"Voodoo Flossing"

[cofe]

Them lower trapezius exercises which cofe has been 'prescribed' are helping my elbows I reckon.

Which are?

:jab: I'd like to know too please

Don't get too excited, it's for lower and mid traps and scapula stability mainly to help with referred nerve pain in my elbow, rather than elbow tendonics. Dumbell rows, horizontal rows with rings, prone Ys, plank, TRX, some theraband plus other conditioning stuff like push ups or benching. Think it's working, though it's so long since I've climbed on rock I've lost all perspective.

 

[lagerstarfish]

losing all perspective is the first step

knowing that you have lost all perspective is the third step

one foot in the past

one foot in the future

pissing on the present

 

[Sasquatch]

losing all perspective is the first step

knowing that you have lost all perspective is the third step

one foot in the past

one foot in the future

pissing on the present

But what's the second step ?

 

[36chambers]

I'm deeply disappointed I'm not quoted

I'm disappointed that he quoted everything I said, I don't have a clue what I'm talking about at the best of times. Least of all when it comes to pseudo-physiology.

It's obviously early days and I've yet to pull hard with my new slender finger. But currently, I am really impressed.

It is true that voodoo flossing sorted out my year long slightly swollen knuckle symptoms. But it was only a few weeks until it was re-aggrivated by some not too strenuous climbing. So 3 months later it's not fully healed and I'm now very careful with it instead of flossing.

Having been to the physio about something completely unrelated (elbows issues), I was diagnosed with ulnar nerve entrapment and given some ulnar nerve flossing exercises to do. The exercises (massage forearms, bend arm to head and rotate wrists etc.) are to help the nerve slide up and down through the muscle tissue to help free it from the stress it's currently under. So it dawned on me that Voodoo flossing may just be a new radical method of nerve flossing. (I did do a lot of reading about Voodoo flossing and may have overlooked this.)

Would a physio ever get you to nerve floss your finger? I don't know. Does Voodoo flossing our fingers only work as an uber quick icing alternative? I don't know. Should I use Voodoo flossing for my elbow? It depends on what my physio says next time I speak to him. Since I don't really know anything, should I stop posting in this thread? Perhaps, I don't know.

 

[duncan]

'Flossing' is descriptive of the nerve movement the nerve flossing exercises are proposed to produce. Other than sharing the same name, I don't see they have any similarity with 'voodoo flossing'.

The positive effects of VF may be due to compression, in which case voodoo wrap would be a better name or perhaps BICAM (Brief Intense Compression and Mobilisation)? However, if folk here are anything to go by, VF seems to work better for people with persistent pain. This is unlikely to be anything to do with reducing swelling. I can't see how it would promote breaking up scar tissue any more effectively than just climbing.

Squeezing and moving a joint simultaneously is a lot like a physiotherapy technique called "Mobilisation with Movement". As with other joint mobilisation techniques, the pain relief is most likely to be due to neurophysiological effects . This would fit with the very rapid changes some report.

 

[duncan]

I've tried compression wrapping with red theraband on my recently dodgy middle finger, proximal IP joint, for the last couple of weeks. As others report, there is a pleasant pinkness and warmth for a few minutes after, suggesting increased blood flow.

What strikes me most is that the theraband offers considerable resistance to flexing the finger joints. If you follow the protocol described, ie 1-2 minutes two dozen times daily, you're doing several hundred joint movements against resistance every day. This is certainly a good thing for a chronically swollen finger joint. Whether resistance via the wrapping is is better or worse than just squeezing putty, a ball, or a 'gripsaver', or whether the wrapping offers additional benefit, is open to question.

Overall impression: my finger is feeling a bit better but I'm not convinced the improvement is any greater than if had I done regular gentle exercises without the wrapping.

 

[Teaboy]

Is this still a thing? For a while it looked like it was going to fix everything but I’ve not heard it mentioned recently (shocked to see this thread is from 2025!), has it gone the way of fidget spinners and Mastadon or is it still being used as a treatment?

 

[SA Chris]

Mastadon last released music in 2021, so might still be going?

 

[spidermonkey09]

I think Teabpy was referring to the social network which briefly threatened to challenge Twitter but has since been supplanted by BlueSky and Threads?

 

[Teaboy]

I did (unfortunately misspelled it) but it wasn’t my main point but am grateful for the bump! Just interested to know if I’d be wasting my time flossing this swollen finger of mine. One (other) way to find out I guess…

 

[spidermonkey09]

I've experimented with it a bit. I think it did help but hard to say whether it was the main contributor. I think Duncan's most recent post is probably accurate, its probably the doing movement against resistance that it helps with more than anything else.