Foam rolling is one thing that’s been becoming more popular with professional athletes and gym fans as a additive for their workout sessions. These kinds of cyndrical tube shaped foams of different densities and types are used and the muscles are rolled over them. Foam rolling is a kind of self myofascial release treatment. The aim or claim is because they are meant to breakup adhesions within the muscle tissue, and help facilitate stretching, and help as part of the warm up and to also to encourage recuperation from physical exercise. Health and fitness gurus and all sorts of believed industry experts are advocating their use. Nonetheless, inspite of the promises of all of the rewards, there’s very little scientific research to back up if they definitely makes any difference or not. Irregardless, they usually are a relatively inexpensive technique of manual therapy as the rollers are not expensive and you don’t require the more expensive expertise of a healthcare professional.
The foams are round in form and are available in different sizes and densities from soft to hard and a few are created for specific body parts, for example the PediRoller for the bottom of the feet developed by a Podiatrist. The foam roller is placed on the floor and the muscles to be addressed is rolled over it. The concept is you roll the muscles on the foam roller forwards and backwards at a steady tempo to work on any kind of tightness and myofascial issues in that muscle. As the foam is moveable, they usually are used at the gym, the running track or in your own home with out supervision.
The chief promoted features for foam rolling are usually improved mobility to improve the range of motion of the joints; an increased sports performance if while using foam roller during the warm-up regime; and improved recovery after a workout as well as a lessing of the symptoms of delayed onset muscle tenderness (DOMS). A result of the insufficient research that’s been done with this topic there is a lot of frustration amongst industry experts with lots of them declaring that these rewards remain only theoretical and also the entire notion is only a theory since not every one of these gains are usually backed, especially in the long term by strong evidence.
You can find some fair science that demonstrates foam rolling gives you numerous shorter-term rewards for flexibility, however nothing demonstrates that it may help in the long term. It could be practical as part of a warmup regime to really make the muscle tissue even more geared up for exercise. The science which has been carried out is evident that there are no negative effects on sports performance. The science data on using the foam roller immediately after activity might have a small affect on assisting DOMS. There is no evidence what-so-ever that foam rolling helps cellulite, fixes the posture, or helps scar tissue, or sciatica pain or back pain. It may be of some use in fibromyalgia due to the muscle aches and trigger points.
It is still early days for the research and some or more of these believed features may or may not get more or greater science to support the usage. For sports athletes there isn’t any reason why foam rolling might not be beneficial during warm-up training because it does appear to improve flexibility for the short term and may be of use in after training recuperation.