re: Foam Rollers: Legit or nah?

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dynamic stretching pre workout and static stretching post workout are very beneficial and cut down on injuries.

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Nah. Perhaps if you are a peak athlete it can have some benefits. But it's mostly a myth. Here's a mainstream article on the topic, but you can go as deep as you want on the interwebs. LINK

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i've heard building your back muscles can cut down on a lot of that. is that true, IYO?

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Well yes and no. Just strengthening something is usually not the only cause. You could have weak muscles and your body is trying to stay stable by using the opposing muscle. You could have an impingement.

Most problems I've had with shoulder pain is that I have a tight chest and that causes me to internally rotate my shoulders. So what happens with that is my mind is telling me to be stable and pull back. The muscles that pull back are my scapula and rotator muscles. This causes pain in the shoulder due to overuse. So what I do is to use a lacrosse ball to tell my brain to "let go" of the tension of the shoulder in the rotator cuff of the supraspinatus and infraspinatus and this provides temporary relief. This allows me to properly stretch my chest to correct the internal rotation.

These are my experiences and may not work with you.

Static stretching actually dampens your top end. Foam rolling can help your neutral conditioning to "let go" of tightness allowing you to get in good positioning.

Too much stretching doesn't provide any additional help. Too much mobility is bad. The joints aren't stable and lead to more injuries.

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Static stretching actually dampens your top end. Foam rolling can help your neutral conditioning to "let go" of tightness allowing you to get in good positioning. Too much stretching doesn't provide any additional help. Too much mobility is bad. The joints aren't stable and lead to more injuries.

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Yea you def don't want to over do it and static before a work out is not good. If you do, you need to warm up first. Dynamic stretching/warming up will def help with injury prevention.

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Dynamic stretching/warming up will def help with injury prevention.

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Nah. There's no "definitely" about it. It's mostly an old-wives tale with minimal impact at best. Do you also cup and tape? When you ball, do you wear a sleeve?

Definitely

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Its great for thoracic spine mobilizing.

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I've tried that to mixed results. I view mine as basically just a self-massager.

Has definitely helped with knots and tightness in my calfs/ankle/achilles.