I asked a trainer for a five-move foam rolling routine to soothe sore muscles – here’s what he prescribed

These five moves with an affordable recovery tool will help soothe sore muscles - (The Independent)

Foam rolling feels good. Research has struggled to pin down why, but that doesn’t stop thousands of exercisers turning to these trusty padded tubes when warming up or soothing sore muscles. Unlike most recovery tools nowadays, they’re also refreshingly affordable, with a solid roller readily available for roughly £30.

Once you’ve picked one up, the next hurdle is knowing what to do with it. To solve this, we asked Michael Cummings, BlazePod head master trainer and a strength coach of more than 20 years, to share his favourite five-move routine for easing aching muscles across the entire body.

“There are three main reasons why a person should use a foam roller; to mitigate pain, to prepare the body for movement, training or competition, or to speed up the recovery process,” he says.

His routine below is designed to aid recovery, so he recommends applying a moderate-deep amount of pressure and moving the roller at a fairly slow rate for the best effect.

How to do trainer Michael Cummings’ five-move foam rolling routine

Move one: Targets the hips and lateral thigh

Demonstrating how to use a foam roller to soothe muscle soreness around the hips and lateral thigh (The Independent / Harry Bullmore)

Benefits: Reduces soreness in the hips, IT Band and around the knee.

Move two: Targets the calf muscles and Achilles tendons

Demonstrating how to use a foam roller to soothe muscle soreness around the calf and Achilles tendon (The Independent / Harry Bullmore)

Benefits: Reduces soreness in your lower extremities, around the ankle, Achilles tendon, calf and knee.

Move three: Targets the t-spine

Demonstrating how to use a foam roller to soothe muscle soreness around the spine (The Independent / Harry Bullmore)

Benefits: Reduce soreness in the mid-back and shoulders.

Move four: Targets the glutes

Demonstrating how to use a foam roller to soothe muscle soreness around the glutes (The Independent / Harry Bullmore)

Benefits: Reduces soreness in the glutes, hips and lower back.

Move five: Targets the lats

Demonstrating how to use a foam roller to soothe muscle soreness around the lats (The Independent / Harry Bullmore)

Benefits: Reduces soreness in the upper back and latissimus dorsi or lats (the broad muscles spreading across the back).

Read more: Five stretches you should be doing every day, according to a flexibility expert

The foam roller to buy

Myprotein muscle roller: £28, Myprotein.com

Myprotein muscle roller (Myprotein)

This is a solid roller which has everything you need for a good warm-up, cool down and recovery session. The foam is particularly firm, so you can really get into any tight spots, and it has a variety of grooves, allowing you to use different parts of the roller to achieve different pressures. At £28, it’s a fairly affordable addition to your gym bag too.

Get 10% off almost everything at Myprotein with code MYPINDY (*T&Cs and exclusions apply).

Read more: Walking 10,000 steps day might not matter if you don’t do this one thing, according to an expert