Effects of Muscle Flossing on Quadriceps Muscle Potentiation

Overview

Tissue flossing involves wrapping a thick rubber band around a joint or muscle, which can partially occlude blood flow. In practice, it is often used while concomitantly performing a range of motion exercises (ROM) for 1 to 3 minutes in duration. The mechanisms involved in tissue flossing with a floss band may be similar to those involved in ischemic preconditioning. Previous results would support the use of tissue flossing on ROM, while there are no clear conclusions on post-activation effects on sports-related performance and muscle contractile properties. This may be attributed to the different methodologies used in the studies. Therefore, the time course associated with tissue flossing benefits remains to be investigated.

Nowadays, various methods are used for acute performance enhancement. The most recent of these is tissue flossing, which is becoming increasingly popular for both performance enhancement and rehabilitation. However, the effects of flossing on athletic performance have not been clearly demonstrated, which could be due to differences in the methodology used. In particular, the rest periods between the end of the preconditioning activity and the performance of the criterion task or assessment tools varied considerably in the published literature. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of applying tissue flossing to the thigh on bilateral countermovement jump performance and contractile properties of vastus lateralis (VL) muscle. Nineteen recreational athletes (11 males; aged 23.1 ± 2.7 years) were randomly assigned to days of flossing application (3 sets for 2 min of flossing with 2 min rest between sets) with preset experimental pressure (EXP = 95 ± 17.4 mmHg) or control condition (CON = 18.9 ± 3.5 mmHg). The first part of the measurements was performed before and after warm-up consisting of 5 min of cycling followed by dynamic stretching and specific jumping exercises, while the second part consisted of six measurement points after flossing application (0.5, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 min).