The history of Foam Rollers. Foam rollers are cylindrical tubes that usually feature bumps or ridges so people can massage themselves or reduce soreness using them. Moshe Feldenkrais, an Ukrainian-Israeli engineer and martial artist invented them in the 1920s to decrease knee pain and improve his athleticism.
He became known for the Moshe Feldenkrais method, a type of exercise therapy used to reorganize connections the brain and body. In September of 1933, he even met Jigoro Kano, the father of judo in Paris, founded the French Judo Federation, and would later help work on improving sonar technology during World War II.
In 1987, Feldenkrais's student, Sean Gallagher began to use foam rollers and helped Broadway dancers adopt them. In the 1990s, US physiotherapist Mike Clarke would help popularize them when talking about his technique of Self Myofascial Release leading to their popularity in the weight lifting world. This would eventually lead to an increase of their popularity, cumulating in the first US patent of the foam roller in 2004.