August 2026
Jeroen Mattheus, Physiotherapist
Foam Rolling Before or After Training: What Does the Research Actually Say?
What is foam rolling?
Foam rolling involves using your bodyweight to apply pressure to an area of the body using a cylindrical roller.
It's often described as a form of self-myofascial release to reduce stiffness and work muscle knots out of their muscles, or improve recovery after exercise.
It’s common to see people foam roll before or after their gym workout or team sports. Most athletes do this on their main muscle groups (Quadriceps, Hamstrings, calves, Glutes and back)
This blog will talk about whether there are any benefits to do this, what place it has in your pre or post workout, and discuss any misconceptions about foam rolling.
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Benefits of foam rolling?
Studies show that pre-exercise rolling produces small improvements in sprint performance and flexibility/range of motion, while post-rolling was associated with small effects on aspects of recovery.
Foam rolling does not seem to have detrimental effects on performance, which is very important to people wanting to do this before they start doing their sports.
When should I do my foam rolling? Before or after training?
Should you foam roll before training?
If foam rolling helps you feel less stiff or temporarily improves a movement you need for training, there is reasonable evidence to support using it. The clearest potential benefit is a short-term increase in flexibility or range of motion. That may be useful before activities where you feel restricted.
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A weightlifter might find their squat feels more comfortable after briefly rolling their calves or quadriceps.
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A runner may prefer a short bout of calf rolling before beginning an active warm-up.
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A footballer may use a roller because their legs feel less stiff before running drills.
The key point is that the effect appears to be acute. Foam rolling immediately before training shouldn't be confused with creating permanent or long-lasting mobility changes.
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Does foam rolling before exercises reduce strength or power?
One reason foam rolling became popular in warm-ups was the idea that it could increase flexibility without substantially reducing subsequent performance. Research generally supports that.
Systematic reviews haven't found meaningful overall reductions in strength, sprinting or jumping performance following typical foam-rolling protocols.
This means athletes who enjoy the temporary mobility effects can generally include foam rolling in a warm-up without assuming they're sacrificing their performance.
This also means that foam rolling shouldn't be considered a shortcut to becoming stronger, faster or more powerful. Its most useful role before training is likely helping some people feel and move more comfortably before they begin the active part of their warm-up.
Foam rolling shouldn't be your entire warm-up
This is where a useful tool can become an unnecessary ritual. Before you know it, you've spent twenty minutes foam rolling your muscles before you finally start your training.
You might feel more mobile in your body, but it doesn't adequately prepare you for the physical demands of sport or training on its own. Depending on the sport you practice, you might include running drills, accelerations, and more sport-specific movements in your warm-up rather than purely rolling out your muscles.
How long should you foam roll before training?
There's no scientifically established perfect duration that applies to every person, body part and activity.
A practical approach is to try approximately 30–60 seconds on a relevant area, then reassess the movement you're trying to improve (for example, a squat).
If the movement feels noticeably better/easier after foam rolling, this may be a useful part of your warm-up. If nothing changes, spending another ten minutes aggressively rolling the same area will not change much.
Should you foam roll after training?
After training, the objective is different, as you are foam rolling to feel less stiff, relax and recover better. There is some evidence that foam rolling after exercise may modestly reduce delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS).
This is the typical stiffness 24- 48 hours after a physical exercise. It might make you feel better, but it’s not a wonder tool. If nutrition, rest and sleep aren’t taken into account, foam rolling will not increase your recovery time.
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Misconceptions about foam rolling
Does foam rolling actually “release” fascia or muscle knots?
Fascia is strong connective tissue linking muscles and bones with each other so they can collaborate to do complex movements such as running or throwing.
After applying pressure on a local tender spot in your muscle, it may feel less sensitive, and movement may feel easier, but that doesn't necessarily mean you've physically removed a knot.
Research suggests we can’t loosen or lengthen or break apart this strong fascia, no matter how much pressure we put on it. Even though you might feel more flexible after foam rolling for a short time, this doesn’t necessarily mean the tissue itself has been mechanically remodelled.
There are various hypotheses why this might feel better after, ranging from a different perception of pain, to an increased blood flow or a change in how your nervous systems responds. The exact mechanisms remain an area of research.
Does foam rolling flush out lactic acid?
This is one of the most persistent exercise myths. Delayed muscle soreness isn't caused by lactic acid remaining trapped in your muscles. During intense exercise, lactate production increases, but lactate is subsequently processed and cleared relatively quickly.
The soreness you experience one or two days after unfamiliar or demanding exercise isn't simply old lactic acid sitting inside the muscle waiting to be squeezed out.
This soreness is the outcome of training where you have damaged muscle cells, and the body is busy replacing these damaged cells with new ones. The liver and kidneys are great at processing and removing metabolic waste from your muscles without having to roll them out.
Can foam rolling prevent injuries?
There isn't good evidence showing that foam rolling by itself prevents sporting injuries. Injury risk is complex and depends on many different factors such as:
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Having sustained a previous injury
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Strength
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Training exposure
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Sport-specific conditioning
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How well you are recovering (nutrition, sleep and rest)
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Age
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Competition demands
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Hydration
Foam rolling may temporarily improve range of motion or make you feel more comfortable before exercise. That doesn't justify the much stronger claim that it will prevent injury.
If injury prevention is your goal, preparing your body for the demands of your activity is considerably more important than simply spending more time on a roller.
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What if foam rolling really hurts?
There's a strange culture around foam rolling where more pain is sometimes considered better. More pressure doesn't automatically create a greater benefit. If your goal is to temporarily change stiffness or range of motion, using tolerable pressure is more sensible than trying to crush the area.
Foam rolling vs stretching or massage guns: which one is better?
There is no big difference between the two. Both can both produce short-term improvements in range of motion. But if neither makes any meaningful difference to you personally, you don't need to perform either simply because they're part of somebody else's routine.
Massage guns are essentially fancier foam rollers. There is some evidence suggesting that percussive therapy may acutely influence flexibility without obvious reductions in performance, but the evidence base is smaller than it is for foam rolling.
The same principle applies as for foam rolling. If you enjoy using a massage gun and it helps you feel more comfortable before or after training, that's reasonable. But don't assume that the device is physically breaking down scar tissue, permanently lengthening muscle or fixing an injury.
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Take home message
Foam rolling isn't useless, but it’s not a magic tool that will fix everything. It can temporarily improve your flexibility and your range of motion without having a negative effect on your performance. As a result, it could be beneficial to do it as part of your pre-game routine.
Post-game, it could give a decrease in how sore you actually feel. There is however no evidence that it breaks fascia, removes toxins or gets rid of your lactic acid. Prevention of sports injuries depends on so many different factors.
If you feel better after a 60-second foam roll, then do it. If you don’t notice any benefits, or the muscles keep being tight and/or painful, it might be worth checking what the actual reason is.
At Melbourne Sports Physiotherapy, our physiotherapists can assess your symptoms, strength, mobility, training demands and injury history to determine what may be contributing.
From there, we can develop an individual rehabilitation plan around what you actually need to get back to doing. Because the goal isn't to make you dependent on treatment, stretching or a foam roller. It's to help you build the capacity and confidence to train well.
Book an appointment with Melbourne Sports Physiotherapy if persistent pain, stiffness or tightness is interfering with your training.
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