Effects of Foam Rolling on Range of Motion, Peak Torque, Muscle Activation, and the Hamstrings-to-Quadriceps Strength Ratios

Abstract

Madoni, SN, Costa, PB, Coburn, JW, and Galpin, AJ. Effects of foam rolling on range of motion, peak torque, muscle activation, and the hamstrings-to-quadriceps strength ratios. J Strength Cond Res 32(7): 1821-1830, 2018-To examine the effects of foam rolling (FR) on range of motion (ROM), peak torque (PT), hamstrings-to-quadriceps (H:Q) ratios, and muscle activation. Twenty-two recreationally active women (mean age ± SD = 21.55 ± 1.82 years, 161.91 ± 6.58 cm, 61.47 ± 10.54 kg) volunteered for this study. Participants performed pre- and posttests analyzing PT and surface electromyography (EMG) of their dominant limb, completing maximal knee extension and flexion at 3 different velocities. Participants foam rolled the hamstrings muscles or sat for the control condition between the pre- and posttests. Hamstrings ROM increased in the FR condition from (mean ± SE) 123.23 ± 3.49 to 126.41 ± 3.62° (p < 0.001) and decreased in the control condition from 118.82 ± 4.25 to 117.95 ± 4.29° (p = 0.013). Concentric hamstrings PT and conventional H:Q ratios decreased after both conditions, with smaller decreases after FR (p ≤ 0.05). No significant changes were found for eccentric hamstrings PT, eccentric hamstrings EMG, or functional H:Q ratios (p > 0.05). Foam rolling resulted in greater changes in hamstrings ROM without creating a deficit in PT or muscle activation when compared with the control group. When compared with other methods of stretching, FR may be beneficial in increasing ROM without decreasing functional H:Q ratios.

Acute and chronic effects of foam rolling vs eccentric exercise on ROM and force output of the plantar flexors

“…This is in agreement with several studies that have reported no effect of self-massage on performance (Abels, 2013;Behara & Jacobson, 2017;Halperin et al, 2014;Healey et al, 2014;Jones et al, 2015;MacDonald et al, 2013;Mikesky et al, 2002). Whilst decreases in peak knee flexor torque was reported following FR of the hamstrings by Madoni et al (2018), impairments were similarly observed in a control group (no intervention) and thus no negative effect was concluded. Plantar flexor performance was evaluated in two of the aforementioned investigations.…”

“…Foam rolling (FR) is a self-massage technique demonstrated to be an effective means for increasing ROM Cheatham, Kolber, Cain, & Lee, 2015). Furthermore, several studies have reported that selfmassage does not negatively influence physical performance (Behara & Jacobson, 2017;Halperin et al, 2014;Healey, Hatfield, Blanpied, Dorfman, & Riebe, 2014;Jones, Brown, Coburn, & Noffal, 2015;MacDonald et al, 2013;Madoni, Costa, Coburn, & Galpin, 2018;Mikesky, Bahamonde, Stanton, Alvey, & Fitton, 2002). Two interventions have sought to determine the influence of self-massage on dorsiflexion ROM.…”

The Parameters of Foam Rolling, Self-Myofascial Release Treatment: A Review of the Literature

“…In shorter times, a few authors also obtained positive results [24,27,65]. In recent studies there is a tendency to roll a few groups of muscles called "regions", one after another [54,69,31,22,35,39]. Also Cheatham et al divided the quadriceps muscle into two zones [8,11].…”

“…It may be caused by adding up benefits of therapy of a few regions that are lying close to each other. Especially the methodology described by Madoni et al [39] is worth citing. The authors divided hamstring groups into three sections.…”

“…The first is made up of studies in which the authors used a single rolling set [8,10,16,19,22,24,29,33,38,45,53,55,57,59,68,69,73]. In the other studies, the values 2, 3, 4 and 5 appeared with similar frequency, with three rolling sets being the most commonly chosen option [3,5,15,23,26,35,39,46,57,62].…”