The following Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Lehman.

Do foam rollers really work? I own a foam roller. Every fitness facility I've visited in the last

three years has hosted a large arsenal of foam rollers, lacrosse balls, and other instruments

of facial torture. The crossfitter community has 2.3 per capita. I hear K-star sleeps on a bed

made of lacrosse balls with foam rollers for pillows.

Everyone and their grandma has one.

I'm not even joking.

I saw a group of track-suited seniors doing some kind of synchronized foam-rolling routine in the park recently.

The things are everywhere.

And you can certainly spend an inordinate amount of time rolling around on the things,

causing all sorts of painful sensations that should, in theory, help you.

But does it really help?

As I mentioned earlier, I have one.

I've used it and I think benefited from it.

But it hurts.

It's pretty much the most unpleasant thing you can do, not just because of the pain,

but also the tedium. It had better be worth the trouble. So what does the science say? What foam

rolling seems to do really well is increase range of motion without harming performance. Foam rolling

the calves works better than stretching the calves before a workout,

increasing ankle range of motion, very important for squats and other athletic movements,

without impeding performance.

Stretching increased angle range of motion slightly more, but it also lowered performance. Foam rolling increased performance.

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