Self Care From Head to Toe Using A Tennis Ball

A tennis ball is good for more than a match!

During this time when almost everything is shut down, many people that rely on massage for their aches and pains are left impatiently waiting for things to get back to normal. Self massage can be a great tool for times that you can't see a professional to work out your knots. Since many of us have some extra time on our hands, this is a perfect opportunity for some self care awareness that often gets overlooked in the hustle and bustle of everyday life.  Unfortunately, our body's needs do not let up just because we aren't able to make it to our massage therapy appointment!

Our massage practice is in a tennis club, so I thought it would be appropriate to offer some self massage tips using a tennis ball, but any type ball or self massage tool will do!

Did you sleep wrong and wake up with a stiff neck?

Tight neck muscles run from the base of you skull all the way down to your shoulder blades, so releasing tension in this area can give you release in the entire upper body. Before doing this treatment start with a stretch by turning your head as far as it can go one direction and then the next. Be careful to only move your head and not the rest of your body. Next, try bending your neck so that your ear goes toward your shoulder. Pay attention to how close you can get your ear to your shoulder and make sure not to cheat by lifting your shoulder up to your ear! Holding each of these stretches for 30 seconds is a great way to improve your neck flexibility. Next, lie down on the floor, place the base of your skull on the ball for maximum pressure. If your attachments are too tender for this much pressure, standing against a wall and doing the same move would be a good first step and then gradually move to the floor when ready. Gently roll your head from one side to the other, stopping for a few seconds on areas that are tender to help release the tension. After a few minutes of this treatment,  do the stretches again and you should notice that you feel looser. If your neck is very tight and has been for some time, you might need to do this treatment multiply times a week before you notice the difference.

If your neck is stiff and tight, loosening up the muscle attachments at the base of your skull can release tension and feel amazing.


If you're feeling discomfort in the shoulder blade area, try this:

Tennis balls are great for working out knots that you feel in the muscles around your scapula (shoulder blades). Before starting this treatment, slowly circle your shoulders forward and then backward to warm up the area. Next put your arms straight out to your side and make small circles for a few seconds and then increasing to large circles. Do this both forward and backwards. After you feel sufficiently warmed up you can lie on the floor, which will give you the maximum amount of pressure, but can be difficult for some that don't have the lower body strength to perform a bridge by lifting their hips and moving back and forth and side to side to reach all the areas that need attention.  If you aren't able to do this on floor or if the pressure in this position is too intense,  an alternative is to lean against a wall. Not only move your body up and down and side to side, but also try slowly moving your arms in different directions while you're leaning on the ball in a stationary position to open up the scapula and allow the ball to reach areas that might be otherwise be hard to reach.

Keep you hips loose to avoid grumpy sciatica

The tennis ball is a great size for putting pressure on the piriformis, which is the small deep muscle below the bigger muscles of the glutes, that often gets tight and can irritate the sciatic nerve that is in close proximity to it. When this nerve is irritated for long enough, it can shoot pain down the leg and in some cases, all the way down to the toes.  Gentle stretching and myofascial release (loosening muscle tissue and the fascia that encases it.) can be very helpful in preventing this from happening and relieving discomfort once a flare up starts. If you are having a flare up of sciatica, although it is important to still be proactive in helping the body heal with massage and stretching, be extra cautious and gentle with the treatment to this area.  The last thing that an irritated nerve needs is to be pushed on and pulled on. Nerves can go from irritated to angry quiet quickly when this happens.

Before working on myofascial release, which is basically releasing tension in a muscle due to adhesions (knots) and tightness, do some gentle stretches to warm up the area. Crossing your ankle over your opposite thigh in a chair and leaning forward stretches the gluteus muscles of the hip. You can also do this move lying on your back. Bend your knees and cross one ankle over opposite thigh just like in the chair version. Bring legs towards your chest. This move not only loosens hip muscles, but also releases lower back tension. If you'd like a balance challenge, try doing this move standing. Do the stretch shown above, except don't use a chair. Now you're ready for the tennis ball. Lying on your back, place the ball underneath your buttocks in the center as seen in the picture above. As you place pressure on the ball, breath through the painful tension that is being released. In 30 seconds to a minute any discomfort should subside and then you can move or roll the ball to a different area until all the areas are covered. When you're finished, try doing the above stretches again and you should notice that you have more flexibility.

Chronic tightness in your calves can cause inflammation in the Achilles tendon.

Often painful sensations behind the knee or in the Achilles tendon area are caused by the calf muscles chronically being overly tight and inflexible. A combination of stretching and myofascial release can be helpful for this and eventually the inflamed areas will calm down and feel better. It can take 6-8 weeks for inflamed and irritated areas to improve, if proper care is taken. This would include not only therapeutically treating this area, but also taking it easy on activities such as running or jumping. Giving areas that hurt a rest can go a long way in making the ailment feel better.  Before you start with the tennis ball, loosen the calves with a gentle stretch by placing the heal down and lifting the ball of the foot up resting it on a higher surface. 

Hold this stretch statically for 30-60 seconds.

After stretching, sit on the floor and extend you leg out. Put the tennis ball under your calf muscle and bend and straighten your leg so that the ball can move up and down the muscle. Also try moving side to side. Be sure to not put the ball under the back side of your knee. This is a sensitive area that doesn't need deep pressure massage.  For more pressure, you can place your opposite leg on top of the leg that you are treating. After massaging your calf for a few minutes, do the stretches again to see if your calves are more flexible.  Try doing this several times a week to permanently increase the flexibility of your calves and improve the chances of issues like this from bothering you to begin with.

Another nice thing to try is to put two balls in a sock to reach more area at a time.

Although nothing is as good as a hands on therapeutic massage, it is important to practice self care until massage therapists are able to get back to their practices. We all hope that this happens soon. We miss seeing all of you and look forward to better times.

Take care and stay healthy!