Does foam rolling help recovery

Man using foam roller — Will doing this help reduce post exercise soreness and speed recovery

Foam rolling is heavily marketed as a way to help reduce post exercise soreness and speed recovery after a workout, but do they help and are they even safe?

In this guide we will look at what the scientific studies say about foam rolling, then share with you some alternatives that are safer and more effective.

What the scientists say about foam rolling

A recent review of 21 studies of the effects of foam rolling on performance and recovery concluded any benefits were minor or negligible (see below) (5).

Journal summary — A scientists conclusion after reviewing 21 trials of foam rolling

Further, as we discuss below:

Increases in flexibility last less than 10 minutes
There are serious safety concerns
Real world results are likely worse

Increases in flexibility last less than 10 minutes

You may read that foam rolling gives an increase in flexibility, but you will not be told that this increase lasts for less than 10 minutes (1–4)⁠.

There are serious safety concerns

Another recent scientific journal review was concerned about the safety of foam rolling, stating “During Foam-rolling exercises, all the underlying tissue is mechanically stressed, potentially leading to damage, for example, in neuronal tissues, receptors, vessels, or bones” (6).

The real world results are likely worse

In clinical trials patients are chosen for suitability and professionally supervised. In the real world people use foam rollers without instruction or supervision, often on conditions where rolling is inappropriate. This is why as a Chiropractor for over 27 years I saw a lot of people hurt and injure themselves doing self massage with balls or rollers for very little benefits.

Comparing foam rolling with professional therapists

The poor clinical trial results may be surprising, but for the reasons shown in this infographic, results from foam rolling are unlikely to be anywhere near as good as those from a professional therapist.

Your safer and more effective alternatives to help recovery

A complete strategy is best

Rather than look for a particular therapy we recommend that you use a complete strategy to provide everything your muscles need to recover faster. This includes massage, but also appropriate rest, nutrition and hydration, plus several other things that can help. For more information please see our article The practical, science based guide to post exercise recovery .

Massage therapies that help

While foam rolling has been shown to be only minimally effective (if at all) two types of massage have been shown to be very useful:

conventional massage by a professional therapist
vibration massage (not a massage gun)

We discuss these in our article The best massage for sports recovery , but will do a brief summary here.

Sports massage — Are review of clinical trials showed and average 13% reduction in post exercise soreness

Conventional massage by a professional therapist

Professional massage therapists can use a variety of techniques. The therapy you receive will depend on the skills and preferences of the therapist, and what he or she is trying to achieve (eg. relaxation, remedial, recovery). However, 2020 scientific review of 29 clinical trials found that massage gave a 13% reduction in post exercise soreness (DOMS or Delayed onset Muscle Soreness ) and a 7% increase in flexibility (7)

Using a genuine vibration massager after exercise gives excellent reductions in soreness and speeds recovery

Vibration massage (not massage guns)

Vibration massage is where a therapeutic vibration massager sits in the surface and sends vibrations deep into your muscles. Those vibrations have excellent therapeutic effects such as relax the muscle and increase blood flow. This has given the following excellent results in clinical trials (8-14).

reduced post exercise soreness (DOMS or Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness)
reduced the amount of unwanted chemicals such as lactic acid,
reduced the loss of strength and endurance, and speeding recovery.

Advantages of vibration massage

In addition, using a vibration massager has two advantages over using a professional therapist.

Vibration massage is much faster

I the one trial where vibration massage and conventional massage were directly compared 5 minutes of vibration gave similar (actually slightly better) results to 15 minutes of conventional massage (8).

You can do it yourself

You can easily use a vibration massager on yourself. The obvious advantages of this are convenience and no professional fees, but it also allows multiple applications during recovery. Within reason you will always get much better results from regular applications than a once off session. As an example, in one trial vibration massage was used after exercising, then each day during recovery.

How to use vibration massage

Please see our guide The sports and exercise guide to vibration massage .

The equipment you will need

You will need a genuine vibration massager

As this example of a professional vibration massager shows, vibration massagers have a head or pad that sits on the surface and sends in therapeutic vibrations. These penetrate like ultrasound (vibrations at a different frequency), and are at the correct frequency for the therapeutic effects. If you use one you will feel the vibrations going "right through you" and having a relaxing effect on your muscles. You will need a personal use version.

Example consumer massager — Example: "consumer" massager with decent quality head added

"Consumer" massagers are not suitable

Most vibrating massagers built for consumer use are built to look good on shop shelves rather than be serious therapeutic devices. These usually have low powered motors and inadequate mechanisms, so are not capable of delivering adequate vibration.

