Hey everybody, it's Doctor Jo. Today I'm gonna show you how to roll out some muscles. If
you have tight muscles, painful muscles, muscle spasms, or even trigger points in your muscles,
a good way to work those out is to use a stick or a roller. You can use any stick or roller,
you can even use a rolling pin, but TUFF Active Gear actually sent me this TUFF STX. It's
really neat, I like this a lot for several reasons. But the biggest one is that it's
made in the USA! It also has a core steel on the inside, which makes it so you can't
bend it. A lot of other rollers that you get are made from plastic and so when you actually
roll it on your body, it kind of bends and then it loses the specific pressure to the
points on your body that you're rolling it on. So I really like that. But even though
it's nice and firm, it's got this squishy foam so it's not painful on the muscles, it
makes it nice and comfortable here, but it gives you that firm pressure that you need.
It also has some pretty firm, but soft points on the end for the trigger points. So I really
like this specific roller, and if you'd like to check out some more in-depth on it, you
can go to TUFFActiveGear.com to learn more information about it. So let me show you a
couple ways to roll out different muscles starting kind of from your neck and going
all the way down. The reason that I like this one again is because it's so firm, you can
use one hand if you want to. So just starting here kind of on that levtator scap muscle,
which is a big one that gets tight a spasmed out when you have a lot of tension, or you're
working on the computer a lot. So you can just roll it out nicely here, or if you want
to use actually both hands to get a little more pressure you can. As you can see, it's
nice and compact, so you don't have this big long thing to carry around with you so if
you wanted to take it to work, you can actually take it to work with you and it's pretty easy
to travel. Another one that I really like is to work your forearm muscles, which again
can get very tired if you're working on the computer, or if you're doing repetitive movements.
Kind of brace it between your leg in a vertical position, and then you can kind of just roll
on the inside, and then you can roll on the outside. Now make sure when you're rolling,
if you have not rolled your muscles before, start off gently. Don't push really hard because
you can make yourself sore. If you have specific injuries or a diagnosis of some kind of disease,
make sure you check with your healthcare provider because sometimes you;re not actually supposed
to roll out the muscles if you have something specific going on. So make sure that if you
have something, check with your doctor or physical therapist. This next one here is
for the quad. I really like this one cause a lot of times the quad muscle is gonna get
really, really tight for people. So it's a great way just to kind of roll everything
out. Then you can also move to the IT Band which is gonna be one of those sensitive ones
that's always gonna be kind of tight. So this might be one where you want to start off really
gently and then if it feels good, you can push a little bit harder. Make sure that you
know the difference between pain and just working it out kind of pain. So if it's just
pain, pain, you want to stop. I always call a stretching kind of pain a good hurt, or
hurt so good. So this is moving down to the anterior tibialis. This is where someone might
have shin splints on the front here, so this one is another great way to kind of roll it
out. And then you can actually move down to your calves. And you can also put it on the
ground here and roll out your foot. You can roll it on the foam part, or you can actually
get a little firmer texture and roll it on the handle if you want to to get that plantar
fascia down there just in case you have plantar fasciitis or something like that. Then you
can also take the end and use if for a trigger point. So let's say my pecs are really tight
here, I can just take that end and apply a little bit of pressure there to help that
muscle relax. You can also, if you work with your hands a lot, you might have some tension
in the thumb muscle here, and you can just put some pressure on it this way. So as you
can see, there's a lot of great ways to use a rolling stick to get those muscle spasms,
muscle pain, tenderness, tightness, even trigger points out. If you'd like to find out some
more information about the stick I used, the TUFF STX, go to TUFFActiveGear.com. If you're
interested in purchasing the stick, you can go to my website at our product store AskDoctorJo.com/products.
If you have any questions, leave them in the comments section. Don't forget to follow me
on Facebook and Twitter. And remember, be safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better
soon.