Tennis Ball Massage

While it would be great to have a massage therapist on call so that we could have our bodies treated and tweaked whenever necessary, most of us do not have that luxury. In fact, most people I know rarely provide themselves with any type of massage therapy. For some, this lack of attention can lead to chronic muscle and connective tissue tightness. This persistent tightness can lead to a variety of discomforts including headaches and muscular cramping. The problem with ignoring, and living with, this tightness is that it very rarely just goes away. In fact, the tightness generally creates a condition which prevents the muscles and connective tissue from healing properly. It works like this:

Tight muscles and connective tissue lead to less blood flow to an injured area. Restricted blood flow leads to fewer nutrients being delivered to that injured area. Fewer nutrients perfusing an area means that  recovery times will be slowed.

What is one of the best ways to increase blood flow and therefore speed up recovery? The answer is to decrease the tightness. And this is very easily accomplished with massage. There are many different types of massage techniques that are practiced, and I encourage you to seek out a massage therapist you are comfortable with, but in the meantime, you can take care of many of your tightness issues yourself with a tennis ball and gravity.

This is what I find works best:

• Start with a warm shower to help loosen up your body.

• Next, lay a towel or a blanket on the floor and place the tennis ball or balls on the towel/blanket.

• Position yourself so that you put the tennis ball(s) under the tight/injured area.

• Finally, move your body around on the ball(s) to massage the affected area.

It's as simple as that.

I would recommend starting lightly and working for a short period of time. As your body gets accustomed to the treatment, you can undertake longer sessions. I find that the upper back musculature is one of the most easily worked areas in this manner. Coincidentally, this is also an area that is frequently in need of attention. Good luck with this technique and let me know if you have any questions about its application.

-Jason