i’m having a few probs with hamstring tendonitis and am thinking about getting a foam roller, in the past i’ve just used some drain pipe and rolling pins which did do the trick, but wondered if anyone had any views on them and whether its worth spending 30 odd quid on something like a trigger point or just a tenner of so on a moremile or siimilar ebay jobbie?

Get a good one and at least 90cm long – I have two. a smaller one which I bought first but limits the exercises I can do for my back.

Makes a world of difference –
Tight IT band causes issues with my knees
Use it for my glutes as again helps with the lower back problem

I have a soft cheap one and a pricey solid one with knobs on.
The soft one is actually better as it deforms and gets right in the nooks and crannies. The other is OK but I’d probably just get some large drain pipe as the knobs seem inneffective and save a load of money.
Make a peanut too (2 tennis balls taped together)

There is little evidence to indicate foam rollers work. Its a bit like stretching.
For runners stretching was not been proven to help avoid or recover from running related injuries however not a running or injury related thread goes by without often several posters suggesting it is the answer.

i want to find out what people think of rollers that they have bought. please don’t take the thread off topic, thanks.

There is little evidence to indicate foam rollers work

Absence of evidence is not the same as evidence of absence.

I have a cheap foam roller from Argos I have used since developing IT band issues and it’s use has coincided with a return to being able to run more than a mile without pain, up to 8 at the moment with no issues. There is no evidence of causation as there won’t be with any such account as far to many other variables that cannot be controlled come in to play.
Bottom line is that for a tenner you can try one. I believe there is little evidence to suggest that they are likely to do you any harm.

I use a section of drain pipe with a piece of an old foam sleeping mat taped around it, seems to do the job on my ITB.

I have a basic foam roller, I think it’s the 90cm one. I’m not a massive fan to be honest. I find it quite hard to get any decent pressure on the hamstrings. Conversely it can be hard to get just the right amount for other areas. I don’t like it much for the lower back either, again too indirect to target the right bits.

Got a set of these recently and find them much better, even if they do look ridiculous. I find them much better for working on a specific area and more controllable.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CCPNDWI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

Started on cheap foam, and now have a smaller solid knobbly one. Not sure if you get more used to it as you use them but I’m struggling to get them to be deep enough anymore. Have been thinking about some cricket balls in a sock. Thy should be agony….

cheers all. sorry for the grumpy post earlier btw, bit rude. good job i deleted what i was going to post as part of the reply!

anyhow found a 30% off voucher for moremile so at just over a tenner i’m going to try one of their knobbly’ish ones and see what happens. the drain pipe i was using definitely did help with my achillis tendonitis.

I believe there is little evidence to suggest that they are likely to do you any harm.

If thats your criteria then you must spend a lot of time and money on snake oil.

Loads cheap in TK Maxx

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I made a sort of foam roller thing out of a 2litre pop bottle and a £1.99 Morrisons doormat.

A post shared by brant (@shedfire) on Mar 8, 2015 at 2:38pm PDT

Golf ball works very well, or even a cricket ball!
http://www.physioroom.com/product/PhysioRoom.com_Elite_Foam_Roller_15cm_x_45cm/3385/39363.html

cheap and I find it works really well.

Massive difference for me on my back when I started using one. Also used religiously for a double leg break.

They come very recommended by me.

Using foam rollers is like any massage session – you need to start slow /warm up first. If you go straight into a hard/knobbed one you tense up and get nowhere.

e.g. for my IT band I start off with 20 rolls on soft before using the firm one.

£10 Soft (aka poor quality and went soft in weeks)
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2386399.htm

£15 Firm
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2179207.htm

Doing my IT’s and calf’s makes a huge difference to me.

There is little evidence to indicate foam rollers work. Its a bit like stretching

i couldn’t ride without one.
i started with a cheap one about 5-6in diameter and now have a smaller one to up the pain factor. they are just white foam a bit like the packing for small electrical goods but they are only just showing some compression in the middle from a few years of use.

I have one, my wife swears by it. It hurts, it really does but she has certainly seen some benefits for some general runners niggles. Admittedly, this may all be in her head but either way, it works for her.

Its a bit like stretching

So without Yoga (aka sophisticated stretching) I’d be unable to exercise due to lower back pain, this absence of evidence you mention – can you provide the references?

Or is it a case of false logic?

I got a knobbly one called “The Beast” – I fn hate it on my calf’s and the bullock’s don’t like it much either – Dadum Tish! IGMC.

If thats your criteria then you must spend a lot of time and money on snake oil.

Sorry it was a reference to your comment and your lack of understanding regarding evidence. It seems you simply don’t understand the complexities of producing evidence in regard to such matters. I spend a great deal of my time running clinical trials meetings where huge amounts of money are spent over many years and still definitive conclusions can be difficult to draw. As I said, because I do understand, my use of a foam roller coincided with the elimination of pain in my ITB. I of course made no claim as to it having been the cause of that outcome. Sorry I just hate lazy and half thought out statements even though I fully accept you are correct to say that there are few if any proper trials that have examined any of this. A mayor problem is that you can hardly introduce a placebo and run it as a double blind study.
High Horse now back in the stable surfer 🙂

can you provide the references?

You want references to things that dont exist?

Sorry it was a reference to your comment and your lack of understanding regarding evidence

even though I fully accept you are correct to say that there are few if any proper trials that have examined any of this.

So you accept there is no evidence?

It seems you simply don’t understand the complexities of producing evidence in regard to such matters

I probably do but because a great deal of variables are involved that doesnt seem to stop people making claims. The lack of evidence doesnt seem to concern either them or you when they are advocating their use. By your own criteria you are happy to spend time and money on one which by definition means you will do the same for any remotely related hocus pocus. Hardly scientific is it 🙂

By your own criteria you are happy to spend time and money on one which by definition means you will do the same for any remotely related hocus pocus. Hardly scientific is it

i wonder if i laid some healing stones on my leg from my glute down to my knee and lit an incense stick it would do the trick?

Aldi had them in last week for about £8. Can’t vouch for them being any good but for that price it may be worth a punt if you are roller-curious

Worked very well for me, but I don’t know what my problem was or if it was the same as yours 🙂

One rolling session and my persistent acute run-limiting pain was completely gone – for about 6 months, then it needed another session or two per year.

There is little evidence to indicate foam rollers work

They may not work for all the things people claim; they may not do anything in most cases, but it sure as hell worked for me. However as said, I don’t know what was actually wrong with me. I’m not talking about a bit of an improvement, I’m talking about limping home after 3 miles to running 5 with no pain.

Foam rollers are really useful for helping people learn to swim!
I wasted ages foam rolling before I realised it was doing very little to alleviate my issues. I even progressed to using a drain pipe and Olympic bar on my quads as a foam roller had no affect in me after a while.

It can feel nice in certain body parts but as for long term effectiveness?

Look into active isolated stretching.