Y'all, I bought a thing in a moment of desperation with my leg/foot issues. I was mindlessly scrolling and an ad popped up for this
Double Up Roller. I did a search so I could see reviews and was surprised it actually got good reviews on Amazon. It was more than I wanted to pay at the moment but I was desperate to attempt to get my leg imbalances in check. The biggest problem I have is I can't get a good angle on rolling on a foam roller or being able to reach certain spots on my calves. The Mr is kind enough to massage them on occasion but his hand muscles always go kaput before my knots wave the flag. This was my last ditch effort to see if I could reach where I needed to and not bother him. I made sure it was returnable before buying and hoped for the best.
Not to spoil it but if you read the top picture, you know how I feel about this. I have always had a hard time either digging in hard enough to get any kind of release in the chunkiest part of my calves or getting into the sides of my shin muscles. While I love
my Stick, this current bout of effed-uppedness required something with some leverage behind it that I couldn't get with that. (Nope, not even with my favorite
foam roller either because it can be hard to balance on that with your body weight when your shoulders are also not in the best shape.) Here's what it looks like with my two favorite attachments.
The smooth roller on the left is a little more rigid than another one that is included and I use that for the leverage. The one on the right is the one that can dig into all of the right spots. My default position for my calves are tight AF and not much else. But do you know how hard it is to roll a bazillion spots of tightness when you've got a large surface area to cover?? When you use this, you are able to roll both front and back/ side and side of your calves, thighs, quads and yep, even forearms! That means I get to go twice as deep in half the time. (That's what she said.) Sorry. Oh yeah, you can also roll your feet but it personally didn't do much for me on that front but that doesn't mean someone else might not benefit from it!
You see the left side up there? That makes the
Double Up Roller reversable meaning I can hold onto the two handles and roll the ridged one on my inner calf or wherever while getting good pressure on the opposite side with the smooth roller. Then I flip one handle the opposite way and that makes it so the ridged would now be on the other side and vice versa. I actually just took a break and in 90 seconds, I rolled both calves from rubber band tightness to temporary release. (I say temporary because I'm still training them to not be in a constant state of tightness between this and the
slant board I'm using to keep the calves lengthened from years of a sitting job.)
I also love that it has a carrying case for travel or just neat storage.
It allows you to pack the roller as well as bring all of the necessary roller heads with you/have them at the ready.
The one on the left is the other firmer smooth roller like the one already pictured at the top so you can use two if you want. The middle bumpy one is designed to break up scar tissue and stuff but honestly, I feel like I get that more with the ridged one. I'm not above popping one off and trying the other to see what my legs need for the day and it's literally the click of a button, slide it off, slide the other one on and it clicks into place. The final roller is a slightly softer smooth roller. I used this one to start out and I especially use it if I'm going to need to have that part over my shin bone to roll the back of my calf. For extra comfort on the shin bone, using a towel or another type of pad might be necessary as I've seen a lot of people complain about it being uncomfortable around the shin bone. I will also use that bumpy one on it's own to roll my feet after a walk. It paid for itself the first night between the Mr and I!
I'm a 'tenser' so I hold stress everywhere and that includes my legs. I keep mine beside the couch and set up reminders every two hours to roll my legs because I'm trying to lengthen everything to get out of months of leg imbalance/dysfunction. My ankles also tend to get really "congested" and tight and sort of act as a bottleneck. I will put the ridged roller on the front of my ankle and lightly rest the other roller on the back of my leg and I'm able to gently but effectively roll the front of my ankle where it's uncomfortable even for a massage. I'm hoping being consistent with that will help open things up even more and keep good ankle mobility, especially as I age.
If y'all have been here over any amount of time, you know that I've bought a LOT of stuff to aid in helping my screwed up legs. Big ol
tomahawks for drainage and digging,
Graston/gua shua tools to help with scar tissue, specialized
foam rollers, stick rollers that we keep on every floor AND
the car...all of it. While it all helps in their own ways, the
Double Up Roller is the one thing that I would choose if I had to pick ONE thing out of it all to keep. (But you're not prying any of those other things out of my hands, yo! They all serve purposes for sure!!)
You know I don't do reviews unless something has truly helped me and I think someone else could get good results with it. This is one of those things. At the time of publishing it's $149 for the model I'm reviewing and worth every penny! That is just over two visits to the chiropractor and while I love mine, I love money in my pocket more so it's a no brainer for me. Whether I need to recover my barking gams from a long day of standing doing meal prep, a long walk, a killer leg day that has me Army crawling or holding tension from stress in my legs, the Double Up Roller is the quickest way to help me recover! (This review is NOT sponsored, I just friggin' love it!! 😆) Here's
a demonstration by a dude with way better lookin' legs than I have showing the way I use it most. I hope this has been helpful because I know this bad boy sure has been helpful to us!
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