Adductor Vibration Release

Key Practical Points from Effects on Local Vibration

• Pre-exercise local vibration reduces functional signs and chemical markers of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and may improve performance in subsequent frequent workouts.
• Local vibration is effective for reducing acute muscle pain (and can be added to a home program via the devices like the Hypervolt by Hyperice® or similar devices).
• Local vibration alone may be sufficient to increase strength in deconditioned muscles/individuals.
• Current research implies that adding vibration to self-administered release techniques (SMR) (e.g. foam rolling) enhances benefits for DOMS, pain pressure sensitivity, and increasing proprioception. Further research is needed to refine protocols and determine whether adding vibration to SMR enhances benefits for increasing range of motion and improving power performance when used as a warm-up.

Protocol for Using Percussion Massage Device

1. Start with a higher setting and superficially (with gentle pressure) trace the entire surface of the muscle.
   • Setting 3 is likely appropriate for the lower body.
2. Take a mental note of dense or sensitive points. Manual therapists may use the opposite hand to palpate for taut bands and nodules (trigger points).
   • Stay away from areas where the bone is superficial. Using percussion massage devices over bone may be uncomfortable, painful, and/or cause bruising. Placing a finger or thumb over bony protuberances will prevent accidental contact.
3. Using a piece with a smaller surface area and lower setting (setting 1), return to the dense/sensitive points using deeper compression.
   • It may be helpful to add tension or slack by shortening or lengthening the target tissue
4. The Brookbush Institute recommends 30 seconds to 2 minutes per muscle group, and 5 minutes as an upper limit even in the case of multiple trigger points.

Best Body Position:

• These muscles are easiest to address with the patient in supine and hip flexed to 60-90° of horizontal abduction, knee at 90° of flexion, and patient's foot resting on your anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS) or patient's opposite knee (as pictured above).

Bony Areas: (Block with a thumb or finger when approaching these areas)

• Medial condyles of the femur

Muscles

• Adductors comprise the entire inner thigh between the quadriceps and the semimembranosus and semitendinous (semi's) . The adductors can be located by feeling for a contraction using broad palpation (webspace from index finger to thumb) on the inner thigh and asking the patient to adduct against manual resistance. Assuming that your palpation is at approximately mid-point of the length of the thigh. The muscles that will be felt are the gracilis and adductor longus .
  • Trigger points: Common trigger points for the gracilis and adductor longus are roughly 1/3rd and 2/3rd the length of the inner thigh. Common trigger points for the pectineus and adductor brevis can be located in approximately the middle of the floor of the femoral triangle. Common trigger points for the adductor magnus are close to mid-length of the thigh and close to the origin of the muscle near the ischial tuberosity.