Foam Roller or Polisher | NYC Strength and Conditioning

The fitness field has a LOT of crazy crap, which I’ve talked about before. As of late I’ve been hearing a LOT about using a *car polisher to help with recovery…

*NOT a sander!

Now I’m all about recovery but my initial thoughts were “this can’t be safe”…Although there had to be something to it for this to continuously get recognition amongst gym rats that aren’t into BS exercise fads!

After further consideration, a polisher is meant to NOT dent or scratch the car…with that in mind, many people raving about it, and the minuscule cost of $30, I decided to test it out.

My Thoughts:

The particular brand I bought (Black and Decker WP900) had a nice soft padding with a soft cover attachment. It was small and light enough to maneuver around, didn’t seem to really catch on to anything, and had strong motor vs. a massage tool in the same price range.

After playing around with it for a bit, it’s almost a hybrid of the Power Plate

And the stick

If you’ve used the power plate, you know that just 30 seconds on it and you’d feel damn good! While this isn’t quite the same, you still get that “loose tingling” sensation and the fascial release at the same time, so WIN WIN!

Foam Roller Vs. Black and Decker

The black and decker has it’s place within your recovery methods but I wouldn’t go as far as to say that it takes OVER it. With the foam roller you can easily get your upper and lower back and it just gets the legs “differently”. It’s a bit hard to explain, but if you’re a avid foam roller, you know what I’m talking about.

While the black and decker is MUCH easier to use and quick for the legs. I would sugget that mixing them up would probably be a better method than choosing either or.

Ultimately I think it’s a great buy for $30, the power plate costs around $3-5k…so give it a shot and test it out for yourself.