The benefits of massage are plentiful. Massage helps reduce muscle tension and stiffness, it can increase your strength in the gym by 13 per cent, it provides relief from pain and physical stress, and it loosens the muscles and connective tissue allowing the body to move more fluidly.
While not all of us can afford a massage therapist, we can afford a tennis ball. A tennis ball is the perfect self-massage tool. It is portable, lightweight, it provides instant feedback and it's easy on the pocketbook.
Try the following selfmassage techniques, either in the evenings to work the kinks of the day out, or after a workout to help encourage waste removal and speed muscle recovery.
GLUTES
. Seated on the floor, cross one foot over the knee of the other leg. Place a ten-nis ball alongside the glute of your bent knee (the other leg is straight).
. Supporting your weight with your arms, roll onto the ball using your arms to move your body weight over the ball.
. If you hit a particularly tight muscle (you will know when you do!), allow the ball to settle into that area, slowly releasing the muscle tightness.
SHOULDERS
. Standing with your back against a wall, position the tennis ball to one side of your spine.
. Bend and straighten your knees, pressing into the ball and massaging small sections of the upper back, one section at a time. Start with your mid-back and work your way up to your neck.
HAMSTRINGS
. Sit on the floor and extend the right leg straight out in front of you, hands behind you. Your left leg should be bent with the foot firmly planted on the floor.
. Position the tennis ball under the right thigh and slowly roll the ball up and down the thigh, using the arms and left leg to support and move your body weight.
CALF
. Kneel on the floor with your feet tucked under you and your bum on top of the feet.
. Lift up the bum and place a ball along the top of calf, just below the back of the knee, and then slowly sit back on your heels again. The force of your body weight will give you a great pressure-point massage for the calf muscle.
. Keep doing that along the calf until you reach your ankle.
Feet
. Stand in bare feet with the ball under one foot.
. Roll it in all directions, holding onto a wall or chair for support. If a tennis ball is not enough pressure, or seems too large, try a golf ball.
P.J. Wren is a local personal trainer and writer in the Delta area who can be reached at fitnesswithpj.
