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If someone told you that you could get total body pain relief, better mobility and flexibility, quicker recovery and the ability to workout harder and reach your goals faster, I bet you’d pay a decent amount of money for it right? Luckily you don’t need too. This isn’t a magic pill or special drug. Tennis ball massage is a thing, so step out to your backyard, find your old tennis ball and you are already half the way there.
Tennis Ball Massage: Reduce Pain and Recover Faster
Hit Those Trigger Points and Tight Muscles
You may have heard of these nasty little things if you have visited a massage therapist. They are specific points in the muscle that are overactive and won’t release from their contracted state. More commonly known as a muscle knot. They cause pain in the area they occupy, as well as refer pain to other muscles and joints.
With a little understanding and action, you can get rid of your trigger points and a lot of pain that you suffer from by getting friendly with your tennis ball. Quite often joint pain that you suffer from comes from trigger points and tight muscles. Not only will the point directly refer pain, but the tight muscles will work against your body’s natural movement patterns and cause some imbalances that ultimately lead to painful problems.
Not only can you attack many types of muscular and joint pain you suffer from, using a tennis ball in your recovery routine is vital. You can release your muscles, recover faster, prevent pain and most importantly hit your next workout harder and more efficiently. The best way to adapt better and reach your goals faster is to
How To Get All Those Amazing Benefits
Let’s start by looking at the knee. A lot of people suffer from knee pain. Whether you have trigger points in surrounding muscles, or imbalances are causing you biomechanical problems, using a tennis ball to massage the right areas will help you relieve your pain. We need to look closely at the quadriceps muscles and the calf muscles. Trigger points in the calf often refer to the knee and cause pain. Likewise, tight points and muscle imbalances in the quadriceps put extra pressure on the knee.
Tennis Ball Massage: Quad Release
Here we’ll focus on the Rec Fem as it most commonly causes knee problems. It is the long thin muscle that runs up the middle of the thigh and crosses both the hip and the knee joint.
Lie on your front, with the tennis ball placed close to your knee in the centre of your thigh. To explore this muscle you should roll up and down the length of the quadriceps slowly. If you feel a tight spot stop and pay extra attention to it. Ensure that you continue breathing, and hold that spot for 30 seconds or until you feel a release. Continue up the muscle. For extra work on a point you can bend the leg and take the joint through it’s range of motion slowly.
Tennis Massage: Ball Calf Release
Sit down on the floor with your leg extended. Place the tennis ball under your leg near your ankle. Slowly roll up the length of the muscle and stop on any tight or sore spots. Hold them for 30 seconds or until you feel a release. Run the full length of the muscle right up to behind your knee and repeat the same process when you find tight areas.
Lauren blogs over at LaurensFitness.com and is a fitness and conditioning coach from Australia who loves to find new ways to get her body pain free. Thanks to a long professional sports career and a degree in Human Movement, she’s well and truly a fitness nerd.
