Muscle Floss Bands - How to Use

Muscle Compression Floss Bands How-Tos UPD: 2020

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In a word, you wrap it TIGHTLY around your joint and while it is under compression, you go through the range of motion.

Quick Tips:

• Wrap toward the heart
• Wrap with about of 50% overlap of the previous loop
• Keep about 50% stretch as a rule of thumb, can be up to 60-70%.
• Don't exceed 2 minutes of time. 1 minute is usually enough
• Never Use on Head or Neck!

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Some word of caution.

Just like stretches or other mobility exercises, muscle compression flossing will treat the symptom of some syndromes (like tendonitis) but apparently will not correct whatever false or inefficient movement pattern is causing it itself. Maybe you should see a PT?

Joint Floss for Knee

Kelly Starrett (Mobility WOD)

0:35 explains problems with patella
1:17 starts wrapping below the knee cap
1:53 makes some squats
2:13 starts wrapping above the knee cap and makes some squat
3:06 makes some squat with vertical shin

Knee Mobilization with muscle flossing bands - a short clip with precise instructions.

Compression Floss Bands - Shoulder Fix

with Kelly Starrett and Donnie Thompson

1:35 starts wrapping
2:30 some explanation
3:00 some exercise
4:05 comparing 2 hands
4:20 unwrapping

Muslce Flossing Band + IASTM (instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization) for shoulder mobility

How to self apply Compression Floss Band for shoulder

Shoulder Mobility Flossing by crossfitters

And this shoulder flossing technique with rubber bands in the video below is worth seeing because this kind of wrap adds a resistance force to the shoulder movement. You can see that band crossing over the thoracic region.

Flossing bands for Ankle and Calf

Mobility WOD - Kelly Starrett

1:22 explains what happened to ankle and starts wrapping

2:45 patient starts moving ankle

3:15 timing is “2 minutes”

3:43 unwrapping

Ankle Mobilization with Flossing Bands in the open kinetic chain position and in the weight bearing closed kinetic chain position.

Note the difference between this and Kelly's technique.

Ankle Flossing - self application

Hip Mobility with Flossing Bands

Mobility Flossing: Elbow

Floss Bands for Climbers

Yes. It works for them too!

Why Every Climber Should Experiment With Flossing

Should you or should you not look at Band Flossing for any of your climbing injuries?

• Fingers
• Wrists
• Thumbs
• Shoulders
• Elbows
• Knees
• Ankles
• Toes

Read here for details.

How Muscle Flossing Works

“How it works
Frankly, who knows. I think if it were well thought out, it might have never emerged, just like the story of Graston Technique, which thousands of clinicians now use and love. Somewhere along the line someone decided that they should tightly wrap an appendage with a rubber band, move around a bit, then take it off. And it felt better. Whoa. Let’s rack our brain for a few mile-high thoughts on what could be to blame for the obvious clinical improvements. As with nearly everything, you’ll note that I bring much of this back to the ol’ nervous system.”

Read the full article on how Compression Floss Band Work.

Compression Floss Bands Reviews

On reddit you can find more people who share their experience. Below you'll find some exerpts:

“The voodoo band is great predominately for things that are superficial such as the patella tendon, achilles tendon and lateral elbow extensor group. The rational is this. 1.Create a sheering force by massive amounts of compression helping to loosen the superficial fascia under the skin. 2.Create significant blood restrictions followed by reperfusion of the compressed area and all the tissue downstream from the compression. This is all just expert opinion at this point. There is no research to back up these opinions/theories. There is a study at the University of South Carolina that is in the beginning stages of looking at the voodoo band for the elbow. Although there is a lack of research, there is overwhelmingly positive clinic response that I’ve seen. It’s a really cool option for both treatment and to be used as part of a warm up. Keep using it for your patella tendon pain.” 

“I’ve got a wonky shoulder that sometimes bugs me so I do the wrap it/have someone step on it method and it’s made my shoulder far less wonky. Of all the crossfit recovery stuff, I feel like voodoo bands are the best.”

“I have a plate and 9 pins in my right fibula from skating about 10 years ago. My right ankle is considerably bigger than my left because of the built up scar tissue. I’ve had trouble overhead squatting and snatching because of the limited mobility. I’ve used voodoo floss to break up that scar tissue and reclaim my lost mobility. I do t know if I would have ever been able to gain full range of motion in my right ankle without it.”

“Holy crap, my voodoo band has saved me multiple times! I’ve used it a bunch on my knee (after a stupid injury from pistol attempts) and more recently on my calves/ankles/achilles areas. It helps me immensely after doing stuff like sprints, DUs, box jumps, because my calves seize up and get really tight, thus pulling on my achilles and then my arches (creating crazy arch pain). That stretching of my calves with the voodoo band, combined with runners stretches and foam rolling has completely changed my training.
I usually wrap really tightly, and flex the affected area repeatedly for a minute, then unwrap. I probably do it once or twice a day when I’m feeling that pain. I maybe do it only a few times a month though unless it’s really bad.”

“I use these for all sorts of muscular pains: shoulder, knee, ankle, etc. They work great! I know there is no proven science behind them, but even just for pain relief, they’re great. I wrap pretty tight, tuck it, and begin stretching after strenuous running or exercise for about 2-3 minutes. My mobility always seems better afterwards. I know it seems like a gimmick, but I promise these things are solid. And yeah, the bicycle innertube works, but I think I paid 20 bucks for a pair of bands? They’re really long and help you cover more area than a tube would…”