Burn Your Foam Roller...play with your balls instead
Burn Your Foam Roller..play with your balls instead
A very short travel back in time as little as 10 years ago would have seen you met with surprised looks walking into many a sporting goods store and asking for a foam roller. These days even your granny has one, and it’s hard to take a step in most gyms without falling over someone flailing their body around on a cylindrical tube of high density foam.
But what is it actually doing?
Your average bro in the gym will swear by using his foam roller to warm up prior to working out, and then use it for recovery post workout, as well as improving flexibility and range of motion (ROM)..because stretching doesn’t work and impacts your performance apparently-thanks bro!
Oddly, there seems to be this idea that rolling around on the foam roller will be beneficial for every one of these 3 scenarios (warm up, cool down, improve flexibility) with the exact same techniques, with a change in the users intention being the defining factor as to what the result is.
Doesn’t really make sense right?
To date, only one scientific review (a compilation of valid studies compiled for evidence) has been made available on the impact of foam rolling. The review cites a lack of similarity between the way in which a foam roller is used in studies to be able to determine whether it truly is effective, but does note that temporary change in range of motion is likely. A few mechanisms are listed including the fascia rehydration theory and fascial adhesions to mention a couple. The jury is definitely out on whether or not these are a thing, and whether or not we can impact change with a foam roller, particularly on potential adhesions (if they are a thing).
We do know, however, that change can be made at the point where the muscle becomes tendon, through applying load and causing the nervous system to reduce muscle contraction. This is what occurs during stretching, and outside of potential structural change from stretching (which may be a thing) this is where our attention is focused when looking to improve ROM (in the short term).
If range of motion is the goal, then we need to make sure we are somehow impacting this area (the musculotendinous junction, to add big words). It is unlikely that we can do so by rolling a foam roller up and down a muscle. Having said that, there is likely to be some increases in blood flow to a muscle by doing so, which could see the foam roller playing a part in a warm up, but not so much for improvements in ROM.
We could however, access these areas well with a ball, with the added bonus of being super specific with the muscle that we are looking to impact. To throw in a dash of science, we are looking to impact something known as the Golgi tendon organ here. There are arguments as to whether pressure alone is enough to create desired effect, or muscle activation is needed. With the ball, we can do both.
For example. If I would like to improve ROM of my quad, it should be fairly clear that nearly everyone doing this with a foam roller is only addressing the belly of the muscle (often in the singular sense despite quad meaning 4). Generally there is little being done to impact the nervous system via the Golgi tendon organ, and it is hard to really know what impact is being made into areas of fascia and their impact. But if we want to know for certain we are making some inroads, placing the ball at the insertion of the muscle, where it inserts into the hip, will allow us to apply pressure to the tendon. Moving the leg actively as we do so, means that muscle tension is also used to help improve ROM.
So I you would like to incorporate a foam roller into your warm up routine, go ahead. But if you would like to improve your range of motion, play with your balls instead.
Last point-the balls alone won’t get the job done. Ideally this is part of a good strategy, such as how we do things in my..ahem..Not Really Program.
Click here to watch the free 4 part video series on how to properly incorporate this type of stuff into your routine to stop being broken, or getting broken.