Does Styrofoam Really Do Anything?
Foam rolling seemed to come out of nowhere maybe 15 or 20 years ago. It was incredibly popular, and for a while it seemed like it was a must if you wanted to get a good workout. Many of the purported benefits of foam rolling have proven to be myths, but foam rolling remains one of the many tools we can use for recovery and mobility. Let’s separate fact from fiction.
What is foam rolling?
A foam roller is a cylinder originally made of slightly soft foam that is usually placed on the floor. (The foam is similar to what pool noodles are made of, but denser.) Then you place part of your body on top of the roller, say your thigh, and move back and forth so that the cylinder (foam roller) massages that part of your body, pressing against it with the weight of your body.
It’s essentially a form of self-massage, and you can adjust the intensity of the massage by leaning into the roller (to make the massage more intense) or supporting your body on your free arm or leg (to make it softer).
Foam rollers are often about six inches in diameter and can be as little as a foot long (for a mini roller ) or two to three feet long for larger models . They are also made from a variety of materials, including textured rolls that are firmer or softer than the original type of foam.
When and how to make polystyrene foam?
Foam rolling is often done before a workout as part of a warm-up. You will foam roll out the muscles you plan to use during the workout and/or those muscles that may become slightly stretched during the workout. Foam rolling can also be done as a stand-alone session and is often marketed as a “recovery” aid. This means different things to different people, but it is often thought to relieve the feeling of muscle pain. Let’s break down the myths and truths about foam rollers, and then get back to how best to use this tool.
Rolled foam probably doesn’t break up the “adhesions”
One theory about foam rolling has to do with the fascia that surrounds our muscles. Fascia is a general term for the membranes that surround our muscles. Some trainers and medical professionals believe that areas of fascia can stick to each other or to our muscles and that these stuck areas are called adhesions.
According to this theory, foam rolling is good for us because it breaks up these adhesions. In fact, scientists have been unable to find evidence that spikes are real. Of course, your fascia may eventually adhere to nearby tissue as a result of healing from surgery or injury, but this is not the same as the idea that your muscles are constantly developing adhesions as a result of your daily life or the exercises you do . and that you will need foam rolling or massage to release them.
This theory is so widespread that “self-myofascial release” is used interchangeably with foam rolling. But when scientists looked for evidence that these adhesions exist or that the foam roller “releases” them, they couldn’t find any. “Evidence indicates that the term self-myofascial release is misleading and a misnomer,” concludes a 2019 article on the topic. This doesn’t mean that foam rolling isn’t useful , it’s just that the general explanation of what it does there is just made up.
The foam roller probably helps with mobility and flexibility.
To be able to move well during exercise, some muscles must be warm and ready to contract; you also need some muscles to be flexible and stretchable. (Some muscles, of course, fall into both categories.) The warm-up phase of your workout is designed to achieve these goals.
There is evidence that foam rolling can improve muscle flexibility in the short term, much like stretching. Athletes often choose to avoid static stretching (holding a stretch for several seconds) before exercise because stretching tends to temporarily reduce strength. Luckily, a foam roller seems to help improve flexibility without causing short-term indentations . (So does dynamic stretching, but that’s another story.)
In some circles, the anti-foam pendulum has swung so far that trainers are saying it’s harmful to work on mobility or flexibility before a workout because more flexibility isn’t always better. But a proper warm-up is designed, in part, to give you the flexibility you need to perform exercises safely and effectively . If you need to roll out your calves to be able to bend your ankles enough to squat well, then rolling out (and even static stretching!) is a good thing to do before squatting training.
Foam rolling can help with pain
It’s probably best to think of foam rolling as a form of massage. The evidence for massage for muscle soreness and recovery is mixed, but many people seem to find that foam rolling helps relieve soreness; scientific evidence supports this , at least to some extent. Foam rolling can help by making you less sensitive to pain, which doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll heal faster, but the point is, people foam roll because it feels good.
And I think that’s the lesson to be learned from this. If foam rolling helps you feel better when you have a knot in your muscles , or if it helps relieve pain so you can continue your workout , then it’s worth doing it regardless of whether it actually relieves adhesions or not.
When it comes to using a foam roller in a workout warm-up, I would treat it the same way I would treat any other component of a warm-up, such as static stretching or cardio before a lift: listen to it and see if it helps you feel more ready for the main lifts. part of your workout. If it helps, keep it. And if not, ditch it in favor of something that actually suits you.