Skip to content

Top Navigation

Shape Shape
  • Fitness
  • Healthy Eating
  • Beauty
  • Sex and Love
  • Celebrities
  • Mind & Body
  • Lifestyle
  • Video
  • Shop
  • Sweeps

Profile Menu

Your Account

Account

  • Join Now
  • Your Profile
  • Newsletters
  • Email Preferences
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Help
  • Log Out
Login
Subscribe
Pin FB

Explore Shape

Shape Shape
  • Explore

    Explore

    • The Keto Meal Plan for Beginners

      Everything you need to know to get started with this high-fat, low-carb diet. Read More Next
    • 10 Things I Learned During My Body Transformation

      Twenty months and 17 pounds later, I came away with 10 big lessons. Read More Next
    • The 30-Day Squat Challenge

      The ultimate 30-day squat challenge, featuring 12 squats that tighten and tone. Read More Next
  • Fitness

    Fitness

    See all Fitness
    • Workouts
    • Cardio
    • Strength Training
    • Bodyweight Training
    • Yoga
    • Exercise Recovery
    • Exercise Tips
    • Race Training
    • Workout Trends
    • Playlists
    • Workout Clothes
    • Workout Gear
  • Healthy Eating

    Healthy Eating

    See all Healthy Eating
    • Healthy Recipes
    • Diets
    • Food & Nutrition
    • Healthy Cooking
    • Healthy Drinks
    • Weight Loss
  • Beauty
  • Sex and Love
  • Celebrities

    Celebrities

    See all Celebrities
    • Interviews
    • Celebrity News
    • Celebrity Workouts
  • Mind & Body

    Mind & Body

    See all Mind & Body
    • Coronavirus
    • Transformations
  • Lifestyle

    Lifestyle

    See all Lifestyle
    • Travel
    • Fashion
    • Healthy IRL
  • Video

    Video

    See all Video
    • Workout Videos
    • Cooking Videos
    • Weight Loss Videos
    • Celebrity Videos
  • Shop
  • Sweeps

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Account

Account

  • Join Now
  • Your Profile
  • Newsletters
  • Email Preferences
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Help
  • Log Out
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow us

  1. Shape.com Chevron Right
  2. Fitness Chevron Right
  3. Workouts Chevron Right
  4. 4 Foam Roller Exercises to Burn Fat and Reduce Cellulite

4 Foam Roller Exercises to Burn Fat and Reduce Cellulite

By Caitlin Carlson
December 15, 2014
Skip gallery slides
Save FB Tweet
Lose weight, smooth dimples, and make your skin look younger with expert beauty tips and firming exercises from the new book 20 Pounds Younger
Start Slideshow

1 of 6

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Blast Fat and Cellulite with a Foam Roller!

Credit: Getty Images

Yes, it hurts so good, but there's more to foam rolling than easing post-workout soreness. Technically called self-myofascial release, foam rolling therapy works by alleviating adhesions or “knots” in soft tissue to restore elasticity and muscle motion. By guiding your body back and forth over the roller, you're essentially giving yourself a deep tissue massage. “Foam rolling gives you more circulation, more oxygenated blood,” says Lauren Roxburgh, a personal trainer and expert in foam rolling. "It’s getting rid of congestion in the body.” Even better: As author Michele Promaulayko writes in her new book, 20 Pounds Younger, it can help smooth out cellulite (pre-order the book here before it comes out December 23!). (Wondering what the heck cellulite actually is? Find out.) Read on for the science behind the method—and four moves you can try right now.

1 of 6

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 6

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

20 Pounds Younger

Cellulite plagues 98 percent of us, by some estimates, meaning even the young and trim aren't spared. Even so, it's an aesthetic frustration that can make you feel far heavier and older than your actual age. Blasting the stuff with the foam-roller exercises here can have the opposite effect, Promaulayko tells us in 20 Pounds Younger. 

Outside of cellulite-reducing foam roller exercises, her book offers ways to decelerate the aging process and help you drop 20 pounds or more. Within its pages, you’ll get look-younger, feel-younger tips from nine “Life Stylists” (read: health and wellness gurus) including mindfulness and meditation expert Gabrielle Bernstein, trainer Rachel Cosgrove, nutritionist Keri Glassman, MS, RD., and dermatologist Francesca Fusco, MD. Why 20 pounds?  The average American woman weighs 166 pounds. Losing 20 would not only make her feel more confident about her body, but also help her sleep better, make her workouts feel easier, improve her sex life—and even make her brain act “younger”, according to some research (find out the best exercise for your memory). 

Before the book hits your mailbox (or Kindle!), get a jump-start on the plan with Roxburgh's four moves for amazing cellulite-free legs and butt. 

