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Why I Don’t Prescribe Foam Rollers to My Patients
Exploring the impact of foam rolling on flexibility, performance, and recovery
Foam rolling gets a lot of love in the fitness and rehab communities.
Every clinic I worked in had a set of foam rollers. They were used for warm-ups, improving mobility, and exercise performance.
Sometimes a full or half roll was simply used as a prop during an exercise. A patient would lie on a foam roller while performing a band pull-apart exercise or place it under their knees for short arc quads.
But the most common usage was to mash muscles.
Foam rolling, like stretching, is deeply ingrained into the fitness and rehab communities and widely accepted as a valid and useful tool.
But should it be?
“Believe whatever you believe by day; but at night, argue against the propositions you hold most dear.” — How Not To Be Wrong, by Jordan Ellenberg
When we look at the research, we start to realize foam rollers shouldn’t be given as much love as they are.
