Time Course of Acute Hip Adduction Range of Motion Changes Following Foam Rolling.
Anthony D'Amico, Kevin Silva, Joseph Gallo
PMID 33842038WHAT IT FOUND
Foam rolling the IT band increased hip adduction range immediately and at three minutes.
By ten minutes it no longer differed from the control walk, so plan any range-dependent task right after rolling.
Key findings
01Foam rolling produced greater hip adduction ROM than the control condition immediately after treatment and at three minutes.
02No difference was reported at ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes after treatment.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Only healthy adults were studied, so it does not show what foam rolling does for people with IT band syndrome or lateral knee pain. The study measured hip adduction range, not pain or IT band syndrome outcomes. Participants were not blinded to whether they received foam rolling or the control walk. The reliability of the tape-measure Ober's test was not assessed in this study. Only one foam rolling dose was tested: three 20-second bouts with 20-second rests. Only the IT band area was rolled, but nearby tissues such as the tensor fascia lata, vastus lateralis, or biceps femoris may have been affected. The exact time when the increase disappeared was not known because measurements were taken at three and ten minutes, not between them. The study only followed changes for twenty minutes, so it does not show lasting effects.
Declared interests
The authors reported no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that foam rolling provides lasting hip adduction range improvement or treats IT band syndrome. The difference was reported only immediately and at three minutes, not at ten minutes, and the study did not test pain or people with IT band syndrome.