Written by Nic Bartolotta
Walk into any sporting event, training room, or local gym. You'll see people rolling around the floor on foam rollers. You've probably even tried it yourself. And though it's an integral part of athletic performance, most people don't know why.
Foam rolling is one of the most effective muscle recovery methods for athletes. When done correctly, the physical benefits include reduced muscle soreness, shorter recovery times, fewer injuries, and more flexibility. It can also reduce mental tension caused by lingering injuries or chronic tightness.
But before we explore all of foam rolling's benefits, let's first understand how it works.
What is foam rolling?
Foam rolling is a form of self-myofascial release involving pressure on specific muscles and connective tissues with a foam roller. Although the benefits of foam rolling are broadly disputed, most medical professionals agree that it releases tension, reduces soreness, and promotes muscle recovery.
Foam rolling mimics a deep tissue massage, usually performed by a licensed or sports massage therapist. But instead of spending time & money on an expensive massage, you can reap the benefits at home, in the gym, and even on the road.
How does foam rolling work?
Most people have a basic understanding of how the muscular and skeletal systems of the human body work. Your brain signals the relevant muscles to contract, pulling the bone.
Consider your arm. When you want to do a bicep curl, your bicep contracts to bend your forearm & wrist up towards your chest. To relax the muscles, you engage your tricep to lower your arm and the weight back down towards your waist. This process is uniform for every movement you perform daily; from walking to standing up and even brushing your teeth, this is how your muscles work. Unless you're using your non-dominant arm or leg, your muscle memory performs these movements without you having to think about them.
You should have known that this is only possible with fascia. This connective tissue encases your muscles, bones, tendons, cartilage, nerves, and blood vessels. It also shapes your muscles and helps your body move by connecting muscles to tendons & bones.
Most of the time, fascia is nothing to worry about. But when your muscles are sore, injured, tight, or recovering from a significant trauma, it can cause problems. As your body responds to an injury or inflammation, the fascia tightens and binds to the muscle.
This causes adhesions, or trigger points, to form. These adhesions are areas where the fascial tissue is incredibly tight, limiting your ability to stretch, contract, and engage a specific muscle. Suppose you've been sore in a particular spot after a workout or experienced lingering pain after a muscle cramp. In that case, those particular areas are trigger points.
And instead of waiting for the pain & tightness to subside, you can foam roll the pain away. When your muscles are healthy and limber, the fascial tissue glides alongside your muscles, enabling you to move without limitation. But when adhesions form, the fascia locks up. And the only way to release the knot is by foam rolling the muscle and massaging the fascia.
But this self-massage technique does more than break up muscle adhesions. Here are 5 benefits of foam rolling that you can't ignore if you want to train and recover like a pro.
5 benefits of foam rolling that will help you train harder and live healthier
Reduce muscle soreness
Professional athletes, gym goers, and weekend warriors know the feeling of muscle soreness all too well. A day or two after intense physical activity, your quads and hamstrings tighten up, making walking or even sitting difficult. This is called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), and it's your body's natural inflammatory response.
In a perfect world, you can exercise as hard as you want, and your body will recover instantly. But that's not how muscle growth works; muscles must first be broken down before they can recover and eventually grow.
One of the primary benefits of foam rolling is that it can significantly improve your muscle recovery, thereby reducing the duration and severity of DOMS. By releasing the trigger points, foam rolling promotes blood flow and relieves tension in the sore area, aiding the body's healing abilities.
Shorten recovery times between workouts.
Muscle soreness can last for days. But you don't have days. You have 24 hours, maybe less, before your next run, workout, or game. And if your muscles are still recovering from the previous day, you won't be able to perform at a high level.
Not only does it aid muscle recovery, but it also helps it occur faster. This means you can recover after intense exercise and still make it to the gym the next day for round 2.
Foam rolling shortens recovery by reducing post-exercise fatigue, soreness, and stiffness. For best results, you should foam roll both before and after each workout. A pre-roll session before the gym or practice will prepare your body for dynamic movements, reduce the likelihood of injury, and improve your physical performance. Afterward, treat your muscles to another foam rolling session to kickstart the recovery process, prevent cramps, and shorten your recovery time.
Increase flexibility & range of motion (ROM)
It's no secret that tight muscles are more prone to injury than limber muscles. So, if you struggle with chronic tightness from poor posture, stress, or over-training, foam rolling is the solution you've been looking for.
We've covered that foam rolling helps break down myofascial adhesions, helping to reduce soreness and restore a full ROM. However, studies show that foam rolling, and static stretching can increase ROM beyond the baseline. So "foam rolling won't just help you touch your toes again; it will help lengthen your muscles even further so that you can put your entire palm on the floor," says Nic Bartolotta, MPT, HHP.
As you improve your muscle and joint flexibility over time, you'll likely experience added benefits like:
- Fewer injuries
- Better posture and balance
- Greater strength, speed, and explosiveness
- Improved physical performance.
As long as you continue to foam roll and stretch as needed, these added benefits will compound.
Treat & manage injuries or other chronic conditions.
Injuries happen to everyone, whether you're an Olympic athlete or a recreational athlete. And though they may keep you away from the game for a while, foam rolling can help you treat and manage injuries so that you can get back out there.
Foam rolling stimulates blood flow to the target muscles, resulting in benefits like:
- The release of endorphins, natural pain-relieving chemicals produced by the body
- Reduced swelling and inflammation
- Increased flow of healing nutrients to the damaged joint, muscle, and/or tissue
- The prevention of adhesions and scar tissue buildup, helping to maintain flexibility ROM even as you recover
- The treatment of chronic, seemingly unavoidable injuries like runner's knee, tennis elbow, and shin splints
So, instead of "taking it easy" for the next few weeks, you can accelerate your recovery time and treat painful injuries by foam rolling 1-2x daily.
If you're using it to treat injuries, always avoid rolling directly over injured muscles, tendons, and joints – this will worsen your injury. Instead, foam rolls above, below, and opposite the problem area. This will alleviate tension in the surrounding area, allowing the inflamed area to relax and heal.
Reduce your risk of injury.
Foam rolling helps reduce muscle soreness, increase muscle and joint flexibility, and enhance muscle activation. These actions help prevent injuries.
Foam rolling before a game won't keep you from getting hurt; sometimes accidents happen. However, a consistent foam rolling routine will increase the strength and elasticity of your muscles, reducing your risk of injury. You'll benefit from staying healthy while others complain of pulled muscles, strains, and cramps.
The benefits of foam rolling are challenging to quantify. But if you ask any of the NBA, MLB, NFL, or NHL athletes we work with, they'll tell you that the Rolflex foam roller is essential to their success. It helps them stay injury-free, recover quickly after long road trips, and operate at peak performance, even as the other athletes try to manage this pain by sitting out of essential practices and games.
And if you want to train, play, and recover like the best athletes in the world, you need to add foam rolling to your daily fitness routine.