Foam Rolling Prescription: A Clinical Commentary

Area of Science:

• Exercise Physiology
• Sports Science
• Rehabilitation

Background:

• Foam rolling is widely used for acute range of motion (ROM) improvements.
• Limited evidence exists on optimal foam rolling prescription for enhancing ROM and performance.
• Current literature often reports trivial to small performance changes alongside ROM gains.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review the literature on foam rolling.
• To provide evidence-based prescriptive recommendations for foam rolling to improve ROM and performance.
• To identify optimal parameters for foam rolling sets, repetitions, duration, and intensity.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search across PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, and Google Scholar.
• Inclusion of studies measuring range of motion, strength, jump, fatigue, and sprint variables.
• Formulation of regression correlations and predictive quadratic equations for rolling parameters.

Main Results:

• Optimal ROM improvement predicted by 1-3 sets, with 2-4 second repetition duration, and 30-120 second total rolling duration per set.
• Strength and jump performance showed generally trivial to small magnitude decreases.
• Insufficient evidence was found to generalize effects on fatigue and sprint performance.

Conclusions:

• Relatively small volumes of foam rolling can effectively enhance range of motion.
• Foam rolling demonstrates minimal to small effects on strength and jump performance.
• Further research is needed to establish definitive effects on fatigue and sprint performance.