Blackroll Training – Urban Sport of the Week

Each week we send a member of the Urban Sports Club team to try out the weird and wonderful sports you can access as a member. After a hard week of sports, we headed to a Blackroll class to see if it would help ease our muscle pain…  

What is Blackroll?

Blackroll aims to reduce the risk of injury, inflammation and muscle overuse through simple exercises using foam rollers and balls.The exercises are designed to massage out any muscle injuries and improve flexibility and strength.

Chimosa is a yoga, martial arts and wellbeing studio based in Berlin’s Mitte. Here you can practice yoga and martial arts in a welcoming environment, complemented by wellbeing classes such as our Blackroll class.  

What can you expect?

The philosophy behind Chimosa is to create a space where individuality and balance can flourish. Located in the heart of Berlin, the studio is bright, colourful and vibrant. Tea is a big part of the Chimosa ethos so we helped ourselves to some delicious jasmine tea upon arrival.

The Blackroll class was held in the main studio facing the street. This is the studio dedicated to wellness and yoga. We each grabbed a foam roller and a small, hard ball. Although the word ‘massage’ is often used to describe Blackroll, I knew that this wasn’t going to be a relaxing experience.  

How was the workout?

Our trainer, Jermaine, instructed us to stand with the small, hard ball under the ball of our foot. He told us to slowly apply pressure to the areas that felt most painful. I already had pain in the ball of my foot so applied pressure to this spot. I could tell by the distraught grimaces on everyone’s face that my class members were also in significant pain.

After we’d ‘massaged’ the bottom of our feet we moved on to the calves. We lay on the floor, stuck one leg in front and one leg behind and slowly rolled our calves over the large foam roller. This, also, was extremely uncomfortable.  Jermaine explained that the points that hurt the most are the places where pressure needs to be applied. As I grimaced my way through the exercises I knew I was doing my body a lot of good.

Jermaine’s knowledge of anatomy was very impressive – At one point someone said their glutes felt stiff and he could tell immediately that she was a runner and explained how and why this was the case.

After our calves we moved onto our thighs. To massage our glutes we simply sat on the round ball for a good few minutes. It was agony.

As well as this we had to use our arms to hold ourselves up which was a workout in itself. “Make sure you don’t get to the point where you’re sweating in pain,” Jermaine said, just as a ball of sweat rolled slowly down my forehead.

The last exercise was to wedge the small, hard ball between our backs and the wall. We rolled the ball around to find the most painful part and then applied pressure. My shoulders were definitely the most stiff. I wondered what passersby must think to see a group of people moving slowly up and down a wall with an expression of complete agony on their faces.  

How did I feel after?

The pain I had in the ball of my foot was completely gone immediately after the class – problem solved!

My muscles felt much less stiff and my glutes which are usually very tight were more flexible for the next few days. I’d highly recommend this class for easing aches and pains.  

Benefits of Blackroll

Blackroll is a fantastic complement to your training regime; it increases flexibility and improves athletic performance.

Blackroll classes stretch every muscle group which reduces your risk of injury.

The exercises are easy-to-do and you can adapt them to treat problem areas specific to your body  

Don’t forget to bring…

Workout gear, water and a high pain-threshold.  

To stay up-to-date with news and events, like Chimosa on Facebook. Urban Sports Club partners with many studios that offer similar Blackroll and flexibility classes across Germany and in France.

Check our website to see what’s on offer in your area.