Today brings the use of a gun massager to massage and relax the quadriceps muscle on the front side of the thigh. This muscle is the largest muscle group in the body. It consists of four heads: the lateral femoral muscle, located on the outside of the thigh, the rectus femoris muscle, located in the front of the thigh, and the medial femoral muscle, located deeper, and part of it is the medial femoral muscle, located on the inside of the thigh. The quadriceps is the only muscle group that crosses our knee joints, and its role is mainly responsible for knee extension.
In the daily running process, when going up the stairs, our front thigh muscles are used very frequently, and when we do some squatting exercises, it is a joint action with our gluteus maximus. Therefore, the quadriceps and gluteus maximus, they complement each other to make us on the ground to produce a lot of movement. When we use the fascial gun for the relaxation of these muscles, we have to use the fascial gun separately because the quadriceps is very large.
Relaxation of the quadriceps
We will first deal with the lateral head of the quadriceps on the outside of the thigh, then its rectus femoris, and finally the medial head of the quadriceps.
When getting the fascial gun, turn the gun on to the middle position. Then gradually go from the upper end of the thigh towards the knee joint to complete the relaxation, close to the knee joint but not touching the knee joint position. Because the knee joint is where the muscles are thinly attached, excessive hammering can cause discomfort to the joint. During the whole relaxation process, there is a painful point at the distal end of the quadriceps, so we can confine the fascial gun to this area and complete the relaxation of the fixed point for about 30 seconds with small movements to eliminate this painful point.
Once the lateral quadriceps is released, we will continue to use the fascia gun to target the elongated rectus femoris. This is done from a position close to the hip joint and gradually towards our hip joint. The whole process should be done perpendicular to the quadriceps muscle fibers, from the proximal end to the distal end, and we will stay in the area of the painful points if there are any during this process.
Once the muscles in the middle of the thigh are released, the inner thigh is then massaged and relaxed with the fascial gun. Since the inner thigh is not particularly long, we can only release the lower part of the thigh. If there is an agonizing pain point here, the same is done for a short stay in the area, and a good release of the entire medially oriented part of the quadriceps is done.
Relaxation of the iliotibial bundle
The next step is to use the fascial gun to release the iliotibial bundle. The iliotibial bundle is a sensitive part of the lower limbs. In layman’s terms, the pain in the iliotibial tract is stronger when massaging and relaxing, so we should consider carefully when choosing the massage head of the fascia gun, and generally use a flat massage head first.
When using the fascia gun to massage and relax the iliotibial tract, one hand should hold the position of the upper thigh bone, the purpose of doing so is to prevent the fascia gun from directly hitting the bone, and then use the fascia gun against the edge of our hand. Gradually work from the outer thigh side towards the knee joint to complete this muscle massage. The iliotibial bundle is then struck evenly and slowly vertically from the head, completing a certain amount of combing from the proximal to the distal end. During the combing process, we use the amplitude to adjust the intensity of the fascial gun strikes, and this time to complete the corresponding relaxation of the iliotibial bundle of the human thigh.
In people who like to run a lot the iliotibial bundle is inclined to be overly tight, so if you are a runner who likes to exercise, then your thighs iliotibial bundle must be combed regularly. Otherwise, the iliotibial bundle will rub against the bone, causing pain on the outside of the knee when running.
Hamstring relaxation
The muscle group at the back of the thigh is the hamstring. It is divided into two large sections, the biceps femoris, which grows to the lateral side, and the semitendinosus and semimembranosus muscles, which grow on the posterior medial side of the thigh.
It sounds like it has a total of four parts of it to the top in the sciatic tuberosity position and to the bottom across our knee joint. The hamstrings correspond to the quadriceps muscle on the front side of our thigh. In our daily lives, we hook our calves and perform some quick movements, the hamstrings and quadriceps need to work together to complete the movement.
Many soccer players are very prone to strain the hamstrings when he runs fast because the tension of the hamstrings is not proportional to the quadriceps. The hamstrings are usually a relatively tight part of the hamstrings, and in everyday life the hamstrings are relatively tight, you will find that when we bend over to pick something up, there is a very strong stretch in the back of the thigh, that means that your hamstrings are relatively tight, and this is when we need to use a percussion massager to relax here.
