Foam Rolling seems to be purported as great home intervention for all looking for positive effects on flexibility, muscle tension, and soreness. We explored the latest research to find out what the science has to say.
We looked for research surrounding 4 topics -
Flexibility and Range of Motion
Affect on Performance
Muscle soreness
Optimal time to Perform (before or after)
Flexibility:
The research supports foam rolling to improve your range of motion. Studies show that even one foam rolling session will have a short term impact on your ability to move through range of motion in a joint. If you are only foam rolling sporadically, the improvements will only last about 10-30 minutes. The studies show that a more consistent frequency will lead to more lasting improvements. Some studies have shown that if you stop your foam rolling routine, you will likely lose the range of motion that was gained in as little as 1-2 weeks.
Performance:
Studies have shown that foam rolling does not have any negative effect on your performance. In fact, there are some studies that show foam rolling will decrease neuromuscular fatigue in force production. This would mean that you can produce force for longer periods of time after foam rolling. This is contrary to the known reduction in force production after static stretching.
Muscle soreness:
Studies support the use of foam rolling after a workout to decrease post exercise soreness. Rolling for 20 minutes after exercise and in the following days has been shown to decrease the reported soreness.
Optimal time to perform:
The answer to the timing question really depends on what your goal is. If you are aiming to increase the range of motion needed for a specific activity, prime the nervous system, or you want to decrease neuromuscular fatigue, then roll before activity.
If your goal is to decrease soreness experienced after an activity, then foam rolling specific tissues used in that activity can be helpful.
What we would recommend:
Foam roll with intention. Foam rolling everything all the time isn’t necessarily bad for you, but it can be a waste of time. There are some that never foam roll and others that foam roll every part of their body all the time. We would recommend that you should foam roll certain tissues you know you will be using before an exercise for 1-2 minutes each or roll certain problem areas specific to you and your current issues. If you are a runner and you’re having trouble getting into a good position with your ankle and hip, then rolling those specific tissues before will help you have a better run with less pain.
After your workout, if soreness has been a problem or you expect to be quite sore due to the intensity of the session, roll those specific tissues.
How to find out what/where to roll
Sometimes, rolling can be as simple as: it hurts there so roll it. Often, you need to understand how tissues affect joints and affect the tension in other muscles in the kinetic chain. Most of our patients have a busy job, kids, life to deal with and can’t spend hours a day foam rolling before and after every workout. Finding out what to foam roll is a very individual problem.
Another consideration is the case of, “I have to foam roll spot X or Y regularly or I start to develop pain”. Tightness in the body that leads to pain is often a sign of a compensatory pattern. Compensation patterns in the body arise when certain muscles are not strong enough for the demand you’re putting on the system or you don’t have enough range of motion to get into the proper position. This leads to the same tissues being tight. One example of this is the IT band
Should I foam roll my IT band?
The Iliotibial band or IT band is a piece of fascia that runs from your hip to your knee on the outside of the leg. A common complaint for people is that their IT band is too tight and they need to foam roll it. Well, the IT band is an ultra taught band of connective tissue that is not too tight on anyone. The IT band can not be deformed, relaxed, or tight. The pain that is felt is in the area of the IT band attachments at the knee and it is a problem that happens when the person has poor biomechanics and hip stability. Foam rolling on the IT band is not a bad thing, but it’s never going to solve the problem. You can roll tissues that attach to it or have an effect on its biomechanics like the Glute, TFL, Quad, etc. But, you still need to do some strength work on specific tissues to fix the problem.
If you are having trouble finding out where to roll, how to roll, or find that you consistently have the same problem areas - come in today for an appointment. We will evaluate you and your movement patterns, your strength, your mobility and help you make a plan specific to you.
Studies:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2019.00376/full?fbclid=IwAR1wMoGkHgXUIN12UUf3VnpnaT715kT0R8loil6THZt0Bt4zTJukl28Jzqw
https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/FullText/2015/12000/The_Foam_Roll_as_a_Tool_to_Improve_Hamstring.28.aspx
Foam rolling before or after activity will reduce muscular fatigue from force production. FR after will restore strength
https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Abstract/2019/09000/Influence_of_Foam_Rolling_on_Recovery_From.17.aspx