Should you add foam rolling to your workout routine?

Just a few minutes of rolling can help make your muscles more receptive to stretching and relieve muscle soreness, too.

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Working out regularly will help you hold on to your flexibility, mobility, and independence. And using a simple tool may improve this grip on fitness by priming the muscles and making your workouts more effective.

The tool is called a foam roller. It looks like a fat tube or a bolster pillow for a bed. To use it, you slowly roll an area of your body — like your upper back, hips, or calves — back and forth across the top of the roller.