The 2 Minute Injury Fix Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness Training The 2 Minute Injury Fix by Brad Kaczmarski August 27, 2013September 2, 2022 Tags It Hurts Fix It, Mobility, Soft-Tissue Techniques, Training Here s what you need to know When there's pain in a movement, compression wrapping offers extra stability to allow a safer range of motion. Once you remove the band, blood floods back into the area, creating an influx of nutrients that was previously limited. While it's no replacement for a soft tissue therapist, it is an affordable and extremely convenient recovery modality. The better we move, the better we can be in the gym. Because of this, we dutifully stretch, foam roll, and perform joint mobilization drills like good boys and girls. However, a new method is showing promising results in very little time. Considering that it's cheap and you can do it yourself, it's time to take a deeper look. Compression wrapping (popularized by Kelly Starrett) is where you wrap the injured joint or muscle in elastic material. Compression wraps are common in weight lifting, but we're talking about a more aggressive wrap for a very short period of time (30 seconds to 2 minutes), and for a much different purpose. Let's say you have a situation where pain is present. Compression wrapping offers extra stability, which allows for a safer range of motion. Research by Kyle Kiesel shows that if there's pain during a movement, we aren't certain how the nervous and motor systems will respond. If adding compression can reduce or eliminate the pain for a short time, we can now safely work through a range that was previously impossible. Due to the tight compression, blood flow to the area is reduced, which is why the recommended duration is only between 30 seconds and 2 minutes. Once you remove the band, however, an influx of blood and nutrients flood back into the area. As further evidence, a well-known approach to get adhered muscles to move again is to put them under pressure and then add range of motion, such as in Active Release Techniques (A.R.T). While this compression method isn't as specific as A.R.T, it does allow you to work through adhesions. First you need some semi-stretchy rubber bands. Original tests used a bike inner tube, as shown in the videos below. Although these work, newer materials can stretch up to 150% longer, making for better wrapping. These higher-tech bands come in 7-foot lengths and cost around $25 for a pair. Considering they can work on most areas of the body and are portable, they're a good investment. A stiff joint can obviously limit movement, but it also affects surrounding areas. It's necessary to get as much ROM back into that joint as you can. Compression wrapping the area while self-mobilizing the joint helps speed up those results. Wrist Compression Wrap Elbow Compression Wrap You can wrap almost any joint, minus the spine, of course. When you have scar tissue or stiff muscles, compression wrapping allows you to tack down the area and then move through a ROM, grinding on that stiffness. When the compression is then removed, you open up the floodgates to re-nourish the area with new blood. Hamstring Compression Wrap Knee Compression Wrap In a perfect world, we'd hire physical therapists to work on our joints every morning and chiropractors to do A.R.T. on our scar tissue/muscle adhesions every night. But this is the real world, and compression wrapping at least gives you a chance to take some ownership of the recovery process instead of sitting by passively. As always, be smart. Don't go past 2 minutes, at the most. If it feels numb or tingly or worse, stop. Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Training How to Build Mass as a Tall Lifter If you're tall and you want to build muscle, you need to adopt new exercises, new techniques, and new strategies. Bodybuilding, Training Lee Boyce December 10 Training 5 Back Training Myths You Probably Believe You probably think a few of these myths are true... and that's hindering your back growth. Let's set the record straight. Back, Bodybuilding, Pull-Up, Training Lee Boyce March 22 Training 5 Reasons You ve Stopped Building Muscle Has your muscle growth slowed down or come to a complete standstill? Here's how to get growing again. Bodybuilding, Diet Strategy, Training Akash Vaghela December 20 Training 6 Combo Exercises for Upper Body Mass Pack muscle on your chest, back, delts and arms in half the time with these challenging combination exercises and finishers. Bodybuilding, Training Ben Bruno August 1