Foam rolling is a self-myofascial release technique. The light, cylindrical tube of foam is a piece of equipment that you can often find lining the floor in one area of any gym. It’s promoted use is for relieving muscle soreness and improving range of motion. Lately on social media I have seen foam rolling get a bad rap though. “Waste of time”, “Does nothing”, “Actually detrimental to performance”. It’s a foam roller. I can’t believe there’s a debate on this. But let me give a quick opinion:
Psychologically, if you find it beneficial then it probably is. There doesn’t need to be research for everything. If it makes you feel good, and you have time for it as part of pre or post training, then implement it. It’s that simple!
As far as the science behind it (even though I said there doesn’t need to be research for everything), I’ll tackle that quickly with help from a 2019 meta-analysis. A research article from Frontiers in Physiology shows pre-rolling seems to be an effective strategy for short-term improvements in flexibility without decreasing muscle performance. The review has also shown that the improvement of sprint performance to be expected from the use of pre-rolling, as well as the recovery rate of the performance measures of speed and strength with post-rolling, are significant enough to be relevant for at least elite athletes.
So, take it for what it is worth, there are certainly benefits to foam rolling!
References
Wiewelhove, T., Doweling, A., Schneider, C., Hottenrott, L., Meyer, T., Kellmann, M., . . . Ferrauti, A. (2019). A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Foam Rolling on Performance and Recovery. Frontiers in Physiology, 10(376).
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