Stretching and relaxing the myofascia can not only prevent sports injuries, but also enhance sports performance, voltrx massage gun can help you. Older people actually need to maintain and activate the myofascia, however, older people need to be more careful than younger people in stretching and relaxing the myofascia!
In the past few years, we have been understanding more and more about myofascia, and slowly we have built up the right concept. We used to think that myofascia only needs to be stretched, and then we added the concept of massage, and finally if we add myofascial strengthening training, especially focusing on improving the elasticity of myofascia, if we can do all three aspects, then myofascia can be kept healthy.
However, there is another problem with myofascia is aging. If you have never done maintenance and training for myofascia before, then myofascia will slowly become less and less elastic over time and more and more prone to injury and inflammation, so many elderly people with myofascia problems come to the clinic and often say: I do the same thing, how can I not get pain and inflammation before? In fact, the problem is that the action is the same, but your myofascia has already aged and become brittle and weak. Therefore, activation and relaxation of myofascia is a very important issue, so let’s look at myofascial problems from the perspective of the elderly!
The common problem of myofascia in the elderly is the deterioration of elasticity. Possible causes include: lack of stretching or exercise, which leads to shortening and tightening of the myofascia, or insufficient hydration, which leads to dehydration of the myofascia. Many clinical conditions are caused by myofascia becoming brittle and stiff, and the more common problems are as follows.
Plantar fasciitis: The myofascia at the back of the calf connects to the Achilles tendon and then wraps around the heel to become the plantar fascia extending all the way to the toes. If special efforts are not made to stretch this section of myofascia from the calf to the bottom of the foot, then the plantar fascia will become tighter and tighter, eventually leading to inflammation
Stiff neck and back pain: From the head, neck, back, buttocks to the back of the lower limbs, as long as there is a certain part of the myofascia is too tight, it may lead to stiffness and pain in the shoulder, neck and back, and even, spinal degeneration and long bone spurs are often co-existing with the problems of these fascia or as a result of each other.
Tennis elbow: Overuse of the muscles on the front side of the arm or too tight fascia can increase the tension of the tendons on the front side of the arm, leading to inflammation at the point where the tendons meet the bones of the elbow, which is called tennis elbow.
Myofasciitis around the knee joint: The knee joint is often the earliest joint to begin to degenerate in older people because the degeneration of the knee joint leads to chronic inflammation, and the inflammation of the joint makes the muscles around the knee joint tight and stiff, including the quadriceps on the front and outside of the thigh, the popliteus on the back of the knee fossa, and the muscles on the upper part of the rear calf. These muscles are tight because it hurts to bear the weight of the joint when walking, and the muscles do not have enough strength to share the weight of the body, so the muscles have to become very stiff, so stiff that it is like a knee brace, but the excessive stiffness of the muscles will produce pain and inflammation, so the degenerative knee joint, as long as the time is long, often combined with very serious myofascial pain problems.
Myofasciitis around the hip joint: As above, the hip joint is also the same as the knee joint, and the surrounding muscles, including the gluteus and iliopsoas muscles and the adductor muscles, will also be accompanied by degenerative hip arthritis together with myofascial pain problems.
So, what are the appropriate ways to relax myofascial muscles in the elderly? Which methods are not suitable?
Generally, the common ways of myofascial relaxation are stretching, roller, peanut ball, myofascial gun, freehand massage, etc. Under normal circumstances, these ways of myofascial relaxation are possible, however, because the skin and blood vessels of the elderly are more fragile, the force of massage should not be too large, and stretching should never be forced.
It is recommended to do active stretching, not passive stretching, that is, as much as possible with their own strength or weight to do stretching, this is called active stretching, because there is often a situation is, when the stretching class, the coach or students are too eager to help stretch out, often a pressure on the fascia to tear, or joint dislocation and so on. Therefore, unless you are a medical professional, do not let others help you stretch because it is very easy to strain or even lead to misalignment or slippage of joints, etc. The most unwelcome is spinal slippage.
Are there any benefits of myofascial relaxation for the elderly?
Myofascial relaxation can maintain the flexibility and elasticity of the fascia, which makes it less prone to injury or painful inflammation of the tendons. The recommended stretching for the elderly must be done without injury, so try to choose a more stable movement and one that does not cause increased pressure on the joints.
What should I pay special attention to when doing myofascial stretching and relaxation for the elderly and mature people?
The parts that should be avoided with a fascial gun: The parts that are more likely to be injured include the spinal nerves and blood vessels, therefore, the spine in the middle of the body, the head and face should not be hit with a massage gun. People who have arthritis problems in their wrists or finger joints are not recommended to use the fascia gun to relax, because the vibration force of the gun may make the joint inflammation become more serious.
If you want to stretch these parts, you should be careful, and it is better to stretch on your own rather than passively, that is to say, don’t let others help you to pull and press the spine, it is better to stretch within the range you can do, and not to have pain during and after stretching.
About roller relaxation: For older people, rollers are not suitable for relaxing the lumbar muscles because the lumbar spine is already relatively unstable, plus the trunk strength of older people is weaker, so if rollers are used to roll the lumbar muscles, it will often cause greater pushing pressure on the lumbar spine, which may lead to serious lumbar spine slippage, and conversely, people with lumbar spine slippage are not recommended to use rollers to relax the lumbar muscles.
After the stretching and relaxation: Since older people are more prone to postural hypotension, remember to stay from lying to sitting and from doing to standing for a while, so as not to feel dizzy before you can stand up, and remember to drink more warm water afterwards.
Myofascial relaxation is something everyone needs to do, and people of all ages can maintain their health through myofascial relaxation, they just need to find the most suitable myofascial stretching and relaxation and training methods, as long as they can maintain the flexibility of myofascial, it can reduce many musculoskeletal joint system damage and slow down the degeneration, the benefits are actually very much, but it takes time to do, and must be done continuously. This will prevent myofascial aging or rejuvenate the aging myofascial!
