Foam rolling is a proven performance tool.

Maybe not as much as the companies selling them want you to think. But still effective.

It can increase range of motion before activity (great injury prevention).

And if done consistently for over 4 weeks, it can improve your range of motion over time.

But when it comes to recovery and reducing soreness, the research is more mixed.

Personally though, I back it.

I find jumping on the roller a few times a week helps knock out the kinks you get from training and life.

But I’ve never used it as a sleep tool…

See foam rolling is like a massage.

So (when done at the right intensity) is quite relaxing.

In fact, there’s research that measured peoples' heart rate variability before and after rolling.

And found foam rolling can shift us from a sympathetic (fight/flight) to a parasympathetic (rest/recovery) state (!)

Another study showed participants had:

• 😧 Lower anxiety
• ‍😥 Lower cortisol (stress)
• 😃 Boost of serotonin
  

Which can all help us get to sleep and sleep better.

So, 5 mins of foam rolling. The takeaways:

• 🔥 (Combine it with dynamic stretching) for a good warm-up tool‍
• 🗓 Do it consistently for a month and there's some longer-term range of motion benefits on offer
• 😴 Can get you into relax mode for better sleep
  

P.s. That last study also looked at the effects of massage. If anyone knows how to be a participant in future massage studies, please let me know 🙋 😂