Do you have a muscle floss but don’t know how to use a voodoo floss effectively? Do not worry; we got it covered. Voodoo flossing or muscle flossing is used to mobilize soft tissue with a latex rubber band, like an elastic band used for occasional compression, either using energy or without energy.
As you proceed, you will find steps to use a voodoo floss to improve hip mobility, floss the forearms, wrists, shoulders, and knees, and increase ankle flexibility and mobility.
The muscle floss bands are used to restrict blood flow by wrapping the elastic bands on the ends and the joint. Most of the time, voodoo bands are used to recover from injuries that cause tissue stiffness and maintain proper blood flow.
Different types of exercises that you can do using the voodoo floss band are:
- Squats
- Lateral Lunge
- Hand movement exercises
- Leg movement exercises
There are different ways to use voodoo floss. Let us look at a few of the methods on how to use a voodoo floss:
To floss the forearms and wrists
- Wrap the floss band starting from your wrist and stop just below your elbow. Use about 50 percent tension while wrapping the latex rubber band.
- Then wrap the band backward, starting from just below your elbow to your wrist.
- Tuck this end inside the band with the other end.
- To warm-up, move your hand up to your shoulder. Imagine that you are weight lifting. Make sure to touch your shoulder. Repeat this motion 30 times.
- Extend your arm and bend your wrist. Try to hold it for a few seconds and then relax. Repeat this 15 times, and do not move your shoulder.
- Repeat the previous exercise, but this time your hands need to touch the floor. Sit on the floor with your hands and knees touching the floor. Swing forward and backward slowly and repeat this 15 times.
- You can do this to ease elbow pain.
To floss your shoulders:
- For this step, you will need someone to wrap the band for you. Rest your arm on that person’s shoulder and ask her/him to wrap the floss band around your shoulder starting from one end, and it should be tight enough so that you feel pressure on your shoulder.
- Extend the arm and move it up and down, do this 15 times.
- Keep your hand straight. Now move it as close as possible to your chest and move it back to the starting position and do this 20 times.
- For this, you will need a stick. Place each hand on the ends of the stick. Now move the stick over the head to the back and from the back, over your head, bring it back in front of your body. Repeat this 20 times as well.
- Like the movement above, move the stick over the head and hold in behind the head by bending your elbow and then repeat this ten times.
To improve hip mobility:
- Wrap the latex rubber band around your thigh, starting with one end. Do not put too much pressure on the thigh.
- Tuck the other end inside the band with the previous end.
- Rock the leg that is wrapped with the band back and forth. Repeat this leg movement 20 times.
- Swing this leg from the floor to the side. Repeat this 20 to 30 times.
- Now do squats ten times or less.
- Do five reps of lateral lunge make sure that there is a shoulder-width gap between your legs.
- Now repeat this using the other leg. Do not forget to maintain the shoulder-width gap or a little more than the shoulder-width.
To floss your knees (mainly for knee pain):
- There are three ways you can wrap the compression band, depending on the type of knee pain. One is to start around the knee and up to the thigh; the other way is to wrap the band above and below your kneecap. The third is to wrap it below the kneecap.
- Now perform 25 squats or more. Keep in mind that there is a shoulder-width gap between the legs.
To increase ankle mobility:
- Start wrapping from the middle of the foot and your ankle. Skip wrapping the heel. Wrap the compression band tightly to put pressure but not too tight.
- To warm up, try rotating your ankle clockwise and anticlockwise. Do this for about 60 seconds.
- With your heels touching the floor, gradually raise the toes up and slowly bring them back down; continue to do so for about 30 seconds.
- Imagine you are using a jumping rope; hop for at least a minute.
For all these workouts mentioned, remember not to take more than 2 minutes to complete each workout. Do it for 2 minutes, take the voodoo floss band off, and rest. Then you can do the range of motion all over again.
Some benefits of voodoo flossing include:
- It helps Improve hip mobility.
- It helps Improve ankle mobility.
- It helps with knee pain and elbow pain.
What does voodoo floss do?
Surprisingly medical communities do not precisely know how voodoo floss works. But we know that it increases mobility for a short period of time with the help of a mobility tool and does not break up scar tissue. You can use it to floss for soreness, mobility, muscle flexibility, knee pain, and elbow pain.
Final Words:
The voodoo floss band is an essential recovery tool that helps improve flexibility and mobility when you perform a range of motion. Using the voodoo floss is not a challenging task, but it is essential to know how you should wrap the voodoo floss band so that the recovery tool works effectively. You need to put pressure on the body part using the voodoo floss band, but it should not be wrapped too tight to stop the blood flow.
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