• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Breaking Muscle

Breaking Muscle

Breaking Muscle

  • Fitness
  • Workouts
    • Best Shoulder Workouts
    • Best Chest Workouts
    • Best Leg Workouts
    • Best Leg Exercises
    • Best Biceps Exercises
    • Best Kettlebell Exercises
    • Best Back Workouts
    • Best HIIT Workouts
    • Best Triceps Exercises
    • Best Arm Workouts
  • Reviews
    • Supplements
      • Best Pre-Workouts
      • Best Whey Protein
    • Equipment
      • Best Home Gym Machines
    • Certifications
      • ISSA Review
  • News
  • Exercise Guides
    • Legs
      • Back Squat
      • Bulgarian Split Squat
      • Goblet Squat
      • Zercher Squat
      • Standing Calf Raise
      • Hack Squat
    • Chest
      • Bench Press
      • Dumbbell Bench Press
      • Close-Grip Bench Press
      • Incline Bench Press
    • Shoulders
      • Overhead Dumbbell Press
      • Lateral Raise
    • Arms
      • Chin-Up
      • Weighted Pull-Up
      • Triceps Pushdown
    • Back
      • Deadlift
      • Trap Bar Deadlift
      • Lat Pulldown
      • Inverted Row
      • Bent-Over Barbell Row
      • Single-Arm Dumbbell Row
      • Pendlay Row
Reviews

Product Review: Rumble Roller

Most of you have experienced the joys of foam rolling - now imagine you had a foam roller that could give you more benefit, in less time, AND last forever. Check out the Rumble Roller.

Becca Borawski

Written by Becca Borawski Last updated on April 27, 2012

We receive free products and receive commissions through our links. See disclosures page.

Any semi-serious athlete knows the joys of self-administered soft tissue work. The lacrosse ball, the tennis ball, and the foam roller are all implements of pain used in pursuit of a greater purpose. We roll ourselves around on these items with the intention of breaking up “fuzz,” liberating fascia, increasing our mobility, and enabling our recovery. The pain in the moment is worth the potential for increased performance and the possibility of injury prevention.

If you’ve used a foam roller, you are familiar with a unique kind of pain. You also know that diameter and density do indeed make a difference. Subtle changes to a foam roller can make for a different experience and different benefit in the long run and also in the present moment, mid-roll.

So, I met the Rumble Roller with mixed feelings. It looked at once amazing and frightening. Covered in large knobs, I immediately got the sense it would do me a lot of good, but not feel so good in the process.

rumble roller, foam roller, myofascial release, trigger point therapyRumble Roller claims the knobs are designed to be more like the thumbs of a massage therapist. Indeed, rolling on the Rumble Roller does feel more akin to having actual hands work on you. The height of the knobs allows for deeper penetration into the muscle, as opposed to the flat service of a stereotypical foam roller. While a regular foam roller pushes on the tissue, the Rumble Roller gives you the sensation of kneading and opening the tissues. And, it is surprisingly less painful than you imagine it would be. It did not feel any more painful to me than a regular foam roller.

The depth of the knobs also allows the Rumble Roller to navigate uneven parts of the body better than a traditional foam roller. You can position yourself to avoid grinding on bones and sensitive parts, while still digging into your muscles. Like with any foam roller, you can also decie how much weight to apply and how much surface area to affect by how you position you body.

One other benefit of the knobs is that you can move in multiple directions across them. Rather than just rolling up and down, you can move side-to-side on a muscle, as well. The knobs flex as you roll, but when you move side-to-side they are slightly less flexible and as such it’s a very easy way to ratchet up the intensity of your session. This is where the analogy of the massage therapist comes into play, as moving sideways on the knobs is reminiscent of a therapists thumb digging in.

The Rumble Roller comes in two densities, by which it is color coded:

  • Blue – original density
  • Black – 36% firmer density

I used the blue density and it was great – intense, but bearable, and felt more productive than other foam rollers I’ve used. Quite honestly, I am not sure how I would feel about the black density. I tried it briefly when I first came across the Rumble Roller earlier this year at the Arnold Sports Festival and it was intense. You might need to be braver than me, or at least have fewer active nerve endings. As Rumble Roller says on their website, the black density is “intended for users with especially dense muscle tissue that doesn’t respond to normal massage pressure.” Rumble Roller highly recommends the blue density for the vast majority of people, including professional athletes.

rumble roller, foam roller, myofascial release, trigger point therapyThe Rumble Roller comes in two sizes – 12 inches and 31 inches in length. The full-size version, which I used, is long enough that you can roll your full back, lay the length of it, roll both your legs, etc. It is six inches in diameter. The “compact” sized Rumble Roller, only 12 inches in length, would be great for travelling or for the office and has a slightly smaller diameter of five inches.

