Recently, the concept of massage gun has become popular in the sports world. More and more people know that to stretch, relax and strengthen the massage gun can not only prevent sports injuries, but also improve sports performance. However, the elderly actually need maintenance and activation of the massage gun. However, older people have to be more careful about stretching and relaxing the fascia than younger people!
In the past few years, everyone has learned more and more about massage gun, and gradually everyone has established a correct concept. In the past, it was thought that massage gun only needs to be stretched. Later, the concept of massage was added. Finally, if the intensive training of massage gun is added, In particular, it focuses on improving the elasticity of the fascia. If these three aspects can be done well, the massage gun can maintain health.
However, in fact, there is still another problem with massage guns, which is aging. If you have never done maintenance and training for massage guns before, then massage guns will gradually become less and less flexible over time and become more and more prone to injury and inflammation, so Many elderly people who have problems with massage guns come to see a doctor, and they often say: I do the same thing. I used to have no pain or inflammation. In fact, the problem is that the action is the same, but your massage gun has already aged and has become brittle and weak. Therefore, for the silver-haired family, activation and relaxation of massage gun is a very important topic, so let us look at the problem of massage gun from the perspective of the silver-haired family!
A common problem of the fascia of the elderly is the deterioration of elasticity. Possible reasons include: lack of stretching or exercise, which causes the fascia to become shorter and tighter. It may also be due to insufficient water supplementation, which leads to dehydration of the fascia. Many diseases in clinic are caused by the brittleness and hardening of massage gun, and the more common problems are as follows:
Plantar fasciitis: The muscle fascia on the back of the calf connects to the Achilles tendon, and then bypasses the heel to become the plantar fascia extending to the toes. If there is no special extension of the massage gun from the calf to the sole of the foot, then the sole of the foot The fascia will become tighter and tighter, eventually leading to inflammation
Stiff neck and back pain: As long as a certain part of the massage gun from the back of the head, neck and buttocks to the back of the lower limbs is too tight, it may cause stiffness and pain in the shoulders and necks. Even the long bone spurs of the spine often follow these fascias. The problems coexist or cause each other.
Tennis elbow: Excessive use of the muscles on the front of the arm or too tight fascia will increase the tension of the tendons on the front of the arm, causing inflammation at the junction of the tendon and the elbow bone. This is called tennis elbow.
Massage gunitis around the knee joint: The knee joint is often the joint that is most likely to degenerate in the elderly, because the degeneration of the knee joint leads to chronic inflammation, and the inflammation of the joint will make the muscles around the knee joint tight and stiff. The muscles include 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 half of the hind calf. These muscles are tight because the joints are painful when walking and the muscles do not have enough strength. To share the weight of the body, the muscles have to become very stiff, as hard as knee pads, but excessive stiffness of the muscles will produce pain and inflammation. Therefore, as long as the degenerative knee joint takes a long time, it is often combined with a very serious massage gun. Pain problem.
Massage gun inflammation around the hip joint: Same as above, the hip joint is also the same as the knee joint. The surrounding muscles include the gluteal muscles, iliopsoas muscles and adductors, etc., along with degenerative hip arthritis, massage gun pain can also occur.
So, where are the silver-haired people suitable for relaxing the massage gun? Which methods are not suitable?
The common fascia relaxation methods of the general ethnic group include stretching, roller, peanut ball, fascia gun, freehand massage, etc. Under normal circumstances, these fascia relaxation methods are all possible, but because of the elderly’s The blood vessels of the skin are relatively fragile, so the massage force cannot be too strong, and it must not be forced to stretch the muscles.
If you choose to use a roller to relax, it is recommended to use a softer foam roller. If you want to do fixed-point reinforcement on certain tight parts, it is recommended to use a softer peanut ball. It is less recommended to use something that is too hard or has a small contact area, such as a golf ball. If you use a massage gun, it is also recommended to use a massage head with a lower intensity and a larger contact area.
It is recommended to perform active stretching instead of passive stretching, that is, try to use your own strength or weight to stretch. This is called active stretching, because there is often a situation where the coach or classmates are too enthusiastic to reach out during stretching classes. Helping to stretch, often tearing the fascia or dislocation of the joints when pressed. Therefore, unless you are a professional medical staff, do not let others help you stretch, because it is very easy to strain, and even cause joint dislocation or spondylolisthesis. The most unhappy opinion is spondylolisthesis.
Is there any benefit for the elderly to relax the fascia?
Fascia relaxation can maintain the softness and elasticity of the fascia, and it is less prone to injury or inflammation of the muscles and bones. It is recommended that the stretching of the elderly must be done on the premise that there is no injury, so try to choose more stable movements and choose movements that are less likely to increase joint pressure. Therefore, stretches that can be done while lying down should be done as much as possible.
For older and mature people, when doing fascia stretching and relaxation, what should you pay special attention to?
Parts to avoid with fascia gun: The more vulnerable parts include spinal nerves and blood vessels. Therefore, do not use massage guns to hit the spine, head and face in the middle of the body. For people with arthritis in the wrist or finger joints, it is not recommended to use the fascia gun to relax, because the vibration force of the fascia gun may make the joints more inflammatory.
Regarding stretching: The more problematic parts are the stretching of the cervical spine and lumbar spine. If you want to stretch these parts, you must be careful. It is best to stretch independently, not passively, that is to say, don’t let others help you to pull or press. For the spine, it is best to stretch as much as you can, and you should not be able to experience pain during or after the stretch.
Regarding the roller relaxation: For the elderly, the roller is not suitable for relaxing the waist muscles, because the lumbar spine is inherently unstable, and the trunk strength of the elderly is relatively weak. Therefore, if the roller is used to roll the waist muscles, it is often It will cause a relatively large pushing and squeezing force to the lumbar spine, and severely may cause lumbar spondylolisthesis. Conversely, people with lumbar spondylolisthesis are not recommended to use a roller to relax the waist muscles.
After stretching and relaxing: Because the elderly are more likely to have postural hypotension, remember to stay for a while from lying to sitting, and to stay for a while from standing. You can stand up without feeling dizzy, and remember Drink plenty of warm water after the end.
Massage gun relaxation is something that everyone needs to do. People of all ages can use the massage gun to relax to stay healthy. They just need to find the most suitable massage gun method for stretching, relaxation and training, as long as they can maintain the massage gun. Elasticity can reduce the damage of many musculoskeletal joint systems and delay degeneration. There are actually many benefits, but it takes time to do it, and it must be done continuously, so as to prevent the aging of the massage gun or make the aging massage gun. Rejuvenation!
