This simple tool can improve your range of motion and help you recover faster.
If you’ve been letting your foam roller gather dust, you’re missing out on some big benefits. From reduced muscle tension to better mobility and faster recovery, foam rolling can be a game changer for your performance.
What is Foam Rolling?
“Foam rolling is a form of self-myofascial release or self-massage,” says physical therapist Dan Giordano, PT, DPT, CSCS, who explains that this type of soft-tissue work increases range of motion while soothing soreness. Research on foam rolling is still ongoing, but one meta-analysis has shown that it can improve flexibility and reduce muscle pain.
Foam rolling targets the fascia, or connective tissue that surrounds muscles and organs holding them in place. When fascia becomes stressed, it tightens up and limits mobility, Giordano explains. Foam rolling loosens up the fascia making it more flexible.
“When you foam roll, you are releasing any bound water within the tissues to rehydrate viscous hyaluronan [the substance with fascia that helps it glide over muscle] to create increased lubrication between the layers of the fascia,” says Tonal Coach Liz Letchford, a board-certified athletic trainer with a PhD in kinesiology and rehabilitation science. “Once the bound water is freed within the connective tissue layers, that water helps the viscous honey-like hyaluronan become even more slippery, which is one reason you may feel more mobile after a full rolling session.” In other words, a few minutes of rolling can help you go deeper in a squat or achieve a wider range of shoulder motion during an overhead press.
Read on for the experts’ advice on how to get the most out of your foam roller.
When to Foam Roll
Foam rolling is beneficial both before and after working out. While static stretching prior to a workout can negatively impact your training by reducing your strength and power output, foam rolling lets you warm up your muscles without impacting your performance.
Foam rolling before a workout increases blood flow to the muscles, which improves range of motion and flexibility during exercise, explains Giordano. It’s also a good way to soften sore muscles and make them more pliable before lifting. Letchford adds that foam rolling before exercise stimulates the nervous system and improves your mind-body connection.
If you’re foam rolling prior to exercise, Giordano recommends spending around 30 seconds on each major muscle group.
Post-workout, foam rolling restores blood flow to the tissues and improves lymphatic flow, reducing soreness and helping with the recovery process. If you’re foam rolling after exercise, take one to two minutes rolling out each major muscle to aid recovery.
How to Use a Foam Roller
There’s no right or wrong pace for foam rolling, but Giordano prefers going slower to make sure he hits all areas of a muscle. “