into posterior tilt. Repeat 5 times. This exercise gently massages fascia overlaying sacrum as well as gently stretch paraspinal muscles and accompanying facia that run along the spinal column.
Go To Next Section: Pin and Stretch with Hip Movements
Pin and Stretch with Hip Movements
The following set of exercises is better to perform with two foam rollers. As compared to the three foam roller exercises, removing foam roller from under your hips allows you to
– Provide more intense stimulation of the upper back, especially when you lift your hips up
– Provides more freedom for your hips to move. While foam roller is pinning tissues in your upper back, moving hips provides a gentle pin and stretch action on the upper back.
Exercise 6: Lifting Hips
Inhale and bring your pelvis into a gentle posterior tilt. While maintaining gentle posterior tilt of pelvis, exhale and slowly lift your hips up. Feel as intensity coming from your upper back foam roller increases. Inhale and release your hips to the initial position. Repeat five times.
Go To Next Exercise: Hip twists
Exercise 7: Hip Twists
Inhale and twist you hips with left side of the hip going up and the right side of the hip going down. Exhale and twist to the other side with with right side of the hip going up and the left side of the hip going down. Make sure that your knees are not moving. You should feel a gentle twist moving up your spine as you twist your hips.
Go To Next Exercise: Hip Side Movements
Exercise 8: Hip Side Movements
Inhale and bring your hips to the left. Exhale and bring your hips to the right. Make your hips stay parallel to the floor.
Go To Next Exercise: Hip Circles
Exercise 9: Hip Circles
Slowly and gently bring your hips up, then to the left, down and to the right, thus making a circle with your hips. Move very slowly and intentionally, continuously listening to the sensations coming from your back. Make sure that the movement feels comfortable. Repeat 5 times. Reverse direction and repeat another five times.
Go To Next Exercise: Arm Extension
Exercise 10: Arm Extension
Inhale, bring your pelvis into gentle posterior tilt. Slowly exhale and bring your arms behind your head. When you are bringing arms behind your head, your pelvis will tend to move into anterior tilt and your chest and ribs will tend to move slightly up and expand. Make sure that you keep your pelvis in a slight posterior tilt and keep your chest and ribs in. Repeat five times.
While maintaining your arms behind your head, repeat the five exercises described above:
– Lifting Hips
– Hip Twists
– Hip Side Movements
– Belly Dancing
– Upper Body Twists
Go To Next Section: Postural Stretching
Postural Stretching
Exercises 11: Hand Extension and Flexion.
Inhale, bring your pelvis into gentle posterior tilt. Slowly exhale and bring your arms behind your head. When you are bringing arms behind your head, your pelvis will tend to move into anterior tilt and your chest and ribs will tend to move slightly up and expand. Make sure that you keep your pelvis in a slight posterior tilt and keep your chest and ribs in. Repeat five times.
Go To Next Exercise: Chest Opening
Exercise 12: Chest Opening
Bring your arms to the sides and let your chest gently expand sideways. Breathe and stay in this position for 1-2 minutes.
Go To Next Exercise: Flying Elbows
Exercise 13: Flying Elbows
Interlace your fingers behind your head. Your elbows are pointing upward. Inhale. Move your pelvis into a slight posterior pelvic tilt and and expand your elbows to the side. Repeat 5 times.
Once again your pelvis will naturally try to move into anterior pelvic tilt and your chest will tend to expand. Make sure that you prevent this by moving very slowly and intentionally.
Advanced Techniques
Rolling with soma system double tracker
You will need the following tools:
Place two soma system double trackers under your upper back and place soma system foam support under your hips to increase pressure on the double track rollers and to assist with rolling.
Roll an inch or two up so that the Double Track Rollers compress the cord-like muscles that run along your spine. Rest your head on the floor. Roll an inch or two up and down. Maintain your head completely relaxed on the floor. As a result of mini rolling, your head will be nodding – as if you were saying yes.
For more techniques and videos please visit:
Upper Back Release with Double Trackers and Online Classes
Upper Back Trigger Point Exploration
Tools you will need:
Place the smallest ball from soma system myofascial 5pack under right side of your upper back between inner border of shoulder blade and spinal column. Make sure that the ball is not applying any pressure on the spinal column. Stay on one spot for 10-20 seconds making sure that sensation coming from upper back due to the ball is not too intense and is in fact pleasant. Slightly shift your upper body over the ball to a new spot. Breather and relax. Repeat on 5 more spots on the same side and then proceed to work on the left side.
For more techniques and videos please visit:
Upper Back Trigger Point Release and Online Classes.