Methods
Foam rollers and vibration therapy (VT) techniques are popular interventions that are used by health professionals and fitness enthusiasts as part of training programs to improve recovery from the effects of EIMD.
VT can be applied directly to a muscle or tendon, known as local vibration therapy (LVT) or indirectly, usually administered from a plate that the subject stands on or a special dumbbell or handle of a machine, known as whole body vibration (WBV).
Local body vibration is considered more effective as it is applied directly to the muscle for maximum effect. Studies involving whole body vibration have been shown to be less effective due to the vibrations being absorbed by other tissues on route through the body to the target muscle.
Our Pulseroll range of products are perfectly designed to be able to reach all parts of the body so you can apply the vibration directly to the target muscle which is why they are so effective!
Hertz
We always like to throw a bit of science into our monthly blogs; this is because scientists use our products in research, so to fully understand how good they are we need to introduce some basic concepts.
So back to hertz! It is a fancy scientific term for frequency, or how often something happens, which in this case refers to the number of times per second.
Scientific studies involving vibration look at all different vibration frequencies; so how many times per second the vibration is delivered in each study. We know this is very important because too much or too little vibration can be less effective or even harmful in extreme cases.
Our science team understand this research and have also conducted their own studies, so we know that the frequencies delivered by our products are in the range that they are most effective. Which is why all our products have for settings. Each setting delivers more hertz, or vibrations per seconds.
How to use Pulseroll
Vibration has been shown to be effective in increasing strength, reducing muscle damage after exercise (DOMS), improving circulation, increasing oxygen levels within muscles and improving range of motion/flexibility. Our product range has been specially designed to provide local vibration therapy to any target superficial muscles throughout the body.
Our range can be use for;
- Recovering from injury
- Increase strength
- Improving your health/posture
- Pre-competition warm up/post competition recovery
- Improve range limb of motion
- Improve long-term sports performance
The list goes on!! Dependent on what your goal is, and your current health and fitness status, our range has 4 settings, so you can change the amount of local vibration (hertz) you apply. Our Pulseroll range is a versatile multi function sports and health portable toolkit!!
The lasting Pulseroll effect
An important consideration when using vibration is not only how long and how to use it within your training session, but also how often you should undertake local vibration therapy. In recent weeks we have been working hard to research previous science and then use our products in the field with real people to answer these common questions.
So far our vibrating foam rollers have been scientifically validated to increase blood flow and oxygen within muscle and this has been shown to reduce the effects of DOMS. In this specific we used the Pulseroll once per day for just 5 mins on the target muscle and this was enough to speed up recovery.
Our new Pulseroll massage gun is currently being rigorously tested in the real world. We are currently looking at how it improves range of motion/ flexibility, which is going to be huge for our athletes and older populations. The early data is really exciting, what we have found is that with only 3 minutes of percussive therapy with the Pulseroll massage gun we measured significant improvements in range of motion which lasted 24 hours!! Read about how percussion therapy works with the Pulseroll massage gun.
In our blog next month we will publish some training plans for current and new users to help you train effectively with Pulseroll to meet your goals.
Stuart Percival is head sports physiologist at www.sunsportcoaching.com A Manchester based sports performance assessment business.
