Vibrating Foam Roller: The Latest Buzz About TriggerPoint’s GRID Vibe

GRID Vibe Foam Roller from TriggerPoint*

What It Is: TriggerPoints’s GRID Vibe is a foam roller that vibrates for faster, more effective exercise recovery and better mobility. It’s great for muscle relaxation and circulation too.

What You Might Not Know: The vibrating version is designed to look just like the signature GRID foam roller, but it’s shorter and smaller in diameter. In fact, it’s just slender enough (3.5 by 12 inches) to slide right into the middle of the hollow original GRID.

Feelin’ the Love: The vibrations help relax muscles and reduce pain while you roll, making it perfect for exercise recovery (a growing trend in fitness right now). Although I’ve always relied on the original TriggerPoint GRID foam roller to release pesky tight spots (see my review of it here), I’m going on record to say the vibrating one is my favorite—at least for calming my persistently tense muscles.

Because of the oscillations, I’m able to slowly roll over sore spots with less pain than when I use the non-vibrating GRID. In fact, you don’t really need to roll all that much with the GRID Vibe—the vibrations do the job for you to some extent. But you shouldn’t rule out rolling altogether.

As it happens, the more chill your muscles feel, the more receptive your body is to foam rolling and the longer you can tolerate it. The idea is to vibrate over a tender area for about a minute to get loosened up; then roll. According to TriggerPoint, the GRID Vibe is best for the calves, glutes, hips, lats, quads and spine.

Even though I’ve picked favorites, I think it’s still good to have both versions of the GRID. The Vibe has all the same little nubs, flat parts and finger-like bumps as the original, so you could use it as just a foam roller sans vibration.

Unlike the hollow original foam roller, the middle of the GRID Vibe is filled with whatever causes it to buzz. That, and the fact that it’s skinnier, makes it feel firmer and, in my opinion, less comfy to roll over when the power is off.

But… Eureka (!): When I place the vibrating foam roller—power on—inside the hollow foam roller, I get the best of both worlds and perhaps even a softer vibration. However, this hack does create a weird rattling noise that worries my dog. Also, I haven’t seen TriggerPoint officially recommend this mashup.

If I Could Change One Thing: The vibration is set to one frequency only: 33 hertz. I find this fine for my hips, glutes and legs, but it’s hedging on too much shake when I use it closer to my head for lats and mid-back. In a perfect world, I wouldn’t mind a second setting to tone down the intensity when desired. UPDATE: New versions of the GRID Vibe offer four vibration frequencies. 

Should You Buy It? Definitely. Exercise recovery is a big deal right now in the fitness industry because it can do a lot to improve your exercise performance and overall health. The GRID Vibe is part of this trend. It’s compact, easy to use and runs on a two-hour rechargeable battery so you just need to periodically plug it in.

For a closer look at how this vibrating foam roller functions, watch the short video exercises on TriggerPoint’s website. You can unlock access to more online exercise vids with your purchase.

The GRID Vibe foam roller goes for $99 USD at tptherapy.com or Amazon.