Foam Roller Exercises: Just Say No
Foam Roller Exercises Are the Bomb and Will Solve Everything!
Below is a funny video about how foam roller exercises will fix everything, even if done in pain.
A newer study below looked at the effects of a very hard and stiff foam roller- Multilevel rigid roller (MRR) and a standard Bio-Foam roller (BFR).
Let’s see what they found
Standard Foam Roller
A Do it Yourself “Hardcore” Roller
What they found is that the Multilevel Rigid Roller exerted more pressure. Hello McFly, really? You are telling me that if I get down and roll around on a rolling pin it will be more pressure on my IT band than a foam roller? Do we really need research to tell us this?
Wrong Questions
They are asking the wrong question here for this study. If you want a better answer, you need a better question. A better question is “Does rolling on a foam roller (SMR) result in better long term performance?”
While I have not seen any direct research on that question yet, my answer is NO.
I’ve outlined it in this post below
Get Off the Foam Roller
Why I have No Love for the Foam Roller
My biggest issue with foam rollers is that people do their foam rolling in pain. Ironically, most are rolling around humping their foam roller trying to get OUT of pain. Creating MORE pain to get OUT of pain makes about as much sense as coming to see me about your right shoulder that is painful and I take a cow brander and brand your opposite shoulder. I can guarantee you that your right shoulder will not be painful (and that will be $110 please too.) Did I solve anything? Nope, I did not change the underlying issue of your right shoulder? Nope! But I sure a heck altered the signal to your brain regarding your right shoulder pain and now it is NOT painful.
Enough With the “Hardcore” Painful Soft Tissue Work
Keep in mind that pain is a creation of the brain and is very complex. Think of it as the “check engine light” on your car. When it comes on, you are not sure what is going on, but something is not right and you better stop the darn car before you rip up the engine. So you bring it to the dealer, they charge you a crap ton of money and hook up their computer to see what is going on. Hopefully they then fix the underlying issue and you are on your way, albeit with a lighter wallet.
Pain is telling you that something is not right, and you better go get it checked out by a professional.
See this video below that explains the process of pain
What To Do
You need to teach your brain that movement is NOT painful. While that is easy in theory, in practice it can be a bit tricky. Most will get huge benefits from active joint mobility work (like Z-Health). All the drills have to be done so they are not painful to begin the re-education process. The brain works by prediction and association. Move in pain and that 3 pound thing at the end of your spine starts to associate movement with pain. This is not what we want. We want pain free movement.
What are your thoughts? Are you going to continue to move in pain in the interest of feeling better?
Rock on
PS
If you are interested in a custom movement coaching session to increase performance, feel better and move better, drop me a line.
Contact Mike T. Nelson to set up an appointment today by clicking HERE
REFERENCES
A comparison of the pressure exerted on soft tissue by 2 myofascial rollers.
Curran PF, Fiore RD, Crisco JJ.
J Sport Rehabil. 2008 Nov;17(4):432-42
Dept of Orthopaedics, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University/Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI 02903, USA.
CONTEXT: Self-myofascial release (SMR) is a technique used to treat myofascial restrictions and restore soft-tissue extensibility. PURPOSE: To determine whether the pressure and contact area on the lateral thigh differ between a Multilevel rigid roller (MRR) and a Bio-Foam roller (BFR) for participants performing SMR. PARTICIPANTS: Ten healthy young men and women. METHODS: Participants performed an SMR technique on the lateral thigh using both myofascial rollers. Thin-film pressure sensels recorded pressure and contact area during each SMR trial. RESULTS: Mean sensel pressure exerted on the soft tissue of the lateral thigh by the MRR (51.8 +/- 10.7 kPa) was significantly (P < .001) greater than that of the conventional BFR (33.4 +/- 6.4 kPa). Mean contact area of the MRR (47.0 +/- 16.1 cm2) was significantly (P < .005) less than that of the BFR (68.4 +/- 25.3 cm2). CONCLUSION: The significantly higher pressure and isolated contact area with the MRR suggest a potential benefit in SMR.
