Acute  Effects of Tissue Flossing Around the Upper Thigh on Neuromuscular Performance:  A Study Using Different Degrees of Wrapping Pressure

Abstract

Context: It has been recently demonstrated that tissue flossing around the ankle joint can be effectively used to improve ankle range of motion, jump and sprint ability. However, there is a lack of studies investigating the acute effects of tissue flossing applied around the thigh. Objective: The study aimed to investigate the acute effects of tissue flossing, and the degree of floss band pressure, around the upper-thigh on Active straight leg raise test, knee extensor and flexor maximum voluntary contraction and associated thigh muscle tensiomyography parameters. Design: Cross-over design in 3 distinct sessions. Setting: University laboratory. Participants: 19 recreationally trained volunteers (age 23.78 ± 4.85). Intervention: Active knee extension and flexion performed for 3 sets of 2 minutes (2 minutes rest between sets with wrapped upper-thigh. Individualized wrapping pressures were applied to create conditions of high (HIGH) and moderate (LOW) vascular occlusion, while a loose band application served as a control condition (CON). Main Outcome Measures: Participants were assessed for Active straight leg raise test (ASLR), tensiomyography displacement (Dm) and contraction time (Tc) for rectus femoris (RF), vastus medialis (VM) and biceps femoris (BF) muscles, maximum voluntary contractions for knee extensors (extMVC) and flexors (flexMVC) for pre (PRE), after (POST) and 30 minutes after (POST30) applying the floss band. There was a statistically significant increase in extMVC and a significant shortening in rectus femoris Tc for the LOW condition, which was associated with small to medium effects in favor of the LOW condition. There were no statistically significant changes observed between CON and HIGH conditions. The ASLR test was unaffected regardless of intervention. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that tissue flossing around the upper-thigh might have a localized as well as pressure-sensitive response, thereby improving neuromuscular function of the knee extensors.

Effects of Tissue Flossing on the Healthy and Impaired Musculoskeletal System: A Scoping Review

“…However, enhanced muscle activation was not reported in a further study by Kaneda et al (2020b) about the effects on the hamstring muscles and the study of Konrad et al (2020a) about the effects on the quadriceps muscle, although both studies reported increases in performance. As in a previous work (Konrad et al, 2020a), Vogrin et al (2020) reported increased knee extensor MVC. Furthermore, Vogrin et al (2020) reported a reduction in contraction time in the rectus femoris muscle (but not in the vastus medialis or biceps femoris) assessed with tensiomyography, which likely results in neuromuscular potentiation.…”

“…As in a previous work (Konrad et al, 2020a), Vogrin et al (2020) reported increased knee extensor MVC. Furthermore, Vogrin et al (2020) reported a reduction in contraction time in the rectus femoris muscle (but not in the vastus medialis or biceps femoris) assessed with tensiomyography, which likely results in neuromuscular potentiation. Thus, the authors concluded that the increase in knee extensor MVC could likely be explained by improved neuromuscular function.…”

“…The two measures of the knee extensor MVC (out of two studies) showed an average increase of 5.71% (95% CI, 5.62 to 5.80%). It has to be mentioned here that both studies reported these increases to be significant (Konrad et al, 2020a;Vogrin et al, 2020). Although the individual study results were shown to be not significant, the knee flexor MVC following thigh flossing, taken out of two studies (Kaneda et al, 2020b;Vogrin et al, 2020), showed an average increase of 3.00% (95% CI, 2.10 to 3.90%).…”

“…One study showed a significant increase of 3.61% in the knee flexion range of motion (Cheatham et al, 2020), while another study showed a non-significant decrease (−7.05%) in the hip flexion range of motion (Konrad et al, 2020a) following thigh flossing. Considering the two studies which investigated the knee extension range of motion with a straight leg test following thigh flossing (Kaneda et al, 2020b;Vogrin et al, 2020), a mean change of a large increase in the knee extension range of motion of 7.38% (95% CI, 1.40 to 13.36%) was shown.…”

“…However, the reported effect sizes are rather small (mean, 0.244; ranging from 0 to 0.77). The possible mechanisms for such an increase in performance are increased muscle activity and improved neuromuscular function (Kaneda et al, 2020a;Vogrin et al, 2020). We found no reports about the effects of a single floss band application on the performance (e.g., throwing) of the upper body.…”