To Roll or Not to Roll

By Megan Rupiper, MS, Certified Personal Trainer

Megan Rupiper

To roll or not to roll, that is the question at hand. Foam rollers have become a commonly used device in athletic training, physicalrehabilitation, and health clubs. But what are they for? What do they do? Who should use them?  All of these are great questions.

The foam roller has been very popular over the past 20 years. It started as a device used in the physical therapy setting as a balancing device and for other rehabilitation uses.  Since the early 1990's it has been utilized more as a self-massaging device. They are commonly used to apply pressure to various body parts by lying on them and using a combination of bodyweight and a rolling motion to manipulate force. 

Foam rollers became very popular with athletes more recently as a cheap way to provide a massage. Once foam rolling became popular with athletes the rest of the fitness industry followed. But the question still remains, what does it do?

There are many hypotheses about what the foam roller actually does. It has been claimed that foam rolling can increase range of motion, decrease soreness, and relieve pain. A recent study indicated that foam rolling helped to increase range of motion in the quadriceps by 10 percent after rolling for two minutes with a 30-second break after each minute. Due to the small sample size and other research method variables, it is hard to come to a firm conclusion that foam rolling actually increases range of motion in one's muscles.

Another question about foam rolling is who should use it and when to use it. As mentioned before, foam rolling became very popular with athletes, and the fitness industry followed shortly after. Simply put, anyone can foam roll. There are no limitations as far as who can utilize this tool. The question of when to use the foam roller becomes a little trickier to answer. Some research has looked at foam rolling and range of motion benefits for athletes using it as their warm up. Results concluded there were range of motion benefits while using the foam roller in an athlete's program; however, other factors such as sports specific warmups and dynamic flexibility activities done at the same time could have improved range of motion. 

It is hard to say that one should use the foam roller alone as a warm up activity when much more research needs to be conducted. It is well known that a dynamic, sports-specific warm up is effective at preparing the body for exercise.

Foam rolling should be done with a purpose, not just because others are using it. So you should ask yourself, why am I doing this? If your answer is to improve your range of motion, then there is more research needed to support the use of foam rolling as an effective tool. If your answer is because it feels good, then continue rolling away. The foam roller is a cheap, effective way to offer oneself a massage. If your answer is to get in a warm up before an activity, then there are far better alternatives with many more years of research supporting its use as a warm up method.  

If you like using the foam roller, then continue doing so. If you are trying to get something specific out of the foam roller, such as improved range of motion or reduced pain, more research needs to be conducted. It certainly won't hurt to use the roller without concrete evidence to support its effectiveness, but it is one less thing you could be spending your time on when at the gym.