Comments RSS 
Mike,
That video is hilarious! Nice work buddy.
In truth, I agree and disagree (but you already know that). Yes, the nervous systems controls movement and this should probably be the first course of action. I’d even say it DEFINITELY should be the first course of action.
Yet, myofascial restrictions acquired by past injuries are not going to be broken up by creating movement. Instead, I think they have to be released BEFORE movement can return to normal.
Just my two cents.
Hi there Mark! I always love reading your comments here.
Glad you found it funny. It made me laugh, hahah.
As you know I disagree with your statement “myofascial restrictions acquired by past injuries are not going to be broken up by creating movement” I could be pest and say that rolling on a foam roller is movement, but I know what you mean.
I just find that the movement generated by the athlete themselves tends to be the most beneficial. Of course this is not always true and there are times that hands of work can provide HUGE benefit since the hands are connected to another brain. I still view this as more invasive and other methods should be used first (minimally effective amount).
High pressure, force, hands on work I think is WAY too invasive. It may work to fix a current issue, but the cost is too high for me personally. It also assumes that the person doing it knows more than the person’s body that it is being preformed on and I don’t care how good you are, that is rarely ever going to be the case. There is a reason for every adaptation.
While plopping on a foam roller is a piss poor massage and can help a bit, it should not be done in pain and has to be followed up with ACTIVE movement to have any chance of “sticking” I just see it as a very temporary step and most would be much better off spending that time on active joint mobility work, eye movements (visual/ocular-motor) and hand movements (vestibular).
Rock on!
Mike T Nelson
Mike,
What do you suggest for removal of scar tissue if self release (foam rolling, baseball/lacrosse/golf ball) is removed from the picture?
Chris
Great question Chris.
I think the bigger question is “What can’t you do?” Now this may be a problem for various reasons and scar tissue may be one of them.
I tend do the the following
1) joint mobility work
2) visual work (eye movements actually)
3) vestibular work (head rotation, tilt or chin down or up)
4) hands on work
Most of the time on a first session, joint mobiity work is enough. Guy came in a while back and his shoulder did not go all the way when moving it out in front. Joint mobility work (Z-Health) on the same side wrist, opposite hip, opposite foot/ankle got his arm almost all the way up (was only at about 70% before).
If joint mobility work is not having a good response, I will test their eye reflexes (PREP, taught in Z Health I Phase). PREP=postural reaction to eye position. If they were not normal, they do drills with an eye position and joint mobility.
A female athlete came in a while back with an ankle issue. In order to get her hip muscles to fire better, she had to move her eyes up and while holding them up, do some ankle joint mobility work. Hip muscles (glute med, psoas and RF) fired up and her gait (along with her ankle) was much better.
If eyes + mobility don’t work I will add in vestibular work, using PNRT (postural neck reflex test). A recent athlete came in post ACL replacement and post Physical Therapy and on his first visit the joint mobility was not working, so I tested his eyes and they were normal (PREP test only), but his PNRT was positive (not normal) for his head rotated right. So his drill was an ankle mobility drill with his head turned right. Moved much better, knee was much better. (note I find it is rare to find ONLY vestibular issues)
Some times it is a combination of all 3. Mobility + eyes+ inner ear. This is hold the brain gets information to execute movements too (joints + vision + vestibular). We are reverse engineering better movement by fixing the “bad” signals!
If that still does not work, I will check the tissue by just moving it in specific orientations at 3 different layers 1)skin 2) fascial 3) deep. Note, most of the time I am not FORCING the tissue to move, I am holding it in a specific orientation and then using joint info, visual (ocular motor too) and inner ear (vestibular) work to ALLOW it to release. I am working to find the correct combination to the safe via spinning the dial, vs trying to blow up the safe.
