Brad Heineck, Physical Therapist and Bob's not here today
But he is also a physical therapist and you may have heard him say that many times if you have watched our videos
anyways
we are the most famous
physical therapists on the Internet. Of course I say in our opinion. so
Today we're going to get right to business, so we're going to talk about this little tool that can help you with a little self massage
And make you feel better all the way from your foot to your neck. Okay. It's not just a sock
It's not just a sock, but in this sock We do have two common items that you can pick up
At any store, it is a simple tennis ball
And the sock we'll get back to that later
I just have a second one in there, but this tennis ball is a wonderful tool
It can be used for self massage. To start, you put your foot on the tennis ball.
This will make your foot smile and make you a happy person
And you simply do this you get the ball on your foot and you work it back and forth
And especially on the arch. I really like that there's some
Intrinsic muscles in that foot that get tired by the end of the day
It will relax the tiny little muscles in the foot and increase the circulation.
It will put a smile on your face
Make sure you do both feet of course or you might walk in circles after a while
Just kidding, another joke
Okay, but anyways that's the first part next
We're going to use this. If you ever have any pain in your low back or in the buttocks
There's a muscle called the piriformis muscle very commonly treated
by therapists.
And it's a muscle right here in the buttocks right there it connects from your sacrum over to your hips.
Matter of fact, I'm going to show you where this is
On the spine. Normally I would ask
Nancy to throw the spine in, but I know she doesn't like to do that. So I'll just get it myself today here we
go if you look at this
Right there
the sacrum across to the greater trochanter
There's a muscle that goes from here over to that bone right where my fingers are and from there to there that
Muscle tightens up sometimes, creating pain here. Also the sciatic nerve is located beneath this muscle. And the nerve is pinched, often
creating burning pain and numbness. Sometimes we need to work out this muscle.
You can request
a massage therapist to massage it. Yet if you're all by yourself go to your friendly tennis ball
Put it on the floor
You've got to get right over that muscle. Now it is going to take some weight control from your arms and your feet. You will get right over
that muscle and when you hit that hot spot that trigger point you're gonna feel it. It's going to make you say
"oww". But it should be one of those things where "ooh" it hurts so good
Okay as you are on the ball for about 20 to 30 seconds. It should start to relax and symptoms should start to go away
If you stay on the trigger point for 20 or 30 seconds, it's just more tender and worse
That amount of time is too aggressive. it's not the right thing to do. Simply stop that and get a cold pack and put it on the trigger point
Okay, now. We're going to work on the back.
Right up in here between the shoulder blade in the back, I noticed
there's a trigger point there, and there's another one right up in here and
Those tight muscles are trigger points. a muscle that tightens up from stress or other activities
It is a tight feeling and it is uncomfortable, and you need to work on that. If there's no-one
to give you a massage
a spouse, a massage therapist or other provider.
You can do it by yourself with again the friendly tennis ball
Oops, this is a little bit hard to get
To work on it there we go now. I'm on the spot, and I'm just gonna roll that tennis ball up and down
Or back and forth you'll know
This is a little bit harder to do it whoa and this gets a little aggressive
I can already feel it. I'm on it right now. I'm gonna hold on it for a little bit relax and breathe
You can add a pillow underneath your neck, so that your neck does not get sore. Repeat
20 to 30 seconds again, and I can already feel it start to relax. I can feel another trigger point on my left side, where I can repeat the massage.
Come over here
Right back here
This one doesn't work really good for me but
someone else may be able to get it in there. Some people are really flexible. Do the same thing that you do on the
floor now. You're probably wondering what about the sock. Yeah?
I'm gonna say here it is
alright
Now you can take this and you can spin it round like that, but that's not gonna do anything for your back
So you take your sock with the one tennis ball in there, and drop the second tennis ball in.
And then you give this spin move don't hit yourself in the head
There you go two tennis balls side by side now those actually
Line up pretty darn close with the two muscle groups on each side of your spine right there
which
Right below my fingers now. I need to get those
Right here
This can be a little challenging when you're by yourself, but again. This is self-treatment
and you can roll the ball right up and down
Oh, that's good because right in those two major muscles your rector spinal muscle groups and your back that can tighten up
Especially if you're working at a computer all day long and you're all tense
Take a deep breath relax right into it all that feels good
Alright, I suppose I shouldn't take a nap. That's all we have today
How to use tennis balls for self-massage. Self-treatment from the feet to
the piriformis muscle and the back.