Foam rollers and self myofascial release equipment is now seen in every gym, sports team and therapy clinic across the world. The research into their use is growing but its a difficult area to investigate as the roller is seen as a one stop shop for: warm up, performance assistance, activation, cool down, Range of motion, pain management with mixed evidence on many of these.
From a therapeutic perspective research and evidence on foam rolling techniques have shown to successfully assist in improving joint range of motion and reduce muscle soreness temporarily with little to know risks to otherwise healthy individuals.
Most people will take up exercise in January, most who are new to exercise will pick up strains and injuries or at least experience muscular soreness related to new exercise regimes. Most of this is due to the old adage, “doing too much too soon, after doing too little for too long!”. One simple way to combat this is to include some foam rolling in/ around/ in between training days.
So to answer the question "should you use a foam roller", the answer is probably yes for the following:
- Use to assist in improving joing range of motion
- Reduce stifness before training or on rest days
- Incorporate it into corrective exercise routines for injury rehab
- Reduce pain in a spicific area (trigger point release)
- You are directed to do so by a S&C Coach/ Physio/ NMT or any health care professional who can stand over their recommendation with evidence to back it up.
There is then the question of when should you not use a foam roller or similar techniques, well here is a short but not exhaustive list:
- If you have never seen or been shown how to use one correctly! sounds obvious but using one with no proior knowledge normally results in it being discarded the same day it was bought!!
- If you have an underlying health condition that could lead to foam rolling being contra- indicated, e.g. do you easily bruise? have a heart condition?, vericous veins? Waiting on a test or surgery?! Ask your doctor or a health and fitness professional before you start rolling around because it looked like a good idea!
- If you have a blunt force blow to an area. If you got a dead leg dont foam roll it straigh away, if you were in a car crash or fender bender, dont foam roll straigh away! if you have an unusal or nerve like pain running down your arms or legs, dont foam roll straight away! Apply common sense!
- If its too painful to roll on....then stop rolling on it. Find a different technique or find out why the area is so painful
The last line in the list will lead onto what kind of foam roller should you use, the most common options are:
- Soft (Normally blue foam, cheap and easy to find)
- Grid(Can be soft or hard and can be picked up at a huge variety of prices)
- Waven Pipe (An actual piece of pipe or make shift option)
- Back Baller (Mounted foam roller either single or double)
Soft Foam Roller:
A soft foam roller is the first one everyone should own. In a therapy setting this is the one I use and recommend most often. Other rollers tend to offer too much in the way of pressure or resisitance on initial use. The big thing I want to see is compliance and time spent on a roller when teaching people. This wont happen if they are screaming or can't stay on the roller for more than a few seconds. Once you have mastered the use of a soft roller it's worth getting a grid roller of some type down the line but default back to the softer roller for sensitive areas or new techniques, walk before you run...but put in a foam rolling analogy.
Grid Foam Roller:
Enter the domain of athletes, weekend warriors and anyone who sees a foam roller in Lidl or TK Max for a 10er. Grid rollers clinically have shown a greater level of immediate relieve from pain and discomfort, the issue is it comes at a cost in the form of discomfort and pain. Not all grid rollers are created equally. My preferred type lean on the softer side of life where you can feel increased pressure from the "grid" or "pattern" on the roller, but you are not comparing it to a torture device.
At the other extreme are the hard grid rollers, if you are a well built rugby player or an endurance athlete who associates Pain = Good, the go nuts but there is no realy reason to toture yourself to that extreme. If you can find a soft grid roller its a good place to start but if your very new to anyting related to gym or exercise start with the soft foam.
Back Baller:
Its a gimic that works. The back baller devices are an evolution on the standard roller, its mounted on a free rolling platform. Used correctly it can be a very useful device, used incorrectly you will fly off it with all the grace of bambi on ice. I've used back ballers a lot over the years and they are for the more advanced end of the market to get the most out of them but have so many instructional videos you can't go wrong. The smooth version is the more effective. The grid pattern version combined with the ability to direct very specific pressure with all back baller devices will leave you looking like you got run over. Try before you buy this one and don't let it be your first foam roller unless you are given it as a gift, you can remove the rollers making them useful but they are slightly on the narrow side. If you get competent at rolling its a no brainer to have one.
Foam Rolling is a useful skill set to develop, as I become more competent with writing and building out blogs I will integrate videos and photos but for now this will have act as a first step.
You can find plenty of demo videos on my instagram page and if you want to learn specific or general techniques then you can book a session to work in person with me.
You can book online at: https://calendly.com/hurley_therapy
You can find my insta at: https://www.instagram.com/hurley_therapy
My link tree with everyting on it is here: linkte.ee/hurleynmt
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