Effect of Acute Foam Roller and Percussion Therapy on Muscle Architecture and Muscle Stiffness

Abstract

The aim of the study is to investigate the effect of the acute application of foam roller and massage gun, which are self-myofascial techniques, on muscle architecture and muscle stiffness. 27 male athletes participated in the study. Within the scope of the study, the athletes were randomly divided into 3 groups as 1st group foam roller (FR), 2nd group massage gun (MG), 3rd group as control group (CG) and muscle architecture and muscle stiffness (MS) were evaluated as a result of acute exercise. Muscle stiffness (MS) muscle thickness (MT), cross-sectional area (CSA), and pennate angles (PA) of the subjects were measured by ultrasound. The measurement results were tested with repeated measures two-way Anova test analysis of variance in the SPSS program, and significance was accepted as p<0.05. When the measurement results of MS, PA, and MT were examined, no significant difference was observed in the FR, MG, and CG pre-test and post-test (p= 0.94). In the pretest and posttest results of the CSA of the muscle, a decrease was observed in the FR group and an increase in the MG group (p=0.03). In conclusion; shows that muscle thickness,pennation angle, and muscle stiffness do not change after acute self-myofascial relaxations and that foam roller and massage gun do not have superiority over each other. The cross-sectional area decreased after the foam roller application and increased after the massage gun.