AUTHOR
OF THE
YEAR
RESEARCH REVIEW
SELF-MASSAGE
PAIN FOR GAIN?
Foam rolling has become ubiquitous on gym floors across the land – so is all that
grimacing in the stretching corner really achieving results?
Review by Associate Professor Mike Climstein PhD & Dr Joe Walsh
Title: Is self-massage an effective range of
motion strategy? A pilot study
Authors: Dr’s Monteiro and colleagues. (Federal
University (Brazil) and Memorial University of
Newfoundland (Canada))
Source: Journal of Bodywork & Movement
Therapies (2017). 21: 223-226.
Introduction: I have two personalities
when I go to the gym to train. First, there’s
the somewhat relaxed, social persona that
trains after work. Because I’m not rushing,
these workouts are generally less stressful
and I can add extra sets/reps or cardio
time as I like. Then there’s the stressed,
antisocial neurotic who has hotfooted it to
the gym between patients, so has little to
no time for idle chit chat and must move like
a gazelle between cardio, stretching and
weights, while also ensuring there’s enough
time to shower and fly back to the clinic for
the next patient. Stressful from woe to go,
to say the least. On a positive note, using
gaps between patients to get a gym (or
swim) training session in is very good time
management. On the negative, anti-social
behaviour is never well received. Rumour
has it they think I have a split personality…
Regardless of my personality on the day,
my training regime stipulates stretching and
abs immediately following cardio, otherwise
these exercises simply will not get done.
Sounds easy enough, but over the past
year or so, my back-slab training (as I like
to refer to it) has become progressively
more difficult. Not due to my ageing or
lack or abdominal fitness, but because the
stretching zone is increasingly inundated
with people using foam rollers on every
imaginable body part! What the h*ll is going
on? Joe and I discussed this phenomenon
44 | NETWORK SPRING 2017
and he agreed that they may be being over-
used, and in many instances may not be
reaping results in exchange for the pain
and effort. Used for myofascial release, in
effect self-massage is believed to break up
adhesions on the fibrous connective tissue
(i.e. fascia) surrounding muscles. As regards
the efficacy of foam rollers, we thought this
instalment of Research Review was an ideal
place to address one aspect of this topic,
gains in flexibility.
We are all aware that joint function and
muscle flexibility is important for athletic and
physical performance, and to some degree
reduces the risk of injury. Therefore, any
technique or method that can potentially
enhance joint function and flexibility is
worthy of investigation, and that is exactly
what Dr Monteiro and his colleagues did
as they compared the effectiveness of
self-massage foam rolling versus self-roller
massage on hamstring flexibility.
Methods: As this was a pilot study (a
small scale preliminary research project)
there were only 10 participants, all of them
young (average age 27 years) healthy males,
free from musculoskeletal injury or pain. The
researchers used a randomised, counter-
balanced cross-over design, meaning that
all subjects completed all four of the self-
massage interventions, which consisted of:
• foam roll ing for 60 seconds
• foam rolling for 120 seconds
• roller massage for 60 seconds
• roller massage for 120 seconds.
The foam rolling was completed by the
participants sitting with their dominant leg
hamstrings on top of the foam roller (from
Foam Roller Brazil) and their non-dominant
leg relaxed (hip and knee flexed, foot flat on
the floor).
Participants then rolled themselves with
CEC
ARTICLE