I've got 3 exercises for you to try in this video showing you how to use a massage ball to reduce shoulder tension.
Shoulders may be tight if you're sat at a desk for a long time. You might find that you end up lifting your shoulders up.
Sometimes it can be linked with breathing. Some people find the stress comes out on the shoulders.
So it might be for a number of reasons that you're actually feeling the tightness.
Using a massage ball is really an inexpensive way of just getting
a little bit of blood flow to the area which can make things feel a little bit more comfortable.
I'm using a spiky massage ball. You can also use a tennis ball.
So you've got smooth or you've got spiky and either or it's just really a personal preference as to which one you would rather use.
My name's Claire. I'm a Physiotherapist from PhysioFit Health.
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The first suggestion I'll go through is a really simple one with the ball.
The front of the shoulder can get quite tight if you sat down
and it can tend to roll forward so can be a lot of tension there without you really realizing.
So, what you're going to do with the ball is you're going to get it at the front of the shoulder using the other hand
and then you can just roll it side to side, up-down, round in a circle, and just see if you can find any tight areas.
You're going to do this for a minute, a couple of minutes at the most and then you're going to go on to the other side.
So, yeah nice and simple.
The second exercise is working the ball at the back of the shoulder.
Now, I'm just going to pop the towel around the ball just so that i don't mark the wall.
You want to get the ball at the back of the shoulder and then you want to
squash the ball against the wall just so you can have a little bit of leverage.
It's really a personal preference as to where you place the ball behind the shoulder.
So, feel free just to move the ball around a little bit just to see where it feels tight, where it feels quite nice to get that pressure.
Once you've got it there, a couple of things you can do with this one.
You can just hold the ball against the wall, so you've got that pressure on that one spot.
And then you can take 4 or 5 really nice big deep breaths
and it's the breath out that helps you or the body relax into that pressure point.
The other variation with this one is same as how you were using the ball at the front of the shoulder
You can be moving the ball up-down, side to side, round in a circle, just finding where those tight spots are.
If you find a really tight spot and it's really too uncomfortable,
just work around that area rather than directly on it.
You're trying to relax everything rather than increase the tension.
If it's too sore, you're just likely going to just start tensing up.
Same as the first one, this is 1 to 2 minutes within that area and then you're going to go over onto the other side.
For our third exercise with the ball is similar to the second one that we were talking about.
So, you do want to get the ball behind the shoulder and squash it against the wall.
I'm using the towel so I don't mark the wall.
And so, ball behind the shoulder and then you're going to squash it.
So, this time you're finding where it feels tight and you can actually start getting a little bit of movement.
With that, the arm on that side that you're working. So, I'm doing my right side, right arm.
I can lift the arm out to the side and I can work within the area that is feeling the most tight on this side.
As with everything, I actually think variety is pretty good so, you can move the arm out
to side but you can also try move the arm forward and you can even bring the hand
out to keeping the elbow nice and still. So, just a couple of different variations for you to try.
Again, I'd suggest 1 or 2 minutes at a time. It doesn't have to be too long and then you are going to try on the other side.
Try one of these exercise suggestions or all three and just see really what works for you.
In the description below, we'll put some links to other videos we've created on the shoulder.
It's really worthwhile when you're trying to loosen any tightness or tension from the shoulder.
Worthwhile adding in some strength endurance exercises
just so, you can get the most benefit out of what you're doing.
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