I received a vibrating foam roller for Christmas, at my request, because I love and swear by foam rolling. Every evening I spend twenty to thirty minutes foam rolling. I know that the research doesn’t support it as a preventative technique, but my body says something entirely different. I know that if I don’t roll daily, shin splits, calf knots and ITband issues are headed my way within about two weeks and if I’m doing a lot of road running (because it’s winter and the mountain lions come closer to the city at the same time I am running alone) I will have issue within a few days.

I first heard about the vibrating foam roller last Christmas but couldn’t bring myself to put the money down when my trusty regular roller was working just fine (and still is). Anyway this year it was under the tree. So what do I think about it? Well, I have to say it is fun to roll on and my two and a half year old daughter loves to roll on it too. The one featured above is about $70.00 on Amazon and very similar to what I have been using. I don’t think I am sold on this as being better than my trusty regular roller. The foam on it is very very hard and has left bruises on the outside of my legs every time I use it. That’s my biggest complaint about it. It works fine for what it is but it doesn’t work any better than the one I have. It won’t wear out as quickly as a foam roller that is actually made of foam (mine is not it’s plastic wrapped with a contoured foam).

I do put my full body weight on the roller, other than having a hand to balance on. Perhaps if you used less pressure, then you would avoid the bruising. Really my other roller has left bruising in the past too when I have a very large knot but it hasn’t been a consistent thing. I feel like I get the best results with a high pressure slow roll. If you are considering one, perhaps get one with a 30 day return option or borrow one from a friend for a few weeks.

Roll on! Run Happy!