this video is to review the most recent scientific evidence on the effects of
foam rolling we'll go through the three potential effects of foamrolling three
potential theories behind it and three limitations of this study and also I
will finish with my opinion on it so let's have a look at their findings this
is the most recent systematic review with 21 studies included out of the 21
studies 14 studies used pre rolling which means they use the foam roller
before exercising and the remaining seven used post rolling which means
after exercises their conclusion is this they said there is a short-term effect
of increasing joint range of motion without decreasing muscle performance
which is expected because your muscles get warmed up with foam rolling that's
why you can move better secondly they suggest the foam rolling
before exercises may improve sports performance some studies found it was
slightly effective for elite sprinters but not for jump or strength performance
however the effect size is so small with only 0.7% improvements they also
mentioned it may be just a psychological effect where the sprinters just felt
better and more confident after foam rolling although it can be just possible
effect psychological aspects play an important role in motor sports
especially at an elite level so if you are an elite sprinter you may consider
foam rolling before sprinting what's more interesting is they found the
positive effect of foam rolling on alleviating muscle soreness if it's used
after exercising according to this study 66% of the population is likely to
experience reduced muscle pain by foam rolling after exercises so let's have a
look at how it works the first potential theory behind it is
scar tissue breaking down you might have heard that there is some sort of knots
or scar tissue between you know muscle fibers and by form role in your muscles
you can get rid of them a lot of people assume that way but unfortunately it's
an assumption only at this stage it may be but so far there's no scientific
evidence on foam rolling breaking down the scar tissue another explanation
that you could potentially warm up your muscles by moving your body during foamrolling
your muscles have to activate to maintain these positions which induce
pre activation and warm-up effects the last one is changes in pain perception
this is probably the most plausible explanation that the sensation of the
pain during foam rolling over rides the actual pain signals induced by painful
muscles or injuries simply put you trick your brain into paying more attention to
the pain sensation from foam rolling rather than actual muscle pain or injury
pain basically increasing pain threshold
there are three limitations in this study firstly sample sizes and effect
sizes are small which result in reduced statistical power second none of the
included studies were able to blind their subjects to the treatment that's
because of the nature of the foamrolling
technique so if you are involved
in one study about medication you take a pill without knowing what's the
medication for. you may be given the actual medication that the researchers
are testing or you may be just given vitamin all you know painkiller but in
this type of study because of the nature of the form rolling, all the subjects
already knew they're going to do foamrolling and they would've expected
something is going to get better which can impact on the result of the studies
this is a placebo effect also each study used different protocols and tools we
don't know how much pressure each subject may have used some people
might have applied light pressure while the others might have done harder
although there are more studies recommending firm form rollers so
taken altogether the physiological mechanisms of the potential benefits of
foam rolling are not fully understood it's not the scar tissue breaking down
as many people might have heard of or just assumed but I'd rather say it is
the effects of the movements we make during foam rolling and the pain
perception changes so this is why I show you the muscle release techniques before
exercising in this channel pain control is an important part of any rehab
I think massaging or foamrolling on targeted muscles will help warm up the
muscles and potentially reduced the pain level. the best part is it is a safe
way to do that as there is almost no side effects reported in this study
to sum up foam rolling does not simply improve muscle functions whether it's
used before or after exercises however there seems to be a positive effect on
alleviating muscle soreness if it's used after exercises even though it can be
just a psychological effect or simply changes in pain perception
despite all this I believe science can't explain everything yet because it's
almost impossible to do this kind of research in a good setting due to the
nature of the foam rolling anyway based on what they found so far I
definitely recommend foam rolling before exercising if you are in a rehab process
because you need to reduce your pain perception before exercising otherwise
you can't do the exercises right and if you're just a regular exerciser foam
rolling after exercises is recommended to reduce muscle soreness there may be
some potential effects that haven't been found yet therefore my personal opinion
is to do this kind of muscle release as often as possible because there is no
harm anyway unless you do too hard in fact I do them all the time because
it just feels good doing that I'll see you next time Cheers