A nice review of Armaid by super-alpiniste matt Helliker:Im not new to finger injuries, over the past 15 years i've had countless, I know how to deal with them and the recovery time it takes.After a blown out A2/A3, 5 weeks ago whilst going strong, I popped another A2 pulley! I've gone through the standard processes of recovery but what's been different this time round has been the use of the Armaid, and without doubt this has sped up my recovery. Increasing blood flow to the area has brought my recovery time on by 2 weeks.Previous to the injury I had been climbing and training a huge amount and I believe that this time round the injury was due to forearm tension, as i'd visited physio a number of times to get them released. I think that if i'd been using the Armaid a few months earlier I would have been able to avoid this injury and to not have been put back 6 weeks!I will be using mine much more in future, get one or get injured!!Matt
Being sold by TCA, who posted this review on facebook:
http://onlineclimbingcoach.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/review-armaid-elbow-massage-device.html
Also first time I looked at the pricetag!! £95!
Pah, testimonials and reviews are all well and good, but they are anecdotal and a poor basis for "proving" something works.Dave MacLeods review seems sensible in so much as it might help alleviate symptoms but doesn't address the underlying problem, but still lacks evidence to support the claim that it will actually alleviate symptoms.
Requiring absolute proof is a slow way to make progress in my opinion, following on from Macleod's point in his most recent blog that "The deeper you read into the detail of each field, the less seems reliable." The SCIENCE of sports medicine is not yet complete. The best we can do is use educated best guesses and logic. (This could be why I did not get along with academic research.)In this case that might be along the lines of, blood flow increases healing, massage increases blood flow, this product massages...I'm not saying that I think it'll be a magic wand and my arms will suddenly fix themselves, but as a part of a mixed method approach to solving various problems it seems a good bet (although that price tag does make it slightly more risky!!) Maybe I'm just grasping at straws though.
Maybe, maybe not. But if having forked out for it makes you use it 2ce a day and it does a better job than an uneducated idiot poking around with his thumb where it hurts, or waving dumbells around at the wrong angle, ( that's me by the way ) it might be worth a punt.I get sore elbows but if i have the time to train i will get on the fingerboard or my training board and probably not get round to doing what i should do - my elbow exercises.
Perhaps they could form a "buy them both for £300" deal with Accapi, although I suppose if you used them both at the same time there may be a risk of tearing a hole in the time-space continuum...
all its really doing is stimulating bloodflow really isnt it...? maybe spending £95 on itd force you to actually use it
I thought this thread was going to be about a NW Scotland venue.
Sometimes something that is easy to use and you have bought specifically for the task, or that you can use on the walk in/out of the crag, makes it more likely you will do what we all know you should. If you get my drift.