Any of the following discouraging you from your workouts?
- Range of motion loss in a joint
- Poor joint mechanics
- Injured tissue that needs to be “unglued” or loosened up
If so, there’s a tool you may want to try before giving up. It’s called the Voodoo Floss Bands
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What is a Voodoo Floss Band?
The Voodoo Floss Band itself is made of black natural latex rubber. It’s usually either 7 or 28 feet long and 2 inches in width. The maximum length it can be stretched is 150%.
There is the Voodoo X-Band that comes in red. It’s also made of natural latex rubber. The difference between this and the Voodoo Floss Band is that it’s thicker. It gives more compression and is best for areas like high hips.
The Floss Band does not need anything extra when applying it. You just wrap and tuck the end. You also don’t need to keep it on for a long period of time. Actually, it’s strongly recommended you only keep it on for two minutes to avoid damage.
Why would you use a Voodoo Floss Band?
The Voodoo Floss Band is mainly used as a compression band. This helps with mobility issues. A couple examples of mobility issues are internal rotation of the shoulder and extension of the elbow or knee.
The bands can also be used to break up adhesions in connective tissues where there’s chronic overload. Parts of the body that can suffer from this are the knee, thigh, or ankle.
What the Voodoo Floss Band does is it compresses the tissues in the joint and constricts blood flow. When the band is removed, the blood rushes through taking with it scar tissue, lactic acid, and other matters that contribute to inflammation.
The Voodoo Floss Band can also be a great recovery tool. Flossing after high repetitions of an exercise in a WOD can speed up recovery time. For example, you can floss the knee after squats, the thigh after deadlifts, the arms after muscle ups, etc. Flossing helps the body reduce waste products and muscular tightness.
If you do WOD’s every day, flossing can help you recover faster so the next day your muscles don’t feel really sore and stiff.
How are Voodoo Floss Bands used?
Termed “flossing”, you wrap the affected area; work on the range of motion of the joint and then take it off after a few minutes.
The bands can be used on the shoulders, arms, elbows, wrists/hands, thighs/hamstrings, calves, ankles, feet.
When wrapping the voodoo floss band, you want to get a 50% overlap to make sure you’re covering the whole area you want.
The Voodoo Floss Band also comes wrapped around a small plastic tube. You’ll want to keep this tube to wrap the band around once you’re done with it.
When do you take the band off?
Normally, you take the band off after two minutes. But if you experience any of the three:
- A rise in blood pressure and/or claustrophobic
- Pale looking limb
- You start feeling tingling
Take the band off immediately. The purpose of compressing is to mobilize not de-mobilize. And that’s what will happen if you keep the band on for too long.
If you’re flossing for the first time, you might want to go lighter on the tension than you think until you get used to it.
Applying Compression Bands
Below are descriptions on how to apply the Voodoo Floss Bands to different areas of the body:
Shoulders
When flossing shoulders, always wrap away from you.
To apply on someone else:
- Place the other person’s straight arm on your shoulder
- Wrap using 50% tension clockwise on the person’s right arm and counterclockwise on his left arm around the deltoid muscles (or shoulders)
- Start from the top of the shoulder down to mid arm
- When you’re done wrapping, tuck the end under the band
- Lay the person on his/her back
- Place the ball of your foot on the person’s shoulder that has been wrapped
- Have the person on the floor internally rotate his/her arm
- Apply pressure with your foot as the person rotates his/her arm
- Do this for no more than 2 minutes.
For self-application:
- Use a barbell that’s racked at shoulder height
- Wrap the floss band around the end of the barbell with slight tension
- When you’re finished wrapping the floss around the barbell you can start wrapping your shoulder
- Wrap once to get it in place
- Grab the barbell as you continue to wrap
- When you’re at the end of the band, tuck it under itself
- Take your arm through active range of motions such as flexion/extension, abduction/adduction, internal and external rotation for no more than a minute
- Then spend another minute doing restricted motions
Elbows
- Start above the elbow with 50% tension on the band
- Wrap away from the body using 75% tension
- Stop wrapping right below the elbow then go back up the arm to ensure that the elbow is covered
- When you’re at the end of the band, tuck it under itself
- Spend a minute working on the range of motion by bending and straightening the arm
Wrists/Hands
- Start at the hand
- Wrap 2-3 times around the hand
- Go across the top of the hand and wrap the wrist a few times
- Continue going from wrist to hand and back until you reach the end
- When you’ve reached the end of the band, tuck it under itself
To work on range of motion, make a fist with the hand and then open. Bend the wrist forward and back and/or make circular motions. You can also do push ups to work on wrist mobility.
Thighs/hamstrings
The Voodoo Floss Band can be used as a recovery tool for the quads after a day of heavy squats.
- Start at the lower quad and go up to mid-thigh then back down to the lower quad.
- When you reach the end of the band, tuck under itself
For about two minutes, do some air squats and Romanian deadlifts while keeping the knee locked out, You can also do leg swings. After the two minutes, take the band off.
Knee
The knee can be compressed either right above the patella (knee cap) or right below it. The floss band never goes over the entire knee.
- Start either above or below the knee
- Wrap 3-4 times then go behind the knee to go above or below the front of the knee cap.
- Continue until you reach the end of the band and tuck it under itself
Calf
Tight calves hurt. The Voodoo Floss Band can help with loosening up whatever is causing the tightness.
- Start wrapping right above where the calf protrudes and go down to where the protrusion ends.
- Keep going in one direction then the other until you get to the end
- You want to give the band a 50% stretch when going around the calf end of your leg. You don’t want to give the band tension when you’re wrapping over the shin.
- Tuck the end under itself
Ankle
- Start at the foot and work up towards the ankle
- Go a little above the ankle and then wrap down
- Once you reach the end of the band, tuck it under itself
Work on range of motion by flexing/extending the foot and rotating it clockwise and counterclockwise. You can also place the wrapped foot on the floor while kneeling on the other leg and leaning forward to force flexion at the ankle.
Foot
The Voodoo Floss Band can help release plantar fascia.
- Start either at the top of the foot down to the toes but not including the toes
- Wrap in the opposite direction
- When you’re at the end of the band, tuck it under itself
Once the foot is wrapped, stand on it. Rock the foot back and forth as if you were walking on it. You can also make circular motions with the foot while it’s on the floor.
Conclusion
One word of caution: The Voodoo Floss Band does not replace a doctor. If you’re continuously having problems with a joint or inflammation, please seek medical help.
Overall, the Voodoo Floss Band is a tool that you’ll want to keep around. It can be part of your self-care and recovery.
