The Truth About Foam Rolling

Foam rolling has become extremely popular within the last several years. You can't go to the gym without seeing someone rolling on one before or after their workout. Foam rolling has also become many fitness experts, physical therapists, and chiropractors answer to whatever problem you may have.

"Your back hurts with working out? You should foam roll it."

"Your calves are tight? You should foam roll them."

"Make sure you foam roll every day and before every workout!"

Now, just because it's become a popularly prescribed "treatment" doesn't make it a good treatment option. Let's take a deeper dive in to foam rolling and see if it's actually all what it's cracked up to be.

Rolling Before and After a Workout

Overall, the evidence isn't great for the benefits of foam rolling before or after your workouts. There's been shown to be a slight improvement in sprint performance but not a statistically significant improvement, and not enough of an improvement for the average person. Only the elite sprinters and runners would most likely be able to tell the difference. Studies have also found that foam rolling before a strength workout can have slightly negative effects on strength. Once again, not statistically significant to even notice a difference. The largest effect noted from foam rolling was a decrease in perceived muscle soreness after a workout. However, this could largely be due to a placebo effect created by our previous thoughts around foam rolling and from hearing so often that it's good for you. The decrease in muscle soreness could also be from simply rubbing something tends to make it feel better for the time being.

Foam Rolling and Range of Motion

Sadly, the evidence isn't great to support the theory that foam rolling helps your flexibility or gives you more range of motion either. Across studies it's hard to find many that agree or results that are consistent. Overall, the majority of studies have found that foam rolling may give you small amounts of increased flexibility for only a short period of time (about 30 minutes). Other studies have also found that eccentric strength training, or lowering the weights slowly, has greater benefit when it comes to flexibility.

What Does This Mean for You?

It means at the end of the day, unless you're an elite sprinter or athlete, foam rolling probably isn't doing anything for you. Even if you're an elite athlete, it's probably still not worth your time. If your goal is to improve flexibility, I would focus on eccentric strength training. If you want to warm up for a workout, try doing active movements that you will need in your workout. Or if you want to recover from exercise, try focusing more on hydration, nutrition, sleep, and stress management.

At the end of the day, if foam rolling feels good to you and you like it then by all means foam roll. Just understand that the benefits that we thought we get from it just aren't there.

Until next time,

Dr. Andrew Schneider DC, ATC

Sources

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35500979/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29893193/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8998857/#:~:text=Nine%20studies%20met%20that%20criteria.%20Results%20revealed%20that,the%20effect%20of%20FR%20on%20recovery%20is%20unclear.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31024339/#:~:text=A%20Meta-Analysis%20of%20the%20Effects%20of%20Foam%20Rolling,well%20as%20to%20alleviate%20muscle%20fatigue%20and%20soreness.