2 of 6

3 of 6

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Back-of-Thigh Roll

Credit: 20 Pounds Younger

What it does: Breaks down and smooths tight, thick, and congested areas of the upper legs

Do it: Sit on the floor with your legs outstretched, then lift your butt and place the roller against the back of your upper thighs, just above your knees. Place your hands on the floor behind you for support, with your fingertips facing your backside. Put your weight on your hands, pressing into your palms, to lift your body up off the floor. Gradually push your body up and down so it moves over the roller under the backs of your thighs. Repeat 10 times.

3 of 6

Advertisement

4 of 6

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

The Hip Roll

Credit: 20 Pounds Younger

What it does: Narrows your hips by reducing fluid retention and smoothing out thickness in the connective tissue

Do it: Lie on your right side, and position the roller under your right hip, keeping your right leg extended on the floor. Bend your left knee, placing your left foot on the floor in front of you for support and leverage. Lift your torso, straightening your right arm, while keeping your hand planted on the mat for balance. Guide your body up and down the roller, along your outer thigh and hip. Repeat 10 times, then switch sides.

4 of 6

5 of 6

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

The Sleek Arms Roll

Credit: 20 Pounds Younger

What it does: Helps reduce upper-arm jiggle and increases tone in your triceps by stimulating lymph nodes in your armpits to flush out built-up toxins

Do it: Lie on your right side with the roller under your right armpit so that it is positioned perpendicular to your upper arm. Push yourself so the back of your arm moves the roller toward your elbow and then back up into your armpit. Repeat 10 times, then switch to the other arm. 

5 of 6

6 of 6

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

The Can-Can Tush Roll

Credit: 20 Pounds Younger

What it does: Reduces tissue thickness in your buttocks

Do it: Sit on top of the roller. Place your heels on the floor, and plant your palms on the floor behind you for balance, fingers facing away. Drop your knees down toward the right, then roll your hips and knees to the left. Continue rocking back and forth for 8 to 10 reps total.

6 of 6

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

By Caitlin Carlson

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook
Trending Videos
Advertisement
Skip slide summaries

Everything in This Slideshow

Advertisement

View All

1 of 6 Blast Fat and Cellulite with a Foam Roller!
2 of 6 20 Pounds Younger
3 of 6 Back-of-Thigh Roll
4 of 6 The Hip Roll
5 of 6 The Sleek Arms Roll
6 of 6 The Can-Can Tush Roll

Share options

Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Login

Shop | Shape

  • Activewear
  • Training Shoes
  • Workout Videos
  • Skin Care
  • Running Shoes
  • Headphones
  • Vitamins & Supplements
  • Water Bottles
  • Resistance Bands
  • Workout Leggings
  • Shop More Next

Shape may receive compensation when you click through and purchase from links contained on this website.

Shape

Magazines & More

Learn More

  • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
  • Customer Service this link opens in a new tab
  • Advertise this link opens in a new tab
  • Content Licensing this link opens in a new tab
  • Affiliate Program this link opens in a new tab

Connect

Follow Us
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Other Meredith Sites

Other Meredith Sites

  • 4 Your Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Allrecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • All People Quilt this link opens in a new tab
  • Better Homes & Gardens this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Insights this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Surveys this link opens in a new tab
  • Cooking Light this link opens in a new tab
  • Daily Paws this link opens in a new tab
  • EatingWell this link opens in a new tab
  • Eat This, Not That this link opens in a new tab
  • Entertainment Weekly this link opens in a new tab
  • Food & Wine this link opens in a new tab
  • Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Hello Giggles this link opens in a new tab
  • Instyle this link opens in a new tab
  • Martha Stewart this link opens in a new tab
  • Midwest Living this link opens in a new tab
  • More this link opens in a new tab
  • MyRecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • MyWedding this link opens in a new tab
  • My Food and Family this link opens in a new tab
  • MyLife this link opens in a new tab
  • Parenting this link opens in a new tab
  • Parents this link opens in a new tab
  • People this link opens in a new tab
  • People en Español this link opens in a new tab
  • Rachael Ray Magazine this link opens in a new tab
  • Real Simple this link opens in a new tab
  • Ser Padres this link opens in a new tab
  • Siempre Mujer this link opens in a new tab
  • Southern Living this link opens in a new tab
  • SwearBy this link opens in a new tab
  • Travel & Leisure this link opens in a new tab
Shape is part of the Instyle Beauty Group. © Copyright 2021 Meredith Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
© Copyright . All rights reserved. Printed from https://www.shape.com

View image

4 Foam Roller Exercises to Burn Fat and Reduce Cellulite
this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.