Why relax the fascia and muscles?
Before introducing the massage gun, this paper first discusses the advantages of relaxing the fascia and muscles. The cause of muscle soreness after exercise is not only the damage to the muscles, but the fascia may also make the muscles sore and uncomfortable for a long time due to tightness. Therefore, in addition to stretching and relaxing the muscles, the fascia should also be relaxed after exercise, but it is usually difficult to relax the fascia through stretching and massage, It must be assisted by massage tools such as massage gun to restore the elasticity of fascia and relieve muscle soreness.
In fact, it is not only athletes who need to relax muscles and fascia. Housewives often do repetitive housework, while office workers sit in front of computers for a long time, which will lead to muscle tension, muscle soreness, shoulder and neck pain.
Principles of massage gun | Why can massage gun relax fascia and muscles?
What is the principle of massage gun ?
The massage gun mainly uses the mechanics principle of vibration to give continuous and deep pressure to the muscles and fascia, and to crush and relax the tight parts of the muscles and fascia. In the process of vibration, the temperature of the muscles will rise, the blood circulation will be increased, to achieve the effect of relaxation, accelerate the elimination of muscle fatigue and restore muscle function.
Many people have doubts that using your hands can also massage your muscles and help you relax. In fact, our muscles have high toughness and thickness. Simply massaging the muscles with the strength of both hands can only stay on the surface of the muscles and can’t effectively achieve deep massage. So that’s why we try our best to massage the sore parts to the sore hands. The next day, the pain doesn’t decrease obviously.
What are the effects of the massage gun?
The main effect of the massage gun is to relax the muscles and fascia, which can help people who exercise for a long time recover quickly from muscle fatigue and maintain athletic performance. Also, if your muscles are tight from standing or sitting for a long time, you can use a fascia gun to help your body relax.
How to use massage gun
The use method of massage gun is very simple. You only need to abide by the following three principles:
1. Choose the right massage strength
Usually, the frequency of vibration can be adjusted with the massage gun. It is recommended to select the appropriate massage intensity when massaging. As long as it is recommended that beginners use the massage gun, they should start from the lowest vibration frequency first, and feel the pain of muscle after the body adapts to it.
2. No need to press deliberately
When using the massage gun, you only need to stick it on the surface of the skin, move it up and down slowly, without special pressure, and hold the fascia massage gun not only to focus on the sore points, but also to change the angle at the right time. The muscles around the pain point can also be massaged, and the effect will be better. Because the muscles are related to each other, for example, we often bend our arms and slide the phone for too long, which will cause shoulder pain. If we use a fascia gun to massage a sore shoulder, the effect will be greatly reduced.
3. Massage one part for about 30 seconds to 1 minute
The vibration frequency of the massage gun is very fast. When massaging, you don’t need to stay in the same part for too long. When you encounter a “sore point”, you can stop for about 30 seconds to 1 minute to produce an effect. If you hit a point for too long, it will cause muscle injury and bruise.
4. Choose the right massage head
The selection of massage heads is very important. It is necessary to choose a suitable massage head according to the massaged part to achieve the purpose of soothing and safe. The following 6 types of massage heads are the most common:
- Bullet head: used for deep muscles to strengthen local pain points
- Flat round head: the largest contact area with the body, suitable for whole body muscle pushing
- Tower shape head: softly close to the body, suitable for soft tissue and muscle relaxation
- Big round head: suitable for whole body muscles
- Small round head: suitable for whole body muscles
- U shape head: suitable for the muscles on both sides of the neck and spine
When using the massage gun, avoid the following 3 parts:
1. Where bones, joints and nerves are concentrated
In the process of using massage gun, you should avoid bones, bone junctions, nerve dense parts, such as the spine, knees, elbows, etc., so as not to cause nerve and bone damage.
If the massage gun is pressed directly on the bone, there is a risk of displacing the bone. The safest place to massage is large muscles (thigh muscles, biceps of the arm).
2. Do not massage the injured part at will
If the muscle has obvious tingling, it may have been inflamed or injured; If you have an open wound on your body, please do not use the massage gun to avoid serious injury. It is recommended to seek the assistance of a professional doctor, because the effect of the fascia massage gun is to help relieve the tight muscles, not to treat muscle tissue that has been injured.
3. Avoid the neck and spine
The spine and neck are full of nerves and blood vessels. For example, there are 2 carotid arteries and 2 vertebral arteries near the neck of a person. When massaging, try to avoid these 4 blood vessels to avoid vascular damage caused by the massage gun. It may cause symptoms of arterial dissection, cardiovascular congestion and even stroke. In a word: Do not use the massage gun on the spine or neck.
What is the difference between the massage gun and other massage tools?
Before the appearance of massage gun, the most common tools are foam axis (yoga pole) and fascia ball. Both of them are static massage. Although some muscles cannot be massaging due to the limitation of tools, it takes a little more time to press them, but they can still achieve a relaxing effect.
The advantage of the massage gun is that it can be quickly massaged into the deep muscles by means of high speed vibration, and it will feel very much in a short time