Does a foam roller reduce muscle soreness?

The foam roller claims to clear out myofascial restrictions which would reduce muscle pain and increase flexibility. But is that really the case? In this article I’ve tried to include as much scientific research possible, trying to answer the following questions:

What is the effect of foam rolling before training?

Does it influence performance?

And 

What is the effect of foam rolling after training?

Will it increase flexibility? Lower muscle soreness? Speed up recovery?

Last but not least:

How long should I use the foam roller?

What is the effect of foam rolling before training?

A often heard claim is that foam rolling increases flexibility without a loss of strength. Thereby making it a good alternative for static stretching, because static stretching is good for increasing flexibility but is known to decrease tension in the muscle. This is why static stretching will result in a loss of strength (read more about that HERE) causing a downfall in performance.

So, will it have a positive effect on performance?

Likely not, there are only a few studies that show a increase in strength, jumping power and agility [6,9].  Besides, those studies were done with very few participants  (11 and 14), this is a very small group for scientific testing.

So, will it have a negative effect on performance?

Likely not, because although most studies failed to show a positive effect they also failed to show a negative effect. This is good news because it shows that foam rolling does not lower strength, jumping power or agility [2,5,11,16,17,18].

To add on to that: there are a lot of studies showing an increase in flexibility aka range of motion [5,6,9,11]. Confirming the claim that foam rolling does positively influence flexibility without the loss of strength.

Looks like foam rolling could be a good add-on to your warming-up if you feel stiff and have restricted range of motion.

This is good news because it shows that foam rolling does not lower strength, jumping power or agility

There is one exception: a foam roller can lower muscle power output if you roll the opposite muscle which you target during the workout [19,20]. E.g if you foam roll your hamstrings before training your quadriceps. Rolling a muscle is often painful leading the muscle to contract, when this happens the opposite muscle (called the antagonist) relaxes. This is called reciprocal inhibition.

The effect will diminish if you also roll the muscle you want to target during your training. So not only roll your hamstrings but also your glutes and quads.

What is the effect of foam rolling after training?

Flexibility

Most research  [1,3,4,5,7,8,9,11,12,13,15] confirm the statement that foam rolling will increase flexibility. Although it is not as effective in increasing flexibility as static stretching. Combining the two seems to give the best result [1,12,15], research done by Jakob Skarabot [12] shows that only foam rolling (3x30sec) will give an increase of 6.2% whereas foam rolling combined with static stretching increases flexibility with 9.1%.

Muscle soreness.

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) can be effectively treated by foam rolling [3,10,14,21,22,23]. The mechanism behind it remains questionable, the claim that it would clear out myofascial restrictions is not supported. One of the main reasons for doubt is the fact that the pain lowering effect of massaging locally is also found by massaging non-locally [21,22]. Research done by Aboodarda [21] included 150 participants which were tested for tender points in the calf muscles. After the examination the participants were divided in to 5 groups: 1) deep foam rolling of the tested calf, 2) deep foam rolling of the opposite calf, 3) light foam rolling of the tested calf, 4)manual massage of the tested calf or 5) control group (no intervention).  After the intervention the pain threshold increased by 19.2% in the local foam roll group(1) and by 15.9% in the non-local foam roll group (2), the manual massage group (4) increased by 10.9%.

This effect can be explained by the way the nervous system processes pain, the pain you experience is nothing more than a signal produced by pain sensors. The signal gets transferred to the spinal cord and send to the brain were it gets processed, the brain makes the decision if you actually experience the pain or not. When the nervous system collects a lot of pain signals, the pain threshold increases, this is a way of the nervous system to cope with the pain. Because foam rolling itself is painful, the pain threshold increases, resulting in less pain afterwards, this mechanism is called pain modulation and also works non-locally.

Speed up recovery? 

There is not much research done for a good conclusion, two studies I found did give a faster recovery of: jumping power, sprint time and strength [3,14] 24 hours after a heavy training. Further research is needed.

But because of its benefits regarding flexibility/mobility and muscle soreness, there are still enough reasons to implement foam rolling in your daily regimen.

Because foam rolling itself is painful, the pain threshold increases, resulting in less pain afterwards, this mechanism is called pain modulation and also works non-locally.

How long should I use the foam roller?

3 sets of 30-60sec per muscle group is proven to be most beneficial.

References

  1. Effect of Foam Rolling and Static Stretching on Passive Hip-Flexion Range of Motion
  2. The Effects of Myofascial Release With Foam Rolling on Performance
  3. Foam Rolling as a Recovery Tool after an Intense Bout of Physical Activity
  4. Clinical Relevance of Foam Rolling on Hip Extension Angle in a Functional Lunge Position
  5. The Acute Effects of Deep Tissue Foam Rolling and Dynamic Stretching on Muscular Strength, Power, and Flexibility in Division I Linemen.
  6. An Acute Bout of Self-Myofascial Release in the Form of Foam Rolling Improves Performance Testing
  7. The Effect of Foam Rolling Duration on Hamstring Range of Motion
  8. Acute effects of anterior thigh foam rolling on hip angle, knee angle, and rectus femoris length in the modified Thomas test
  9. ROLLER MASSAGER IMPROVES RANGE OF MOTION OF PLANTAR FLEXOR MUSCLES WITHOUT SUBSEQUENT DECREASES IN FORCE PARAMETERS.
  10. SPECIFIC AND CROSS OVER EFFECTS OF MASSAGE FOR MUSCLE SORENESS: RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL
  11. An Acute Bout of Self-Myofascial Release Increases Range of Motion Without a Subsequent Decrease in Muscle Activation or Force
  12. COMPARING THE EFFECTS OF SELF‐MYOFASCIAL RELEASE WITH STATIC STRETCHING ON ANKLE RANGE‐OF‐MOTION IN ADOLESCENT ATHLETES
  13. Roller-massager application to the hamstrings increases sit-and-reach range of motion within five to ten seconds without performance impairments.
  14. Foam Rolling for Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness and Recovery of Dynamic Performance Measures
  15. Effectiveness of Foam Rolling in Combination with a Static Stretching Protocol of the Hamstrings
  16. Effects of Foam Rolling on Vertical Jump Performance
  17. The impact of foam rolling on explosive strength and excitability of the motor neuron pool
  18. The Effects of Foam Rolling vs Dynamic Stretching on Anaerobic Performance
  19. Foam Rolling of Quadriceps Decreases Biceps Femoris Activation
  20. MAXIMUM REPETITION PERFORMANCE AFTER DIFFERENT ANTAGONIST FOAM ROLLING VOLUMES IN THE INTER‐SET REST PERIOD
  21. Pain pressure threshold of a muscle tender spot increases following local and non-local rolling massage
  22. An acute session of roller massage prolongs voluntary torque development and diminishes evoked pain
  23. SPECIFIC AND CROSS OVER EFFECTS OF MASSAGE FOR MUSCLE SORENESS: RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL
  24. Effects of foam rolling versus static stretching on recovery of quadriceps and hamstrings force

               

 

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