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Acute Effects of Foam Rolling on Range of Motion in Healthy Adults: A Systematic Review with Multilevel Meta-analysis

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Abstract

Background

Foam rolling (FR) has been demonstrated to acutely enhance joint range of motion (ROM). However, data syntheses pooling the effect sizes across studies are scarce. It is, furthermore, unknown which moderators affect the treatment outcome.

Objective

To quantify the immediate effects of FR on ROM in healthy adults.

Methods

A multilevel meta-analysis with a robust random effects meta-regression model was used to pool the standardized mean differences (SMD) between FR and no-exercise (NEX) as well as FR and stretching. The influence of the possible effect modifiers treatment duration, speed, targeted muscle, testing mode (active/passive ROM), sex, BMI, and study design was examined in a moderator analysis.

Results

Twenty-six trials with high methodological quality (PEDro scale) were identified. Compared to NEX, FR had a large positive effect on ROM (SMD: 0.74, 95% CI 0.42–1.01, p = 0.0002), but was not superior to stretching (SMD: − 0.02, 95% CI − 0.73 to 0.69, p = 0.95). Although the few individual study findings suggest that FR with vibration may be more effective than NEX or FR without vibration, the pooled results did not reveal significant differences (SMD: 6.75, 95% CI − 76.4 to 89.9, p = 0.49 and SMD: 0.66, 95% CI − 1.5 to 2.8, p = 0.32). According to the moderator analysis, most potential effect modifiers (e.g., BMI, speed or duration) do not have a significant impact (p > 0.05) but FR may be less effective in men (p < 0.05).

Conclusion

FR represents an effective method to induce acute improvements in joint ROM. The impact of moderators should be further elucidated in future research.

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Data Availability Statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sports Medicine, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

    Jan Wilke, Anna-Lena Müller & David G. Behm

  2. Department of Preventive and Sports Medicine, Institute of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

    Anna-Lena Müller & Florian Giesche

  3. School of Human Kinetics and Recreation, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NF, Canada

    Anna-Lena Müller, Gerard Power & Hamid Ahmedi

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  1. Jan Wilke
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Correspondence to Jan Wilke.

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Jan Wilke, Anna-Lena Müller, Florian Giesche, Gerard Powers, Hamid Ahmedi and David Behm declare that they have no conflicts of interest relevant to the content of this review.

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Wilke, J., Müller, AL., Giesche, F. et al. Acute Effects of Foam Rolling on Range of Motion in Healthy Adults: A Systematic Review with Multilevel Meta-analysis. Sports Med 50, 387–402 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-019-01205-7

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