When we were sent a vibrating foam roller to review, I couldn’t really visualise it. Would it have bits on it that vibrated, or would the whole thing vibrate? How can you roll something that vibrates? What’s the benefit of it?
First things first, I looked at the website:
www.pulseroll.com and it all became a bit clearer. It’s a mesmerising website as the the rollers actually do vibrate on there. After watching this for a while (honestly, try it) I read up a bit about what the roller does and what the benefits of the vibration are.
Many runners now own a foam roller. Let’s be honest, the key reason for having a foam roller is because most of us can’t afford to go for a massage all the time but we want to stay injury free and recover from our runs. It’s a quick, easy and cheap way to keep those aches and pains at bay. Done right (and many of us probably don’t) it’s supposed to perform myofascial release around the muscles.
Pulseroll doesn’t claim to do anything particularly different to a standard foam roller - its aims are to speed up recovery, reduce muscle pain, increase blood flow and help heal injuries. Standard foam rollers do this with pressure, but with Pulseroll it’s the combination of pressure and vibration that’s the key.
My first impressions of the product were that it looks like a decent quality, firm foam roller. It’s easy to charge up and very easy to use. There are four settings, for different levels of vibration. You don’t use it exactly like a normal foam roller, in that you position your quad/hamstring/calf etc on it, roll to find a trigger point, then hold on it and let the vibration do its work. After 10 - 30 seconds you then roll a bit more, to the next trigger point and hold.
To start with it’s a very odd sensation. My dog didn’t really enjoy the noise either. But we both got used to it quickly and actually, it feels really nice. The experience is that mix of quite soothing and a little bit painful. I used it on a particularly knotty bit of hamstring and it definitely helped it.
Whether the vibration element makes it any more effective than a standard roller I don’t know. This wasn’t a scientific experiment. But it added another dimension and it felt good, so it made me foam roll more consistently. It also does a bit of the work for you, as you don’t have to wiggle around on the roller, inflicting pain on yourself. I’m a fan and I’ve kept using it.
You can find out more, including videos and sample exercises on their website here:
www.pulseroll.com
