Context: Understanding if roller massage prior to a run can mitigate fatigue-related decrements in muscle force production during prolonged running is important because of the association between fatigue and running-related injury.
Objective: The authors investigated whether a bout of roller massage prior to running would (1) mitigate fatigue-related increases in vertical average load rate and free moment of the ground reaction force of running and (2) mitigate decreases in maximal countermovement jump height.
Design: Repeated-measures study.
Setting: Laboratory.
Participants: A total of 14 recreational endurance athletes (11 men and 3 women) volunteered for the study.
Interventions: A 12.5-minute foam roller protocol for the lower extremities and a fatiguing 30-minute treadmill run.
Main outcome measures: Vertical average load rate, free moment, and maximal jump height before (PRE) and after (POST) the fatiguing treadmill run on separate experimental days: once where participants sat quietly prior to the fatiguing run (REST) and another where the foam roller protocol was performed prior to the run (ROLL).
Results: A 2-way multiple analysis of variance found no significant differences in vertical average load rate, free moment, and jump height between PRE/POST times in both REST/ROLL conditions.
Conclusions: The authors concluded that recreational endurance athletes maintain running mechanics and jump performance after a fatiguing run regardless of prerun roller massage and may not rely on prerun roller massage as a form of injury prevention.
Keywords: fatigue; myofascial release; running injury; running mechanics.