Vibration Therapy in Combat Sports

Vibration therapy first came about when Russian inventor 'Gustav Zander' invented his own vibration machine in 1867. Fast forward to 2019 and there are a number of vibration products out there on the market claiming to provide various health benefits. 

We are here to share with you our knowledge and first hand experience from training in combat sports and using vibration therapy. In particular we are referring to localised vibration therapy. We want to help you navigate this complex world and decide if this is something that will benefit you and your training. 

Vibration therapy works by stimulating involuntary muscle movement allowing the muscles to then contract and relax. It is this over stimulation that allows the muscle to let go after being overworked and tight from training. 

The level of training and intensity that comes with combat sports puts a large amount of stress on the body and naturally makes you prone to injury. We found that after using vibration therapy in the form of massage guns or vibrating foam rollers for 10-15 minutes after training for 1-2hours that almost simultaneously our muscles felt less tight. Delayed onset muscle soreness in the following day/days was also considerably less. This helped increase our performance in consecutive training sessions.

Often we would find a niggle post training that we would get physio work done on before it turned into an injury. Having the option of vibration therapy saved the time of booking a last minute appointment and allowed us to treat the area instantly after training.

Who wouldn't want a deep tissue massage? 

Vibration therapy is said to have multiple health benefits. In particular it is said to help increase bone density. A lot more research needs to be done into this area.

Some of the claimed benefits are:

• improve bone density
• increase muscle mass
• increase circulation
• reduce joint pain
• decrease stress
• boost metabolism
• increase flexibility

If you find yourself experiencing tight or sore muscles on a regular basis we can highly recommend the use of vibration therapy. We use both massage guns and vibrating foam rollers.