Gear Review - Roll Recovery R8

The latest thing to join foam rollers, Trigger Point, and The Stick in the self massaging tool market is a product called Roll Recovery R8, or just the R8. Developed by Colorado endurance athlete, Jeremy Nelson, the R8 is specifically designed to target your legs and glutes.

The R8's main body is designed like a c-clamp that has high tension springs on it's corners that keep the clamp closed. At the end of the "clamp," where it makes contact with your leg, are 2 sets of 4 rollerblade type wheels. The tension from the springs provide the force needed for the massage, so you don't need to add any addition pressure (unless you wanted to) like you would with The Stick. The R8's design also keeps you from having to roll on the ground like you would with foam rollers because you hold it with your hands and roll it where you need. Another benefit of the R8, is that my arms don't get tired when using it. When I use the foam roller, I'm holding up a lot of my body weight with my arms, which eventually gets tired and ends my rolling session, and my shoulders tire out fairly easily when I use The Stick.

As far as pressure goes, nothing beats the foam roller because you're using a majority of your body weight to press down on whatever you're targeting, but sometimes all that pressure, or too much pressure, is more harmful than beneficial. You can reproduce the same desired pressure from The Stick, but like I mentioned earlier, my arms and shoulders get pretty tired. The only spot I can't seem to get a good massage with using foam rollers or The Stick is my hamstrings. I either can't get my hamstrings to relax enough when I use the foam roller or a deep enough pressure from The Stick without feeling like I'm about to snap it in half. But with the R8, I'm able to get right in there and work the entire length of my hamstrings and into my glutes.

If you want more information, check out their website at www.rollrecovery.com