Floss Bands – For Muscle Compression – Mobility and Recovery
If you lift heavy, you will probably develop some tendinitis eventually. This happens when you have to grip barbells and dumbbells, or when you’re doing pull-ups, lat pulldowns, and other pulling exercises. These floss bands support the muscles and connective tissue, and they have helped me heal faster from some intense Tennis and Golfer elbow.
Gripping and tendinitis
For many years I had been lifting and doing calisthenics without any problems; however, I hired an online personal trainer to try out his muscle and strength building system. Well, in a nutshell, his style of lifting was quite different from mine. After 12 weeks I could barely bend my left arm or hold anything. No amount of stretching was helping, and massage provided only temporary relief. Frankly, I’d forgotten the importance of rest and recovery.
The challenge that most people eventually run into is first developing grip strength, and then losing pace with grip strength versus the larger muscles involved in heavy lifts. For example, if you are doing really heavy barbell rows, at some point your hands and forearms will simply not be strong enough to keep up with your larger back muscles. The harder you grip, the more you can inflame your elbow.
Why do tendons heal so slowly?
Connective tissue heals much more slowly than other types. There is very limited blood flow to tendons and ligaments. For this reason it takes much longer for the body to deliver nutrition and remove waste, and that slows the healing process. Floss bands help, because they constrict the area in question, thus slowing the flow of blood. This allows the tendons to be exposed to blood longer. What’s more, when the floss bands are removed, blood quickly surges into the decompressed tissue and floods out any waste products the tendons have released. If you prefer compression sleeves, I highly recommend the Elbow Helix by Body Helix.
I finished that 12-week program almost five months ago. There are still some issues, despite laying off the lifting and pull-ups. I attempted some unwrapped repetitions today, but I began feeling pain at the eighth pull-up. I tightly wrapped my arm above and below my elbow, and I was able to do 10 reps without any problem. After that I tried a looser wrap, but could get only to eight reps again before pain flared. It’s annoying, because I’m eager to jump back into my own style of working out; however, I absolutely don’t want to make this worse. For the time being floss bands will be an essential item in my gym bag. My goal is to gradually build back up to sets of 25 pull-ups without pain. I have the strength still, but I have to let go of ego and do this properly.