Foam Rolling: What We Know About It
For the past several years, foam rolling has been a hot topic in the health and fitness industry. You can find foam rollers in most gyms, physical therapy clinics, chiropractic clinics, personal training studios, athletic training rooms, and so on. How did rolling around on the floor with a large piece of foam become so popular and why is everyone doing it?
People foam roll for the following reasons:
- Improve mobility
- Prep the tissues before a workout
- Reduce muscle soreness
Does foam rolling actually help as much as people think? Let’s review the current available research.
What We Know About Foam Rolling
The claims that foam rolling can improve mobility and help reduce muscle soreness ARE backed by research.
One study showed that two 1-minute trials of foam rolling to the quadriceps muscle resulted in increased knee-joint range of motion. These improvements in mobility did not have any effect on overall performance, which is one of the drawbacks of static stretching for improved mobility.
Static stretching prior to an athletic event has been shown to actually decrease performance, in the short term. A study comparing the effects of static stretching versus a dynamic warm up on sprint speed showed that a static stretching protocol led to decreased sprint speeds, whereas a dynamic warm up actually enhanced performance. Now, the performance decrease after static stretching was very minimal and is only of consequence for elite level competition athletes.
Does this mean static stretching is bad? No, not necessarily. In fact, one study looking at foam rolling and static stretching on hip range of motion suggested that the combination of foam rolling and static stretching was more effective than either intervention alone in improving range of motion.
Another study concluded that foam rolling after resistance training can help reduce the effects of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).
If you want to read more about the evidence for foam rolling, I suggest you check out this systematic review from 2015 published in the International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy.
Here’s a quick demo of how to foam roll your piriformis muscle.
What We Don’t Know About Foam Rolling
The reality is that we really have no idea how foam rolling works.
Many theories have been proposed as to how foam rolling improves mobility but none have actually been proven.
The proposed mechanisms by which foam rolling improves mobility are these:
- Breaking down scar tissue and adhesions within the muscle and fascia
- Altering the viscoelastic properties of the fascia, allowing for improved sliding and gliding of the tissues
- Increasing intramuscular blood flow via friction
- Changing resting tone of the muscles via stimulation of mechanoreceptors in the muscle (GTO’s and muscle spindles)
The theory of breaking down scar tissue was popular early on but has recently been thrown on the back-burner because of the inability to show this actually happening in the research .
My personal opinion is that foam rolling works through a combination of all the proposed mechanisms. I believe that a change in muscle resting tone via the nervous system is perhaps the mechanism that has the most effect. I subscribe to the idea that the mechanical stimulation of the foam roller is producing a neurophysiological effect that alters neural input to the tissue and thus reduces muscular tone through neuroinhibitory mechanisms.
Most of the research showing mobility improvements after foam rolling suggest that the results are very temporary. Naturally, that supports that the mechanisms by which foam rolling works has more to do with altering neural components rather than structural components.
How does foam rolling help reduce DOMS?
The theory proposed here is that foam rolling helps increase local intramuscular blood flow. This allows for increased oxygen and nutrient delivery to the muscle, which in turn assists in the removal of blood lactate and inflammatory byproducts.
Summary
Foam rolling does help to temporarily increase mobility and can help alleviate post-workout muscle soreness. There seems to be controversy regarding what is actually happening at a tissue level and how exactly these outcome are achieved.
The research does not support the notion that rolling will break up myofascial adhesions and lengthen tissue. Instead, it is more likely that foam rolling is altering resting muscle tone through neuroinhibitory mechanisms. There may be a fascial component where foam rolling is helping to change the viscoelastic properties of the tissue but this still needs more support from the literature to be accepted.
The take home point here is that the benefits of foam rolling far outweigh the negative effects. When performed properly, it is a safe and effective way to improve mobility and decrease DOMS without having a negative effect on overall athletic performance.
I still use foam rolling with some of my patients and I find that clinically it can be a very effective tool. For video demonstrations of how to properly foam roll certain muscle groups, be sure to follow @PhysioStrength on Instagram and check out the PhysioStrength exercise library.
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References
1. MacDonald G, Penney M, Mullaley M et al. An Acute Bout of Self-Myofascial Release Increases Range of Motion Without a Subsequent Decrease in Muscle Activation or Force. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2013;27(3):812-821. doi:10.1519/jsc.0b013e31825c2bc1.
2. Pearcey G, Bradbury-Squires D, Kawamoto J, Drinkwater E, Behm D, Button D. Foam Rolling for Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness and Recovery of Dynamic Performance Measures. Journal of Athletic Training. 2015;50(1):5-13. doi:10.4085/1062-6050-50.1.01.
3. Healey K, Hatfield D, Blanpied P, Dorfman L, Riebe D. The Effects of Myofascial Release With Foam Rolling on Performance. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2014;28(1):61-68. doi:10.1519/jsc.0b013e3182956569.
4. Fletcher I, Jones B. The Effect of Different Warm-Up Stretch Protocols on 20 Meter Sprint Performance in Trained Rugby Union Players. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2004;18(4):885. doi:10.1519/14493.1.
5. Mohr A, Long B, Goad C. Effect of Foam Rolling and Static Stretching on Passive Hip-Flexion Range of Motion. Journal of Sport Rehabilitation. 2014;23(4):296-299. doi:10.1123/jsr.2013-0025.