When it comes to muscle recovery, one method that’s become ubiquitous in recent years is the foam roller, and for good reason. Foam rolling is a great technique for self-myofascial release, aka loosening knotted-up muscle tissue.

Massaging your muscles with a foam roller is a simple way to alleviate tightness, ease pain, and get blood flowing to the areas you roll out. Plus, it’s a lot cheaper than massage therapy. If you do it properly and stay consistent, it can be a serious game changer in any lifter’s routine.

But there’s more to foam rolling than just going through the motions for a minute or two once you’re done working out, and if you’re rolling incorrectly, you’re just wasting time. So we recruited the developer of the Rumble Roller (rumbleroller.com), Ron Johnson, to correct common foam-rolling mistakes.