Example
Awhile back a powerlifter came in and her left hamstring would not fire up to 100% and gait could be better. At the time she was deadlifting about 3xs body weight. Went through the testing above, using a gait assessment after each drill.
On a manual muscle test, the left hamstring was still weak and gait was off. Ending up doing a right elbow circle (neuro reflex to the opposite knee/hamstring aka probably interlimb coupling), with her head rotated right (vestibular input), with her eyes open and in the up position (looking up), while I held deep (not remotely painful) pressure on the whole hamstring (all 3) in a position to the “right.”
As she rotated her head and did the elbow circle, I could feel the hamstring tension to the right melt and it moved easily. Had her walk and gait was much better, left hamstring fired up great. Later I heard her DL went up, but hard to say what I did was directly related to it; but moving better is always a good adaptation.
I hope that helps a bit.
Basic joint mobility work is Z-Health R Phase, eye and head movements (vestibular) is Z Health I Phase, hands on work (holding tissue) is Z-Health T Phase (level 4) work. Minimal amount to get the job done = less collateral damage to fix later (although I don’t see them again as much which is my goal, but is a crappy business model–hahaha)
Most don’t need direct tissue work right away, but that is not to say it can’t work. Physiology is messy and many things can work.
Does that help? I think I have a whole blog post!
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
PS
If you want any info on the Z Health certs, let me know and drop me an email or give them a call and tell them I sent ya. I am NOT an employee of Z-Health, but I do make a few bucks off of cert referrals. Again, I would never recommend something that I don’t use myself or feel that works great.
Dude,
You just wrote a whole post that was probably longer than your initial one.
I like that you have a progression in your assessment and treatment protocol. I still think that loss of sarcomeres or capsular tightness requires prolonged stretching and that true scar tissue is not broken up by neural means. There is, in fact, a changing from one type of collagen to another.
Mind you, I think you’re bang on that we should start with the least invasive assessments and treatments and progress as necessary. Perhaps some of the stuff we attribute to scar tissue is neurally based and could be treated more effectively by other (less painful) means.
Yeah, I got a little carried away on the last comment. Yikes!
Agreed, there are different types of soft tissue for sure.
The hard part is how do we know if it is scar tissue, adhesion, nervous system, etc? If we do a dissection and find that scar tissue is present, how much is that limiting the motion?
My thoughts are that if I can target the nervous system more directly (it can’t be completely isolated in the gym setting) and we see a change, I will assume (you know what happens when you assume) that it was primarily the NS holding you back.
If you come in and your shoulder only goes to 70%, but we work on your wrist, opposite hip, opposite foot/ankle and the shoulder gets closer to 100% full range (say 95%); I would say that it was primarily a NS “brake” that was released. I’ve done this on people with “frozen shoulder” who have not gotten full range of motion in years. Does it always work in one session? No, but most of the time it really does.
Again, I could target the soft tissue in the shoulder directly and see a good result, I would then conclude it is a soft tissue issue. Or maybe I am retraining the NS to get that range of motion by doing soft tissue work or providing more mechanoreceptor awareness to it? I don’t really know to be honest.
The key question is how do we get the fastest, safest result. My end goal is to be able to provide increased ROM back to normal and performance changes in 99% of athletes in ONE session. I do believe that this is entirely possible. While I am not there yet, I am getting closer each day and most sessions are 1-2 sessions per issue; as they work on their drills then 3-4 times a day for 2-4 weeks. At that point, their software is pretty well set and time to move on to the next item.
Good questions!
rock on
Mike T Nelson
hey Mike,
Thanks for this post
I don’t use a foam roller, but tennis balls. To me the process feels good. What I mean is, I’m not in any pain …
I also do joint mobility work … all though I’m not familiar with the z-health stuff.
If I’m not in pain when I’m doing it, and in fact I actually enjoy the feeling, and I ‘feel’ better afterwards … I’m not too sure why I should stop doing it.
I will explore this further!
Cheers
Thanks for the comment!
