Foam rolling: benefits, protocol, and scientific evidence with David Behm | EP#141

Professor David Behm has published multiple studies on the topic of foam rolling. In this interview he gives a complete overview of the scientific evidence in foam rolling and its practical implications in terms of protocols, use cases and what sorts of benefits triathletes can expect from foam rolling.

• The benefits of foam rolling for triathletes and athletes in general.
• Foam rolling and its impact on range of motion and recovery.
• Protocols for foam rolling: when should you roll and how much is needed?
• Different rollers: do you really need a hard and painful roller?
• A summary of the scientific evidence on static stretching

3:19 -

• David is a researcher at the Memorial University in Canada.
• He comes from an American football background. 
• David has published over 220 peer reviewed articles on topics relating to how muscles respond to acute and chronic activity. 
  • These include resistance training, stretching and foam rolling.

3:58 -

• We've published about 14 papers in the area of foam rolling, and we have 2 more upcoming. 
• Throughout my career I've often seen new devices being used in training and often wondered if they worked or not. 
• I've done research on instability resistance training, e.g. swiss balls, mobility balls etc. 
• About 10 years ago I walked into a weights room and saw people using foam rollers. 
  • Once again I wondered 'do they actually work?'
• We've done a few studies on the effectiveness of foam rolling now and we've found:
  • Almost every study shows an increase in range of motion. 
  • Even 5 seconds of rolling can increase range of motion, but typically 30-60 seconds would be better. 
  • There's not a great increase in performance but some studies show improvements in acute performance. 
    • This has not been found in chronic activity from our longitudinal study though.
  • We've seen decreases in pain with foam rolling.
  • We've also seen change in cortical spinal excitability and reflexes.
  • We've also done work on how intense the rolling should be. 
• Overall, most of the studies show some form of positive results. 
  • There are a few studies that haven't shown an increase in range or motion, but this is probably 2-3 out of around 30. 
  • Only 5% are not showing an increase in range of motion, and that's with a number of different muscle groups.
• We've shown increase in range of motion in the hamstrings, the quadriceps, the plantar flexors. 
• We will soon be submitting an article which shows you can foam roll your quadriceps and hamstrings and then see a global response.
  • E.g. your shoulders will then have an increased range of motion. 

8:07 -

• Foam rolling is definitely recommended for triathletes and endurance athletes because you have an acute increase in range of motion
• A lot of the research we've done has shown that prolonged static stretching can impair performance if you train after static stretching. 
  • We don't see this with foam rolling. 
• Especially for triathletes who don't need an extravagant amount of range of motion, this technique is ideal.
• In a study we hope to publish soon we found that in soccer, ​foam rolling in the half time period can be beneficial. 
  • Previous studies have shown that sitting around in this half time period can have a detrimental effect on performance in the second half. 
  • If you foam roll during this period, we found those detriments did not occur during the second half. 
• In another study we looked at basketball players.
  • Second string players sit on the bench for 10-20 minutes before going into the game. 
  • They lose all the positive effects of the warm up. 
  • We had people do a warm up, and then roll for 30 seconds every ten minutes after that. 
  • The individuals who did this, maintained their increases in range of motion. 
• We have also found some performance enhancements. 
  • We found improvement in the neuromuscular efficiency during the lunge action.
    • To do this we measured the electrical activity of the muscles when someone lunged, then rolled the muscles, and then we re-measured the activity. 
  • We found less electrical activity after they rolled, suggesting they don't need as much muscle activation to do the same activity and are thus more efficient. 

10:58 - 

• We've investigated foam rolling as part of a warm up and found that to be effective.
• We've also looked at foam rolling as a strategy to attenuate or decrease delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).
  • In studies we would induce DOMS, and then examine the subjects at 24, 48, 72 hours later. 
  • We looked at changes in muscle soreness, inflammation and performance. 
  • We found that when a person has a really hard workout and has induced damage from the exercise, there's performance decrements. 
  • But if you roll afterwards, there will be less pain, less inflammation, and the performance impairments are decreased. 
• It's important to roll before and afterwards.
• Regarding static stretching, we've recently published two studies in this area:
  • If you stretch for a prolonged period (i.e. more than 60 seconds) in isolation as a warm up then you're likely to have impairment. 
  • However, doing static stretching as part of a full warm up (e.g. 5 minutes of aerobic activity, then 60s stretching, then sport specific activity) doesn't impair performance.
    • The dynamic activities counter act possible decrements from static stretching.
• You can static stretch after, but I would not recommend extensive or high intensity stretching after you workout. 
  • Your muscles are fatigued. 
  • If you have fatigued muscles, and you're putting them under high stress there's the possibility you can injure them. 
  • Low intensity stretching after a workout may be better to accelerate recovery and move the metabolites out of the muscles quicker.
• If you really want a significant increase in range of motion, it should be a separate stretching session. 
  • You're fresh and you can focus on the stretching. 

15:20 - 

• We've found the minimum you can do to see increase in range of motion is 5-10 seconds.
  • 10 seconds is better than 5. 
• It seems that between 30-60 seconds of rolling gives the best results. 
• Typically we've used a 1 Hertz frequency, meaning we go down the muscle for 1 second then back up the muscle for 1 second. 
  • This has been found to be effective. 
• We haven't looked at whether rolling the IT band is effective, but I would imagine it should have some effect. 
  • This is because of what's known as thixotropic effect. 
    • E.g. Imagine you have a bottle of ketchup, you open it and try and pour and nothing comes out. 
    • You shake the bottle and then try to pour again and it comes out. 
    • The reason it didn't come out the first time is because it was highly viscous - thick and dense. 
    • When you shook it up you added stress and strain to the liquid, which is the thixotropic effect. 
    • It decreases the viscosity of the liquid to make it more fluid like.
  • When you are rolling your muscles and connective tissue, you're adding stress and strain to those tissues.
    • They will experience this thixotropic effect, decrease the viscosity of the fluid in the tissues and allow you to have a greater range of motion. 
• Which muscles groups you roll will depend on your sport. 
  • What you would typically do for stretching in order to increase range of motion, you would roll.

27:55 - 

• Performance Health is a company in the US that sells foam rollers and other rehabilitation equipment. 
  • They have information on proper technique and studies you can read. 

• ​Podcast episodes and blog posts on strength training
• Performance Health website

Connect with David Behm

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Hi! I'm your host Mikael,

I am a full-time triathlon coach and an ambitious age-group triathlete. My goal is podium at the Finnish national championships within the next few years.

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