Massage guns (percussion massagers) are not suitable

Rather than having a pad that sits on the surface and sending in vibrations massage guns are designed to drive their heads in like jackhammers. Because of this they:

Deliver far less vibration than a proper vibration massager
They cannot safely and comfortably be run at thee therapeutic vibration frequencies (for more info see The best setting for your massager )
they usually do more harm than good, with even reports of them causing life threatening injuries (for more info see Are massage guns safe )

However, you will need a a suitable massager. Please see our article How to choose a massager . For the following reasons massage guns and most personal use massagers are not suitable.

Massage guns are not suitable

Massage guns vibrate and are widely marketed and recovery aids, but as discussed in our article Are massage guns effective- beyond the hype they deliver far less therapeutic vibration than a genuine vibration massager, while increasing the risk of causing injury. In fact there is a report in a scientific journal of someone nearly dying from internal bleeding after using a massage gun to help relax muscles after a bike ride (15).

Most "consumer" massagers are not suitable

With massagers becoming popular there are thousands of factories with no interest in making genuine therapeutic devices trying to cash in. These vibrate, but usually do not deliver anywhere near professional standard therapeutic vibrations. For more information please see Why most massagers are a waste of money .

Vibration massagers for personal use

When we were looking for a suitable vibration massager for our patients to use all the effective machines seemed to be "professional" products for therapists to use. These were expensive and not designed for self use. Because of this we built our own that pack the effectiveness of a professional unit into an economical one for self use. They are now used, recommended and sold by over a thousand clinics across half the world (some examples). For information about these and where to get them please use these links.
The General Purpose Massager
The Ultimate Quad Head Massager
Read what professionals say about DrGraeme massagers

Try this therapy with a sample massager (offer for professionals)

Most of our massager sell through colleagues using our machines and recommending the therapy to patients/clients, so we are very happy to send appropriately qualiied professionals a complimentary sample machines to trial. For more info please see our Professional sample sample page .

References

DeBruyne DM, Dewhurst MM, Fischer KM, Wojtanowski MS, Durall C. Self-mobilization using a foam roller versus a roller massager: Which is more effective for increasing hamstrings flexibility? J Sport Rehabil. 2017;26(1):94–100.
Beardsley C, Skarabot J. Effects of self-myofascial release : A systematic review. J Bodyw Mov Ther. 2015;
Schroeder AN, Best TM. Is self myofascial release an effective preexercise and recovery strategy? A literature review. Curr Sports Med Rep. 2015;14(3):200–8.
Smith JC, Pridgeon B, Hall MC. Acute effect of foam rolling and dynamic stretching on flexibility and jump height. J Strength Cond Res. 2018;32(8):2209–15.
Weiwlhove T. A Meta-Analysis of the effects of foam rolling on perforrmance and recovery. Front Physiol. 2019;10:376.
Freiwald J, Baumgart C, Kühnemann M, Hoppe MW. Foam-Rolling in Sport und Therapy- Potential benefits and risks:267–75.
Davis HL, Alabed S, Chico TJA. Effect of sports massage on performance and recovery: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med. 2020;6(1):e000614.
Imtiyaz S, Veqar Z, Shareef MY. To compare the effect of vibration therapy and massage in prevention of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). J Clin Diagnostic Res. 2014
Kamandani R, Ghazalian F, Ebrahim K, Ghassembaglou N, Shiri Piraghaj M, Khorram A. The Effect of Acute Vibration Training on Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness in Young Non-Athlete Women. Heal Scope. 2015;
Lau WY, Nosaka K. Effect of vibration treatment on symptoms associated with eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage. Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 2011
Bakhtiary AH, Safavi-Farokhi Z, Aminian-Far A. Influence of vibration on delayed onset of muscle soreness following eccentric exercise. Br J Sports Med. 2007;
Koeda T. A trial to evaluate experimentally induced delayed onset muscle soreness and its modulation by vibration. Environ Med. 2003;47:26–30.
Rhea MR. Effect of iTonic Whole-Body Vibration on Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness Among Untrained Individuals. J Strength Cond Res. 2009;23(6):1677–82.
Percival S et al. Local vibration therapy increases oxygen re-saturation rate and maintains muscle strength following exerciseinduced muscle damage. J Athl Train. 2021;Aug 17.
Chen J, Zhang F, Chen H, Pan H. Rhabdomyolysis After the Use of Percussion Massage Gun : A Case Report. Phys Ther. 2021 Jan 4;101(1)

CONTENTS

What the scientists say about foam rolling