Why you should use your foam roller to warm up
When it comes to your warm-up, the foam roller could be better than dynamic stretching
YOU’RE probably already familiar with using the foam roller as a recovery tool but recent research suggests that it could also be a valuable addition to your warm-up. A Taiwanese study compared the effect of static stretching, dynamic stretching and foam rolling in a warm-up on subsequent mobility and force output. In terms of mobility, the foam roller ran circles around the other two, with significantly greater range of motion measured in the quads, hamstrings and hip flexors. Rolling matched dynamic stretching in enhancing force production, but since the goal is to optimise both mobility and strength prerun, the researchers deemed foam rolling superior overall. For maximum benefit, do both: then you’ll be ready to roll.