Glad you are not doing it in pain! What type of joint mobility work do you do?
Anything I can do to help, let me know
rock on
Mike T Nelson
Hey Mike …
I ‘loosely’ follow Sonnon’s Intuflow exercises. I do them every morning along with a brief roll on my tennis balls and some ‘Ming’ stretches.
BTW I’ve really enjoyed reading through your ‘back-catalog’… Looking forward to following your posts in the future.
Cheers
Thanks for the kind words!! Sonnons drills are very Z like for sure.
Glad you like the back issues and glad people read them! Over 2.5 years of articles here for free, so enjoy!
Thanks again
rock on
Mike T Nelson
Hi Mike. How would you go about assessing a left ankle that over-supinates? I find that I roll of the outside of my left foot and I’m thinking it’s psoas weakness and tight external rotators that’s making my foot roll off my pinkie toe instead of big. Any thoughts? Thanks
Hi there! Thanks for the note. Over supination can be from lots of stuff, but in general I find some muscles not working well on the same side hip. I would put glute med and psoas at the top of the list.
Do you have the Z -Health R Phase DVD (sorry, I can’t remember, but I think you do). If so, you can try some foot drills or left hip front circles in a rehab position. I will send you a few newer foot drills to try out also; so look for your email.
Let us know how it goes!
rock on
Mike T Nelson
You said: “Awhile back a powerlifter came in and her left hamstring would not fire up to 100%”
100% of what? The right hamstring?
—
A general question to the Z approach: Let’s assume somebody had an accident and his left arm got amputated and later on problems with his right leg. What do you do than?
Correct! Also, on a manual muscle test you are feeling for the muscle to “lock” and not cramp and get moved easily.
True, it is a crude test, but I don’t have a Biodex in my living room (anyone want to donate?) hehehehe
Rock on
Mike N
Hi Mike, thanks for the email, I will try the drills mentioned in the video. It’s a bit hard to make out but let’s see what it brings. I find that the hip circles in front help a lot, I added around 3 inches to my vertical just by doing the hip circles (which brings my total vertical to around 42 inches SWEET)
Do you have any tips on thoracic glides? It’s really hard to get a mind-muscle connection to that area of my body. Also, I’ve seen that you’re not a fan of static stretching, what would you recommend when a muscle feels tight? For example, after a hard game or practice, my calves and glutes will always be sore and it feels so good to stretch them out. I’ve started stretching them and then doing some hip circles/ankle mobility drills to maintain the new length (it makes sense to me). Is that a good idea? Thanks again
WOW! That is awesome! Many would kill to add 3 inches to their vert in several months, nevermind someone who has a vert now at 42 inches)! Do you mind if I use that for a testmonial? It goes to show, that if you can just get the right muscles to fire at the right time, you can see amazing changes very very fast. Excellent work on doing the drills.
For thoracics you can try to gentley rub the area for about 10-20 sec before doing the drill. The thoracic ones are tricky, so if you can visit a near by Z trainer that will help a ton too. Just concentrate about moving the t-spine in that area as you do the drill and match your breathing –as you go into extension, inhale, as you go into flexion, exhale.
Are you calves/glutes sore as in a DOMS type soreness or more a “not so good, stiff, soreness”? Is this something new or constant?
There is more evidence to show that static stretching POST training is not as bad, but I would still sub in mobility work at a slow speed and work the opposite motions of the game to restore balance to the body. I also like vibration drills—bounce very lightly and initially slowly on your heals while getting the rest of your body to relax –arms hand like jello. This can be done inbetween heavy sets in the gym or during a game. Watch swimmers before they fly off the platform–they do the same thing–very floppy, relaxed but as soon as the gun goes off—wham, they are fly off the platform instantly. Athletics is the abiilty to contract AND relax FAST. This can be taught! The less general tension an athlete has at rest, most of the time they are much stronger during a movement.
Let me know how it goes!!
