Foam rolling – How it can help you!
Foam rolling – How it can help you!
As clinicians we often recommend foam rolling as part of your rehab program, we’re going to explain why and some research behind its use.
Foam rolling is a self-myofascial release (SMR) technique. Fascia or myofascia is the soft tough tissue portion of the connective tissue which surrounds and covers all of your muscles and provides support and protection. This outer fascial covering is very strong and very flexible.
The fascia can become restricted due to overuse, trauma, and inactivity. Self-myofascial release techniques via foam roller are performed by rolling the foam roller under each muscle group until a tender area is found, and maintaining pressure with your own body mass on the tender area for 30–60 seconds. This can mimic the effects of manual therapy and massage, aiming to tackle dysfunction of the skeletal muscle and connective tissue.
Foam rollers have been said to improve joint mobility and flexibility, enhance recovery following intensive exercise, reduce muscle related pain and also improve athletic performance.
The practice of foam roller has become more popular in the last decade as more research has been undertaken. One study has shown that foam rolling the quadriceps muscles (anterior thigh) increased knee joint range of motion by 12.7%. Foam rolling can be seen as superior to static stretching when trying to increase AROM, as stretching has been shown to result in impaired subsequent performance in muscle power and speed where no such findings have been found for foam rolling. Interestingly, another study as shown that the combination of foam rolling and stretching can produce greater gains in joint range motion and they recommended foam rolling prior to stretching.
One of the more popular uses for foam-rolling is speeding-up the recovery process post exercise, by reducing muscle soreness. Recent research has shown that foam-rolling can decrease the sensation of DOMS after exercise, however the research is on small sample sizes and more research may be needed to fully identify the mechanics of this.
There are many different types of foam rollers available. The roller it is basically a cylinder made of dense foam, and varying in diameter and length. The higher density foam rollers can produce more pressure on the target tissue which can be beneficial, however it can be more painful and a softer roller may be more appropriate when starting to use them.
In conclusion, a foam roller can help to achieve similar benefits to deep tissue massage and, used correctly, can help to improve flexibility and decrease muscle tension. They are also easily used outside the clinic setting provided good instruction is given.
References:
Pearcey et al: (2015) Foam rolling for delayed-onset muscle soreness and recovery of dynamic performance measures. Journal of Athletic Training. 50(1):5-13