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Recovery: New tools: percussive and vibrating massage
The use of percussive and vibrating massage kit can speed recovery and improve health outcomes for health club members, as Frances Marcellin discovers
Percussive therapy helps prevent aches and pains, reducing muscle tension in seconds. It also increases mobility, range of motion and blood flow, to reduce soreness, tightness and pain. In addition, it can assist with accelerating the repair and growth of tissues post-workout.
After exercising, for relaxation or recovery, we recommend a minimum of two minutes per muscle or area. It’s around the two-minute mark that your central nervous system desensitises and relaxes, or ‘melts’ into recovery.
Most people don’t realise that tension headaches starts from the upper chest, then go through the shoulders and all the way around to the upper back. The way I treat tension headaches is by using my Theragun, starting on my biceps, working up to my shoulders, down onto my chest, and then finishing on my trapezius. Then I work backwards on the same muscles, moving the tension away from the head.
I always use the Theragun to relieve shoulder pain. Often, the tension that we feel deep in our shoulders, which sometimes manifests as a sharp pain on the front of the shoulders, comes from the subscapularis and teres major muscles. These are best accessed through the armpit. One of our Theragun design features – the ergonomic multi-grip – makes it easy to access and treat this area.
Theragun is also good for the feet. They’re the wheels we use daily, and our brain receives constant information and stimulus from them that helps navigate life. Using the Theragun through the day on your feet, even over your shoes after a workout, will rejuvenate your feet and make your whole day feel lighter.
Theragun pioneered a field of recovery known as percussive therapy which works by delivering a combination of targeted deep-tissue massage, at a high-speed frequency, with sufficient force.
Every Theragun reaches 16mm into muscle, increasing bloodflow and supporting the body’s ability to repair. Each device touches and retracts away from the body 40 times per second, a calibration that distracts the brain from pain while delivering treatment.
Percussive therapy has benefits beyond tension relief, including hydrating muscle tissue, improving mobility, decreasing lactic acid levels, increasing bloodflow, and decreasing muscle soreness and stiffness.
I personally enjoy using our targeted and full body vibration technology for recovery, in between sets of strength exercises or cardio intervals. This gives a rapid recovery flush to reduce lactic acid levels and optimises active rest time.
Applying vibration immediately after a workout can also contribute to recovery. This can be done actively – where a stretch is performed on the Power Plate or our hand-held tool is used directly on and around the area being stretched – to increase blood flow to the tissues during movement.
It can also be done passively, so vibration is applied directly in passive positions where the body and muscles are completely relaxed. This increases local blood flow and lymphatic drainage to remove waste products.
When combined with simple breathing techniques, it can also upregulate the nervous system’s ‘rest and digest’ response, in order to place the body in an optimal state for regeneration to occur. Choose the areas and muscles that have been used or fatigued during the session or simply those with tension and soreness.
The final application is daily self-care, from reducing DOMS pain and stiffness from yesterday’s workout, to easing tired muscles after being in fixed postures at work.
Power Plate’s vibrating surface forces the body to not only fight against gravity but also fight against vibrations, meaning working out on a Power Plate activates up to 138 per cent more muscle fibre when compared to a standard workout.
Tiny vibrations flowing through the body also enhance the delivery of nutrients and oxygen to cells and supporting their function.
Whole-body vibration was first developed as a way to reduce bone loss and muscle atrophy in astronauts exposed to zero-gravity, so working out on a Power Plate increases bone loading and density.
When it comes to recovery, putting painful areas on top of the Power Plate to absorb the vibrations can bring relief, as the vibrations increase bloodflow, helping shorten muscle recovery times.
We’re increasingly being educated on the importance of recovery and the options are more advanced than they’ve ever been. Gym members can elevate their recovery through many traditional methods, such as stretching and mobility flows, but we also now have new tools to use as well.
Our massage gun range – Hypervolt – directs pulses of pressure into muscle tissue, which helps to promote blood flow to targeted areas. This can help to reduce muscle tension and inflammation. Designed to help people move better, it aids muscle relaxation and releases the fascia.
Our vibration technology, Vyper – a vibrating foam roller – and Hypersphere, a vibrating massage sphere, both elevate the relaxation benefits of traditional rolling with the muscle activation benefits of high-intensity vibration.
Vyper pulses with short bursts, helping avoid pressure on the spine and other sensitive areas for a more comfortable roll. The Hypersphere also pinpoints targeted areas. Products are a low-maintenance, high-tech solution to moving better and are best used as a warmup tool and for recovery post-exercise both in the gym and at home.
Percussion therapy helps improve muscle contraction by lengthening and strengthening muscles and fascia and improving the flow of blood and lymph, thereby carrying more oxygen and nutrients to muscles.
The result is a speeding up of recovery, improved range of motion and the relief of pain, muscle fatigue and soreness.
The percussions – or blows – force the body’s connective tissue to relax, also reducing pain and improving range of motion, which can lead to a reduction in injuries.
