Foam rolling is a waste of time. Change my mind

[GolovKing]

Unless you're an athlete or someone who has no other responsibilities during the day and can invest as much time as you want to your body, foam rolling rolling is not effective enough to be a good investment of your time. For the average person who works and has only a few hours a day to dedicate towards exercise you are better served by incorporating more physical therapy type exercises and stretches rather than foam rolling.

 

[Volador]

Won't change your mind because I agree. Although doing more physical therapy and stretches is probably not a great use of time either, unless you need them for some particular reason.

 

[Shadiata]

Minimal time on one for me...just to loosen up T-spine and lats. I spend WAY more time with activation movements with resistence bands. Hips, glutes, low back, shoulders.

 

[deadshot138]

It's worth a once over across large muscles before and after lifting. You don't need all the torture devices Rogue and Chris Duffin sell tho.

 

[Jarvan]

You don't buy into it because you've most definitely haven't had an authentic myofascial release done

You don't necessarily need a foam roller, but it's meant for self release

 

[DEVILsSON]

I get great relief from it and it takes a couple minutes out of my day when I need it. Not sure why anyone has to convince you of anything. Don't want to do it then don't.

 

[Stargazer Rex]

It makes my thoracic spine feel great.

 

[Jarvan]

Unless you're an athlete or someone who has no other responsibilities during the day and can invest as much time as you want to your body, foam rolling rolling is not effective enough to be a good investment of your time. For the average person who works and has only a few hours a day to dedicate towards exercise you are better served by incorporating more physical therapy type exercises and stretches rather than foam rolling.

I'd argue that it is even more important for those people to spend time on a massage ball and overall self release

The foam roller is but a tool to perform releases

The goal is to relax overactive/inhibited muscles, which leads to adequate motor recruitment

When you allow those things to persist, pain is inevitable, as well as progression

People call it a 'plateau'
Nah, that's your body limiting hypertrophy because you have a discrepancy in your system... and/or training improperly
But I consider proper release an integral part of training

 

[Jarvan]

Minimal time on one for me...just to loosen up T-spine and lats. I spend WAY more time with activation movements with resistence bands. Hips, glutes, low back, shoulders.

Full activation is only possible when you are fully released
You can't fully open or activate the hips if your hip flexors are too tight/overactive... and this goes down the line with any kind of body mobility

 

[Poon Goon]

I don't know about foam rolling, but I just bought a massage gun and holy shit that thing is cool. My lower back has been sore and causing me to walk funny for the last few days. Put the gun on it for a couple of minutes and it feels so much better. I'm sure the discomfort will return soon because this seems too good to be true.

 

[maximus__]

Unless you're an athlete or someone who has no other responsibilities during the day and can invest as much time as you want to your body, foam rolling rolling is not effective enough to be a good investment of your time. For the average person who works and has only a few hours a day to dedicate towards exercise you are better served by incorporating more physical therapy type exercises and stretches rather than foam rolling.

I never really found it much use at all and had more success with stretching and more targeted release with balls or similar.
I bought a massage gun and that achieves much more and than the roller. I barely use that now even.
The best thing is yin yoga type movements for me.

 

[maximus__]

I don't know about foam rolling, but I just bought a massage gun and holy shit that thing is cool. My lower back has been sore and causing me to walk funny for the last few days. Put the gun on it for a couple of minutes and it feels so much better. I'm sure the discomfort will return soon because this seems too good to be true.

I bought one also. It's pretty good but I find it has most success when I get someone else to do it for me.
Front of shoulders and pectoral area it is definitely the goods though.

 

[TeTe]

It makes my back feel better, after doing it for a whole 30 seconds. Not sure where the time dedication is a problem here.

 

[GolovKing]

It makes my back feel better, after doing it for a whole 30 seconds. Not sure where the time dedication is a problem here.

I notice everyone keeps bringing up their back. I don't have back problems so maybe that's the reason I feel the way I do. I have lots of other injuries that I've tried foam rolling and I see no noticeable improvement. I get way better results strengthening muscles that are too weak, improving range of motion, and movement. I don't think foam rolling does much of anything for that. At best it seems like it's providing short term relief for pain that people are experiencing. Not actually correcting any issues

 

[Pitbull]

I notice everyone keeps bringing up their back. I don't have back problems so maybe that's the reason I feel the way I do. I have lots of other injuries that I've tried foam rolling and I see no noticeable improvement. I get way better results strengthening muscles that are too weak, improving range of motion, and movement. I don't think foam rolling does much of anything for that. At best it seems like it's providing short term relief for pain that people are experiencing. Not actually correcting any issues

This is my experience as we. At my gym, there are a large group of people obsessed with foam rolling. They always seem to have injuries and never seem to actually sort any problems out. I'm older and much more advanced than all of them, but I'm injury and pain-free and if I ever do have any issues I can sort it out quickly. They often try to convince me I should be doing it, but that would be like training strength training advice from a novice.

I've tried foam rolling, but it didn't make much difference and I've not seen it actually make a difference in anyone else apart from them feeling better in the short term. Not to say it's not worth doing, but strengthening muscles and stretching make a much bigger difference in my experience.

 

[The Chosen]

It’s good if you carry a lot of tension and stiffness in your back during the day and you can relieve it with a foam roll, also good for correcting posture.

 

[Disco]

I have a bad back and I think it's useless for it, it just can't hit what I want it to. It's great for my quads and glutes though. Average on hamstrings.

A tennis ball (or a specialist ball) works better on upper back

 

[vision1]

For me, it aids with reducing soreness. 1 good foam rolling session (about 30 mins) speeds up recovery from a hardworkout by about half a day for me.

Are you confident in that statement?
I've always thought foam rolling / stretching / cooldowns for reduced DOMS was a bunch of baloney

 

[listrahtes]

Unless you're an athlete or someone who has no other responsibilities during the day and can invest as much time as you want to your body, foam rolling rolling is not effective enough to be a good investment of your time. For the average person who works and has only a few hours a day to dedicate towards exercise you are better served by incorporating more physical therapy type exercises and stretches rather than foam rolling.

Why would anyone try to change your mind? I incorporate foam rolling into warm up for running / intervall training and boxing. Helps me a lot in activating my hamstrings , calf and achilles tendon in a way stretching doesnt do. Active stretching is next part, then drills.

I work with quite some professional athletes and most do it. You can also use something like Hypervolt for the same effect.It is meant to loosen up strains which cant be done quite like that with isolated deeper situated strains. Well known athletes I remember who do this next to every session: Allison Felix, Shauna Miller Uibo.

Its not a necessity, quite some dont use it and are fine with that. Its all about what helps you get into peak condition.

But as I said at the starting. If you dont see the benefit well dont do it.

 

[4daLuLZ]

You don't necessarily need a foam roller, but it's meant for self release

Where do you stick it in though ?