This is my review on the AmazonBasics High-Density Round Foam Roller. Don’t be fooled by the name, this exercise tool is anything but basic. It’s a great way for you to both improve your balance and your muscle strength. Typically, if you wanted to do both those things, you’d have to invest in multiple different pieces of exercise equipment. However, one of the greatest strengths of the AmazonBasics High-Density Round Foam Roller is that it manages to combine these two goals into a single, affordable piece of equipment.

Key Features of the AmazonBasics High-Density Round Foam Roller

• Comes in four different sizes, ranging from 12-inches to 36-inches.
• High-density blue speckled foam provides a high level of firmness.
• Ideal for a wide variety of exercise that improves your balance, your muscle strength, and your flexibility.
• Very easy to clean.
• Lightweight and easy to transport.

Is The AmazonBasics High-Density Round Foam Roller Worth Your Money?

The foam roller is very well-made. A lot of foam rollers suffer from the issue of either being too soft or too hard, but that’s not the case with the AmazonBasics foam roller. It manages to maintain enough firmness to make exercising possible, while at the same time it manages to be soft enough to not make exercising uncomfortable. The high-density blue speckled foam really works well.

Another great thing about the AmazonBasics high-density round foam roller is how compact it is. It’s easy enough to carry it around in a bag, so if you’re traveling somewhere or if you have some free time at work, you can easily pack this foam roller in a bag and get some exercise in.

Another thing that’s very useful is how easy it is to clean. Foam rollers tend to get dirty easily, mainly because the nature of the exercises that you do with them gets them covered in sweat. Thankfully, cleaning the AmazonBasics foam roller is very easy, especially when compared to some other foam rollers. If you don’t clean foam rollers, they start to really smell, so being able to prevent this from happening is a great reason to buy the AmazonBasics.

You have a good amount of versatility when it comes to this foam roller because it comes in four different sizes. The smallest size, 12-inches, is affordable and a great way to introduce yourself to foam roller exercises if you’ve never used one before. People who are bigger can buy one of the larger foam rollers, so anyone of any size can use this brand of foam roller with ease.

Why Should you use a Foam Roller at all? 

Without getting into too much science, the fascia is essentially a large piece of tissue that looks like a thin ‘film’ that surrounds all of your muscles and joints. It’s a bit like your muscles have all been vacuum packed and this is what keeps everything in place while at the same time supporting you through movements to avoid movement. The fascia is something that modern science is only just getting around to looking at but it’s thought by many to be as important, if not more important than the muscle itself.

When you contract your muscle, your brain sends impulses through your nervous system. Once these impulses reach your motor end plates, they release calcium among other things to tell the fibers to begin contracting. The body needs to remove this calcium over time but sometimes this doesn’t go as smoothly as it should. The build-up can leave the muscles contracting in single points. This creates a tiny localized bulge of tension that can inhibit movement and create pain.

Fascial adhesions meanwhile are caused when the fascia is torn or damaged and ends up forming a more rigid, less flexible scar tissue. The fascia doesn’t show up on MRI scans, so often this damage goes completely unrecognized – but it causes painful movement and other problems and needs to be dealt with.

How to use a foam roller

Foam rolling is essentially like giving yourself a sports massage that really gets right into those fascial adhesions and knots. This will help work them out and give you back your movement.

To do it, you need to get yourself a foam roller and then roll your back and other muscles across it. Move it around directly on the muscle until you feel a sudden twinge of pain. It should hurt but it should feel like ‘good pain’ that’s somewhat satisfying at the same time.

If you are in the market for a really good quality foam roller check out the AmazonBasics high-density round foam roller on Amazon.