It seems whatever gym or health club you walk in to, you’re bound to see people rolling around with a look of pain on their faces as they incur the torture of the foam roller.
 

Ten years ago, when I first started out in the fitness industry, it was difficult to find any gym that had foam rollers… now, I can guarantee you’ll struggle to find a gym that doesn’t have them.
 

So why the sudden boom, and what attracts us to want to roll around on the floor using something which quite frankly, causes me to grit my teeth in an expression of pain?
 

Well the answer lies in releasing myofascial – a fancy way of saying: improving the flexibility of the fascia tissue that surrounds our muscles.

 

Foam rolling, or Self-Myofascial Release (SMFR) as it’s more commonly referred to in the fitness industry is the term given to a specific form of manual therapy that is intended to release the fascia tissue, allowing for an improvement in range of motion and flexibility. Many trainers and therapists will recommend foam rolling as a way to improve flexibility, reduce muscle soreness and ‘break down the fascia tissue.’
 

I’ll be the first to admit, ten years ago when I use to recommend to clients they 'rolled out' I used to say:
"it was like using a rolling pin to roll out dough," and told them that:

"a foam roller essentially helps to roll out clumped up and knotted fascia tissue to help reduce adhesions and make it more elastic."
 

Oh how wrong I was, as now we now know that’s not the case! Advances in science have shown us we cannot simply ‘release’ fascia. Not unless you apply 2000lbs of force per square inch (Lawrence A. 2016), something I’m pretty sure a foam roller cannot deliver... I know it hurts but that pain would be something else entirely.
 

So, if we’re unable to release this fascia manually, why do we see noticeable changes in flexibility and the way our muscles feel when we roll? As let’s be honest, several minutes on a foam roller and we feel great.


Well, the mechanism by which self-myofascial release works is unclear. Currently, the best evidence supporting it points towards a neurophysiological mechanism involving muscle activity for acute changes, in other words, maybe it’s all in our heads. Rolling on a roller sends signals to our brain, which in turn tells the central nervous (CNS) to relax the muscle.
 

Physically, you do increase blood flow to the rolled-out area, which will help to turn over any metabolic waste and help push through new oxygenated blood, having a positive effect.

Now if foam rolling works through a neurophysiological mechanism, does this mean the results people observe are a placebo, let’s take a look shall we?

 

• Improvements in range of motion and flexibility
It seems there is evidence to show foam rolling does lead to greater improvements in range of motion and flexibility, however these improvements are short lived.
 

When I say short lived, I mean the benefits in ROM after having foam rolled only seem to last for up to 10 minutes (Škarabot J et al. 2015). Nevertheless, if you intermittently foam roll after static stretching then these improvements in flexibility can last significantly longer (Behm, D. 2017).
 

There’s also evidence to show that there’s a cross-over flexibility effect. This means if you were to work on rolling out one area of the body, you would see improvements in another area (to a lesser extent than rolling the specific area).
 

Grieve et al. (2015) assessed the effects of using a tennis ball to roll out the bottom surface of the foot and subsequently reported improvements in hamstring flexibility.
 

Kelly & Beardsley (2016) found increases in the opposite ankle after the leg was foam rolled, suggesting a cross-over effect.

 

• Improvements in muscle soreness
Here at Hall Training we recommend you spend a couple of minutes after your session rolling out the muscles you’ve just worked to help reduce what’s known as “Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness” or DOMS. Research has found that spending time rolling out after exercise does lead to a dramatic drop in pain caused by DOMS (Vaughan and McLaughlin. 2014) (Pearcey GE. 2015).
 

 – the only caveat here is the time needed to significantly see a reduction in pain associated with DOMS is anywhere between 3-20 minutes.

 

• Improvements in performance
Historically, many strength coaches would prescribe static stretching prior to resistance training to help athletes increase their ROM and improve joint mobility. However, improvements in ROM are only really observed when stretching for 45 seconds or more, which also the time when static stretching can produce undesirable short-term reductions in athletic performance - decreased strength and increased risk of injury (Kallerud and Gleeson, 2013).
 

One of the reasons foam rolling has taken off is its ability to increase flexibility without having detrimental effects on performance (Sullivan, K.M et al. 2013) (Behm, D. 2017).

 

• Possible improvements in cardiovascular system
I have emphasised the word ‘possible’ here as it’s the only study of its kind and with a small sample size but, scientists in Japan found the use of foam rolling led to improvements in arterial stiffness of the lower leg and improvements in Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD), a disease in which the arteries in your legs or arms are narrowed or blocked, which leads to poor circulation and risk of stroke of heart disease (Okamuto. 2013).
 

So there you have it, the real reasons why foam rolling has an effect on our flexibility, and a few other bonuses that are associated with it. All-in-all, it’s not so much of a waste of time.

 

My important and easy take home points:
 

1. For improvements in acute flexibility and ROM
As little as 5-10 secs of rolling is needed – easy (Sullivan, K.M et al. 2013).

I you require greater increases in flexibility that last longer (more than 10 minutes) then:
• 30-60 secs of rolling is required to which you can combine with 30-45secs of static stretching (Škarabot J et al. 2015) (Behm, D 2017).

 

2. For reduced muscle DOMs
Foam rolling for at least 3 minutes and up to 20 minutes after training seems to be required (Vaughan and McLaughlin. 2014) (Pearcey GE. 2015).

 

3. Improvements in flexibility without a detriment to performance
Foam rolling prior to training 30-60 seconds. Can combine with static stretching for further increases in ROM but keep to under 1 minute (Sullivan, K.M 2013) (Behm, D 2017).

 

4. Improvements to cardiovascular health
Although there is evidence to suggest foam rolling can lead to improvements in circulation and CV health, it does require you to roll 30 minutes at a time, something I feel is a little long and rather dull – your best bet would be to go out for 20-30 minute stroll, as the effects will be similar (Okamuto. 2013).

 

5. In a hurry…?
Then take advantage of cross-over effect – roll out the bottom of your feet to help release the hamstrings (Grieve et al. 2015) or, if you roll out one leg you’ll see improvements in the other leg too (Kelly & Beardsley 2016).

 

Attention: if you’re still someone who’s spending time rolling out their IT Bands then stop! As you really need to look at this before you continue wasting your time.