Blog
In Part 1, we talked about the importance of self-massage for increased health and performance. Now, we will go over some of the different tools available to use on your own.
Foam Roller
The foam roller is probably the most important of all the tools because it can be used all over your body. Made of dense foam, round foam rollers usually come in a 1 ft. and 3 ft. versions. The 1 ft. version is great if you need to take it with you anywhere, like to the gym or travelling. Use the weight of your own body to put pressure on the area in contact with the roller, and voila, you can roll back and forth over the area you need massaged. The foam roller is especially good for the back, lats, piriformis, and IT band, although almost anything can be released on it.
Massage sticks
There are a few different versions of massage sticks out there, most notably 'The Stick' and 'The Tiger Tail'. They are essentially the same thing, with the texture of the stick being the main difference. These tools are great for more focused attention to certain trigger points or problem areas. Personally, I prefer using a massage stick on my quads, hamstrings and calves.
Balls
The final category of massage tools includes any ball you can find. I have seen use of golf balls, lacrosse balls, tennis balls, softballs, and generic rubber bouncing balls. Using something like a golf ball or softball allows you to get even more focused than the previous two methods. The downfall is that the discomfort becomes greater as the focus gets deeper. There are certain places in the peroneals, feet, rotator cuff, piriformis, and calves that can be hard to reach properly without using one of these balls. You can find these at any sports store.
Those are the most common ways to perform self-massage, and anyone serious about fitness or high-performance sport should have all 3!
You can find all of these at Perform Better!
http://www.performbetter.com/SearchResult.aspx_Q_CategoryID_E_363