While ice baths and saunas may be the talk of social media, there’s still much to be said for simpler (and cheaper) approaches to recovery: cue the humble foam roller.
Many gym-goers swear by these self-massage tools and they’re still a mainstay for professional athletes. Pre and post-workout rolling sessions are employed to soothe tight spots in the body and ward off delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS, for short). Some use simple pressure points to work out muscles and some come with the added benefit of vibration, helping to loosen tension in the body.
As for the science, the exact way foam rollers work is still up for debate. But a meta-analysis published in Frontiers in Physiology reported that warming up with one was “an effective strategy for short-term improvements in flexibility without decreasing muscle performance”. Foam rolling after lifting weights was also found to reduce DOMS in a (admittedly, small) study published in the Journal of Athletic Training.
Beyond this, foam rollers are fairly portable, practical and affordable. So, if you’re looking to step up your recovery game without splashing an inordinate amount of cash, a foam roller could make a great addition to your gym bag.
How we tested
The beauty of a foam roller is that it really doesn’t matter when you use it. We tried out the following foam rollers both before and after workouts as a way to warm up muscles and reduce aches. We also whipped them out after runs (anything from 5km to 15km) to prevent soreness.
We focused mainly on rolling out our quads (lying in a forearm plank position with the roller under our quads), hip flexors (in the same plank position), calves (sitting on the floor with our legs extended, foam roller under calves, and using our arms to lift our body weight up onto the roller) and hamstrings (also sitting on the floor with legs extended, this time with the foam roller under hamstrings).
The best foam rollers for 2024 are:
- Best foam roller overall – Therabody wave vibration foam roller: £125, Therabody.com
- Best non-vibrating foam roller – Trigger point the grid foam roller: £33.29, Sportsshoes.com
- Best quiet vibrating foam roller – Compex ion: £111.99, Amazon.co.uk
- Best two-in-one foam roller – Lululemon double foam roller: £48, Lululemon.co.uk
- Best for powerful vibration settings – Mypro x Pulseroll – the vibrating foam roller: £120, Myprotein.com
