Acute effects of two different foam rollers on range of motion.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine if differences existed between the effects two different foam rollers had on hip and shoulder ROM. Ten college students participated in a random cross over design study. Participants' hip and shoulder ROM were measured with a goniometer pre and post three different condisions: control, Supernova (SN), and Grid. The first session consisted of taking pre ROM measurements followed by 10 minutes of rest and post ROM measurements (control). Then the participants were familiarized with the foam rolling procedures that were used for the next two sessions. During the next two sessions the control trial procedures were repeated, except instead of resting between pre and post testing the participants foam rolled using one of the foam rollers. Repeated measures ANOVA followed by protected dependent t tests revealed that significant (p<.05) differences existed between control and SN, control and Grid, but not between SN and Grid (p>.05). Effect sizes revealed that when comparing mean differences from pre to post for SN and Grid: a large effect was seen for shoulder extension (d = -.80) in favor of SN, moderate effects were observed for shoulder flexion (d = -.05) in favor of SN, hip flexion (d = -.62) in favor of SN, and hip abduction (d = .57) in favor of Grid. When compared to control, both foam rollers acutely improved hip and shoulder ROM to a greater extent, and both foam rollers yielded similar improvements to ROM.