Does foam rolling help recovery

What the scientists say about foam rolling

If you do enough trials and chose what to measure you can usually end up with some results marketers can talk about. However, let's look at the big picture for foam rolling.

Results can be very short-lived

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)⁠.

Any benefits are very small

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).

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 for foam rolling are even 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.

Your safer and more effective alternatives to help recovery

Overview

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 should include 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:

1. conventional massage by a professional therapist
2. 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.

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.

For more information

For more on using vibration massage please see our guide The sports and exercise guide to vibration massage

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). To choose an appropriate machine please see our article How to choose a massager .

References

1. 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.
2. Beardsley C, Skarabot J. Effects of self-myofascial release : A systematic review. J Bodyw Mov Ther. 2015;
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Weiwlhove T. A Meta-Analysis of the effects of foam rolling on perforrmance and recovery. Front Physiol. 2019;10:376.
6. Freiwald J, Baumgart C, Kühnemann M, Hoppe MW. Foam-Rolling in Sport und Therapy- Potential benefits and risks:267–75.
7. 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.
8. 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
9. 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;
10. Lau WY, Nosaka K. Effect of vibration treatment on symptoms associated with eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage. Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 2011
11. 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;
12. Koeda T. A trial to evaluate experimentally induced delayed onset muscle soreness and its modulation by vibration. Environ Med. 2003;47:26–30.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. 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)