Should You Foam Roll Before Training?

Study review on the effects of foam rolling before training on ROM & strength

Do you foam roll before you exercise? I definitely have and sometimes still do. 

If you’ve been in engaged within the fitness space for a while, I’m sure you’ve come across no shortage of love for the foam roller and lacrosse balls. 

I remember almost 10 years ago when foam rolling and rolling on a hard ball were the new obsession within fitness. We thought these tactics were going to fix our bodies and turn us all into mobility gods. 

Well, it turns out that was a lie. Not to say that foam rolling or self-myofascial release serves zero purpose. But it does appear that the purpose it can serve is far less groundbreaking than what was originally spread throughout the fitness industry. 

So I wanted to breakdown a pretty recent paper that looked into the effects of foam rolling before training so that we can have practical ways to utilize a foam roller, if we feel so inclined. 

Study Reviewed: The Effects of Foam Rolling on Range of Motion, Muscle Stiffness and Muscle Strength

45 subjects were randomized into one of 3 groups. Subjects were a mix of men and women (23M, 22W) all around 21 years of age. 

1 group did 1 set of 30 seconds of foam rolling on the calf muscle. 

1 group 3 sets of 30 seconds of foam rolling on the calf muscle with 30 s rest in between.

1 group 10 sets of 30 seconds of foam rolling on the calf muscle with 30 s rest in between. 

They were all instructed to aim for a 7/10 on a scale of discomfort. 

The different set schemes were to determine if different dosages facilitated different results.

Finally, the measures assessed were taken 2 minutes after the protocol (post test) and 30 minutes after that (30 minute post test). This way they assessed whether not any results stuck around for at least 30 minutes. 

Key measures were:

Dorsi flexion range of motion (bringing your foot up to your shin)

Muscle stiffness of the calf — muscle stiffness is often deemed “bad” but it is very important for performance. A less stiff muscle may have less elasticity and not be able to produce as much force. Similar to if you over stretch and elastic band and it loses it’s elasticity. We don’t want that to happen to our muscles for performance sake. 

Strength of the calf — this was done by measuring maximal voluntary muscle contraction of the calf muscles. Basically driving as much force into their machine as possible by attempting a calf raise and it measures the applied force. 

Results:

No group at any time point saw significant changes in either muscle stiffness or maximal strength following the foam rolling. 

The 1 set of 30 seconds group saw no significant changes in range of motion either. 

The 3 set and 10 set groups of 30 seconds both saw significant changes 2 minutes after the protocol but they both went back to baseline in 30 minutes. 
Which would indicate the positive effect on range of motion (ROM) was short lived. Interestingly enough, another paper saw passive ROM maintained 10 minutes after rolling, but that protocol called for 3 sets of 60 seconds of rolling. 

 
 

Above you’ll see the results between groups for range of motion changes (in degrees) before, after and 30 min after the intervention. These benefits may look small, but they could have some use in the context of trying to squat deeper and being limited by ankle range motion. 

With that being said, we can’t say that foam rolling will make any long term changes with this evidence. 

 
 

Now you’ll see changes in maximum voluntary isometric contraction between groups at different time points. Making sure there are no negative impacts on performance is important when assessing the utility of any protocol.

Here we saw no statistically significant differences but also, no meaningful differences for any of the groups. Pointing to evidence that the minor potential benefits of rolling probably won’t come at any sacrifice in strength — at least with these protocols. 

Takeaways:

This is only one study, so it’s not to be taken as the conclusive evidence on this topic. It was also only done on the calf muscle of young, healthy adults.

Regardless, here are some key takeaways:

  • Foam rolling is probably neutral for increasing strength performance when done before training

  • None of the protocols reduced strength or elasticity of the muscle being rolled

  • There seems to be short term improvements in range of motion from foam rolling. This does seem to be dose dependant though. This evidence points to 90 seconds being a minimum BUT doing 10 sets did no better. So for practical sense, 3 sets of 30 seconds makes the most sense.

  • If you’re going to use foam rolling, it’s probably best to use on a muscle that may be limiting your range of motion in a specific lift right before you do it. Example: rolling your calves out for 90 seconds each right before squatting if ankle mobility is an issue

  • It doesn’t seem fair to expect these range of motion changes to stick around. They all went back to baseline after 30 min. So use to increase acute range of motion, not to facilitate long term range of motion of that muscle/joint!


My advice:

I’m pretty neutral on foam rolling. If you have time to add it into your warm up, I don’t see a downside. I also don’t see a lot of upside either. If you like it, go for it! 

If you have really limited range of motion in a specific lift, it can be mildly useful right before it. If you’re time crunched, hate foam rolling or don’t feel any benefit from it, you’re not missing out by skipping it.

With that being said, if you want to actually increase range of motion long term, structured stretching or just strength training through long muscle lengths are going to be more effective than any sort of self mysofascial release techniques, like using a foam roller or lacrosse ball. 

It’s important to remember that these techniques aren’t going to elicit adaptations like stretching and exposing tissues to load/stress while in lengthened positions will. 

Progressive overload does not only apply to building muscle and strength. It will also apply to cardiovascular and flexibility training, too. 

So if you want to increase your mobility/flexibilty, make sure to expose your muscles/joints to those ranges of motion and try to get stronger/more resilient in them. As opposed to just trying to roll your muscles there for long term results. 

Finally, It’s key to remember your warm up should not eat up a lot of time in your workout. So efficiency is key and foam rolling can have it’s place here, but is definitely not a necessity!

If you want to learn more about how to set up an effective and efficient warm up, I wrote an article on just that in which you can check out!

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 Cheers,

-Coach Dylan🍻

References:

1. The Acute and Prolonged Effects of Different Durations of Foam Rolling on Range of Motion, Muscle Stiffness, and Muscle Strength
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7919347/

2. Higher Quadriceps Roller Massage Forces Do Not Amplify Range-of-Motion Increases nor Impair Strength and Jump Performance
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30152808/

3. Strength Training versus Stretching for Improving Range of Motion: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/9/4/427

4. How to Warmup Without Wasting Your Time
https://www.five-elements.ca/blog-2/how-to-warmup-without-wasting-your-time

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