An acute bout of foam rolling of the biceps brachii does not affect upper extremity sensorimotor function: a...

To investigate the effects of single session foam rolling of the biceps brachii on upper extremity sensorimotor function including elbow proprioception, strength, and functional motor performance in healthy individuals.

Sixty healthy participants (mean age = 21.53 ± 2.80 years) were randomly assigned into the foam rolling group (FRG, n = 30) (mean age = 22.10 ± 2.98 years) (a single session of foam rolling to the biceps brachii muscle) or control group (CG, n = 30) (mean age = 20.97 ± 2.52 years) (no application). Proprioception [joint position sense (JPS) with an inclinometer, force sense (force reproduction) with a hand-held dynamometer], muscle strength (biceps brachii muscle strength with a hand-held dynamometer), and functional motor performance [modified pull-up (MPU) test, closed kinetic chain upper extremity stability (CKCUES) test, and push-up test] were evaluated. Evaluations were done before and immediately after the single session application in a pretest-posttest design. We used the Student t-test to investigate between-group differences and we used the χ2 test for dichotomous data for analyses. We determined the significance level as p < 0.05.

JPS (p_45°=0.70, p_60°=0.80, p_75°=0.09), force sense (p = 0.63), and muscle strength (p = 0.11) did not change after the single session of foam rolling (p > 0.05). Foam rolling did not affect the functional motor performance test (p_{CKCUES-average}=0.78; p_CKCUES-score=0.66; p_CKCUES-power=0.89; p_MPU=0.10; p_push-up=0.97) results (p > 0.05).

Single session foam rolling of the biceps brachii has no effect on upper extremity sensorimotor function including elbow proprioception, strength, and upper extremity functional motor performance.

Clinical Trials- NCT03516149 (Date: 24/04/2018).