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!
