If you’ve been in our sports medicine clinic for a sports injury, then we’ve probably talked to you about the benefits of using a foam roller for soft tissue and myofascial work. If you haven’t had to limp across our doorway with a sports injury, even better…here’s a new sports therapy product that should keep you from meeting us too soon (and as the added bonus of being more environmentally friendly)

Trigger Point Therapy has launched  their Grid Foam Roller which far exceeds traditional foam rollers is a lot of ways. For one, the Grid Foam Roller is  made out of EVA (the same stuff used to make the soles of running shoes) and as a result, the Grid Foam Roller doesn’t break down as quickly as a traditional foam roller. The Grid Foam Roller  also has this really cool matrix shape and contour withs different texture and densities. Essentially, you’re getting three different foam rollers combined into one. The EVA is wrapped around a hard tube (which is why the Grid is hollow – all the support and firmness is from the tube.

What else makes the Grid Foam Roller unique? The Grid also has a much smaller profile – just 13 inches long compared to the typical 3 foot long foam rollers we used to use here at Coastal Sports and Wellness (yep, we’ve switched over to the Grid Foam Roller for the clinic). Plus, the final big point for me – there is a one year warranty on the Grid. IF you can wear it out, break it down, etc, Trigger Point Therapy offers a one year warranty on it. Granted it costs a little more than that typical foam roller, but if you figure that the Grid should last through at least a year of regular use, that will end up saving you money in the long run. I usually see our the foam rollers break down after about 3 to 4 months of use, so do the math…$40 for the Grid for a year, or buying a new foam roller every 4 months at $20 a pop…plus you’re not tossing the old foam roller into a landfill somewhere…

The Grid Foam Roller is a great new therapy tool for athletes suffering from a range of maladies from iliotibial band syndrome to hamstring strains and quadriceps and calf muscle injuries.

for $39.99 + shipping from the Trigger Point Therapy website.

The study, published in the July 2008 issue of Lancet Oncology  by researchers at the University of Alberta, looked at the difference in total body fat-free mass in obese cancer patients using a CT scanner. The interesting point not picked up in the NY Times article has to do with the toxicity of chemotherapy treatments since the total body fat-free mass is supposed to determine distribution at toxicity of the chemotherapy. However, many drugs are dosed using a body surface area (BSA) calculation that dates back to a 1916 medical study!

Granted that there are variations of the body surface area formula that have been “improved” upon since then, but this study also suggests that there is not a good correlation in obese cancer patients between their body surface area and their fat-free mass due to the loss of muscle mass in some.

Time to get back to the gym and work out with that San Diego personal trainer.