The Rumble Rollers are waterproof and latex free. Given that you may use your Rumble Roller post workout and be sweaty, it’s also nice to know the roller is molded with an antimicrobial additive to prevent growth of uninvited things. Although my Rumble Roller did off-gas for a while after I released it from its package, a week later I can no longer smell it, so just beware when it’s brand new. As Rumble Roller themselves warns in the packaging, a new Rumble Roller smells a lot like a new car. Given that the rollers are waterproof, they are simple to clean off with soap and water.

All in all, the Rumble Roller feels like a definite upgrade to a regular foam roller. While the knobs take a little getting used to, they do seem to provide added benefit. The ease with which I can clean the roller and its durability are also big plusses in my book. Overall, if you’re looking to upgrade your roller, the Rumble Roller is the way to go.

Rumble Rollers retail for $44.95 for the compact and $69.95 for the full-size and are available at a variety of stores.

Becca Borawski

About Becca Borawski

Becca found her way to a career in health and fitness through Martial Arts and CrossFit. Originally a music editor for film and television, Becca started studying Martial Arts in 2000. Though she started with traditional Martial Arts it was not long before she discovered Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and her path was forever altered. She began training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) and Muay Thai and started working with professional MMA fighters, building websites, working on fight promotions, and producing videos.

As a competitor in BJJ herself, Becca wanted to get stronger and fitter. In 2006 she discovered CrossFit and became a student at CrossFit Los Angeles. In only a couple of years she became CrossFit Level III Certified, left her career in the film industry, and dedicated herself full time to coaching. She has since been certified through CrossFit in Olympic Lifting, Powerlifting, Nutrition, Endurance and Kids coaching. She also held an NSCA-CSCS from 2006-2008 and is a certified IndoRow instructor. In addition to coaching adults, she founded the CrossFit LA Kids program in 2010 and taught children aged 5-17.

Becca regularly takes on new sports, which have included indoor rowing, fencing, and most recently, cycling, as she believes it makes her both a better athlete and a better coach. In order to reach more people with her coaching, Becca also created ModernAthena.com – a website dedicated to women in pursuit of physical fitness and self-improvement.

View All Articles

Recommended Articles

flexilexiheadline
Flexible Pants for Your Yoga Practice
triggerpointheadline
Your New Mobility Best Friend: TriggerPoint MB1 and MB5
Find Relief With the RAD Point Release Kit
dsc03671
Product Review: The SmartFlex

Primary Sidebar

Latest Articles

Justin Medeiros Walks Through a Full Tour of His Home Gym Before CrossFit Season

Powerlifter Jimmy Kolb Logs 612.5-Kilogram (1,350.3-Pound) Equipped Bench Press World Record

The Ultimate Back and Biceps Workout for Every Lifter From Beginner to Advanced

Strongman Legend Hafthor Björnsson Receives International Sports Hall of Fame Induction

Latest Reviews

ISSA Personal Trainer Certification Review

ISSA Personal Trainer Certification Review

Best Whey Proteins for Packing on Muscle, Shredding Down, Meal Replacement, and More

Best Pre-Workouts for Building Muscle, Running, Taste, and More

Best Home Gym Machines

Best Home Gym Machines

woman lifting barbell

Be the smartest person in your gym

The Breaking Muscle newsletter is everything you need to know about strength in a 3 minute read.

I WANT IN!

Breaking Muscle is the fitness world’s preeminent destination for timely, high-quality information on exercise, fitness, health, and nutrition. Our audience encompasses the entire spectrum of the fitness community: consumers, aficionados, fitness professionals, and business owners. We seek to inform, educate and advocate for this community.

  • Reviews
  • Healthy Eating
  • Workouts
  • Fitness
  • News

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS Feed

© 2023 · Breaking Muscle · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy · Affiliate Disclaimer · Accessibility · About