Rock on
Mike N
Haha yea, I figure I already had the capability to do so, and loosening up the hips and ankles, my body realized it’s full capability to jump. And yes, please do add my quote as a testimonial, I’d be honored lol.
If you watched a lot of Eric Cressey’s work, he uses a foam roller for t-spine mobility. What do you think of that, and how do they stack up against the t-spine mobility drills in z-health? And if the z-health ones are more effective, do you have any idea why they don’t incorporate them?
The calves/glutes sore is more of a DOMS type soreness. And it’s something relatively new, I started doing a lot more glute activation and now my quads don’t get as sore and my glutes get it. I figure that’s a good thing lol. I will try the vibration drills, I have the neural warmup cd and that is shown in that. I never noticed swimmers using vibration, that’s actually pretty cool. So initially move slowly on the heels, and later when I get good at relaxing, start moving faster?
I also had another question about glute activation. My right glute has never fired the same as my left, and it’s been this way for the past 5 years or so. The only injury I can think of is that I ruptured my achilles on the right side. I read that a sprained ankle can impair glute function, and I think this may be what it is? I don’t see any muscle size difference between the left and right glute, but I just can’t get the glute to fire on its own. It can contract, but when i apply force through my heel, it’s more hamstring and I find my lower back tends to kick in. Have you ever seen this before with anybody? I would like to start doing the outside toe pulls, but I’ve pretty much given up on getting my right glute to fire at this point. I just wanted to know if you had any input on it.
Sorry for the long post, but thanks for everything
Foam Roller for t spine from Eric Cressey
I have used that one in the past and it works pretty well. I do like athletes to follow up to that one without the foam roller so that they can active move their t spine with the help of another object. It does help them get the feel of it though. In the R Phase, the position 1 on the floor shown works pretty good too.
As to why Cressey Performance has not used them, I dont’ know. Perhaps they do and it is just now shown on a video. I know EC went through the basic R Phase cert a few years ago. You would have to ask him and I am sure there is a reason.
Sore glutes in general is a good thing! Work the vibration drill shown on the Z health Neuro Warm Up and make sure your upper body is relaxed.
I have seen many same side ankle injuries shut down a glute as a protective mechanism. Please refresh my memory if I sent you the glute drills for ankle? If not, I can email them to you. Did the outside toe pulls help?
Try this video out for a glute test – just make sure that the athlete starts the test (that is you) and that the person testing does not press on the joint
http://www.youtube.com/user/MikeTNelson#p/u/8/GRgUhGt79h0
In person, I have only met about 2 glutes that I have not been able to get to fire up. If the above does not help, there are a few other things to try also.
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by MikeTNelson: Humping a Foam Roller Solves Everything (and funny vid) http://su.pr/2lmjhu…
Mike. Great post. Can you please forward this on to every PT you know? Because I certainly will…keep up the great work and I wish I had discovered your blog sooner.
Thanks for the very kind words Roderick. Feel free to sign up to the RSS feed, forward it, get them on my newsletter and we will then take over the world! Whooo hahahahaha.
I am planning to listen to your podcast coming up soon too. Everyone should check out his blog too at http://www.movementscience.wordpress.com
I look forward to more comments from you here
rock on
Mike T Nelson
I still like the notion of foam rolling and stick massage pre during and post workout. Initially I didn’t understand the benefits of this work but now I beleive it is much deeper that just releasing tension. I think we need to understand the neurological component of the fascia and the ability to activate muscles. The next chapter is begining in the research of fibromalgia relationship to the dysfunction of the facia contribution to muscle pain. As this unfolds I think we will understand fascia implications on performance.
Brya
Thanks for the comments. Everything you do either makes you better or worse. I am not a fan of constant foam rolling–that means you are probably not doing the correct exercises (or how you are doing them needs to change).
Agreed that fascia is very interesting, but it will respond to stress just like any other tissue; so the stimulus is key.
Thoughts?
Rock on
Mike N