Home massage tools

[lookouth]

On the advice of my PT I tried using a baseball to do some tissue massage on my self- mostly above my pubic bone and to either side of my bladder I found a few trigger points and was really able to work them out, much more so than with my hands. Using a ball gives you a huge mechanical advantage with working on sore spots. I've also found that placing the ball under my thigh or buttocks or even on the side of my hip and rolling it against the ground is a great technique.

[webslave]

Some sites sell devices that do this:





From http://www.ultimatewatermassage.com/mas ... y-ball.htm

[webslave]

You can also buy this, similar to the Theracane

From http://theanswermassage.com/



or the Theracane from Amazon.com:




or this, the Altus Massage Stick:



From Amazon, the Reflex Ball 9cm:



Use Google, thare are more ...

[CppsDad]

I've used a baseball to "sit on" and do deep tissue massage on the buttocks. I've also used the Theracane to great success to do massage on the bladder, stomach, groin, and perineum. Since I got the Theracane though, I don't do too much with the baseball.

[timberdoodle]

Does the Theracane instruction book show you how to use it on your bladder or groin or abs? If not, can you tell us how much pressure you use in these areas? My PT has been working on some external tender spots and she really has to bear down with a lot of pressure to reach them. Is the same true with the Theracane?

[CppsDad]

I think the Theracane may have come with some instructions, but they were sparse as far as I remember. You have to press hard to reach your tender spots with the Theracane the same as with a PT's hands. However, the Theracane has a bunch of "handles" that make it really easy to apply lots of pressure. I pretty much grab the farthest handle and the natural pull from my arms and gravity help get the Theracane in pretty deep. I can push really hard with it if I want to, but I generally don't and I still am able to reach sore spots. The only cautionary word I can say is that the Theracane, has hard little ball-endings. These are harder than a PT's hands would be. And while the small surface area makes it easy to dig in, it also makes it easy to cause tender spots (I've never bruised, but I've felt like it sometimes).