Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo, and it's product review time again. The folks at
Beaver LAX sent me their massage ball plate. So let's get started.
So it's a pretty interesting story how the massage
ball plate came around. There's a family who invented this, and the mom ended up
getting cancer, and while she was working on getting better, the oldest son and the
dad decided to develop some things to be able to sell to help make some money. And
both of the sons play lacrosse and useful lacrosse balls for a trigger point
release, and so the oldest son developed this massage ball plate to help
kind of keep the ball in certain spots. So when you're using those trigger
points, the balls don't roll away, they stay in place. And what I really like
about the plate itself is you can see here it's foam, so it squishes. So a lot
of times when people have those trigger points it's really really painful if
you've had a trigger point. The plate not only helps keep the ball in place, but a
lot of times I feel like it helps give you some pressure, but not the full 100%
pressure. So if you're really really sore, you'd want to start out with a plate to
get some pressure in those pressure points, and then if you wanted full
pressure then you can easily take these out and do those as well. What's really
nice also with the massage ball plate, it comes with some little instructions here
that show you some trigger points and show you a couple ways to use it, and
there's also an e-guide that they send you that goes into a lot more detail of
how to do it with a massage ball plate and without the massage ball plate. So I
really like it because it's easy to take these in and out. You can put them in
different places if you want to, moving it around. The Beaver design is really
cute, I like that, and when you move it in different places,
you can just put it lightly in there, you don't have to force it in there because
once you lay on it then it'll go in there a little bit further. So that's
really nice as well. And if you just wanted more balls in there, you can get some more
lacrosse balls and put them in there, so that's really nice. And I like it now the
plate is designed, you can see how there's space here, so if you are lying
on it to do stuff on your back or your neck, you have this space here so it's on
each side so it's not pushing directly on the spine, it's pushing on those muscles
on the each side of the spine where usually those trigger points are because if
you do it directly on the spine, it's going to be very uncomfortable. So again this
is a nice way where it stays in place, so then it doesn't end up rolling on those
bony parts which are very uncomfortable, and I like that as well. But you can also
do this on your calf muscles on your thigh muscles, you can do it on your pecs,
your chest muscle here, and so there's a lot of different ways you can use it. You
can do it on your glutes as well, it's very versatile, so basically you can use
it anywhere, and again you can leave it in the plate have it stabilized, not
moving around, a little bit maybe less pressure, or you can take them out and
then have that direct pressure on there and push down as hard as you want to. So
I really like that component as well. So let me show you a couple different ways
to use it with the plate and then some without the plate as well just with the
lacrosse balls. The first one I'm going to show you is for the calves. So a calve
trigger point release. A lot of times if you're doing a lot of exercising,
running, even walking, you get a lot of tenderness trigger points in the calf
muscle, so I like to have it where it's lined up one in front of the other, so it
can get the whole calf area, and just kind of laying your leg on it just like
this. And so you can see that it's getting pressure on those spots. You can
either just relax the muscle and push down, and I can feel a really nice
pressure on the calf there, or you can actually come up a little bit and put
more body weight on it so that gets even more in there, and if you want to wiggle
it side to side, up and back and forth a little bit, that kind of gets those
muscles even more just moving around. But you can see what's great about it is
then the balls aren't rolling away or moving, you don't
have to go and grab them, but if you do want a specific spot just a little bit more, you
can just easily take it out, and then find that spot, and then to put it
directly on there. So you can see it's just getting a little bit more pressure
in that spot. You can move it around a little bit more like that, and then you
can still then come up and put some pressure on it as well just like that, so
that's nice and that really gets those spots, that gets that trigger point, and you
want to usually do it for 30, to 30 seconds to a minute, just to make sure
that you're really getting that spot. Most the time with those trigger points,
you'll feel it release, so you might need a little bit more, you might not need
quite that much depending on how strong and severe that trigger point is. So then
you can go into the glute muscles. A lot of times people have some some pain in
the glute muscle, the piriformis area right there, so same thing you can kind
of put the balls wherever you feel like it's going to get the areas or the spot
that you need. So if it's a bigger area where you're maybe the whole muscle is
sore, you can put it wider out in these here. I'm going to do a little bit closer
just because that glute spot where the piriformis is, usually isn't a very long
spot. And then again just kind of sitting on it, getting that pressure, you
don't necessarily have to move around. I can feel it right there. If you want to
move around just a little bit, you can and it gets some nice pressure in there,
and you can just hold it there, and then just right there I can feel my muscle
letting go and relaxing. So it doesn't take a whole lot unless you have a
really big strong significant trigger point, and then again if you do, you can
take that out, and then just kind of sit on it, but that is a lot a lot of
pressure to those, probably not something you want to start off with. You would
want to start off with the plate first. Make sure that the massage ball plate is
on a flat surface, especially when you're lying down, a nice firm surface will help
get that extra pressure in there that you need, so make sure that it's not
uneven or that it's on a really soft and probably something like a bed won't be
quite as beneficial. So lie down for the low back
since the low back has a little bit more space there, I'm going to put it down
where it's a little wider right here, and then just turning around I'm going to
kind of get it on that spot in that low back area, and just first of all I'm just
going to lean on it like this. Again if you have those trigger points, they're
probably going to be pretty tender, so you don't have to put 100% of your
pressure on it. I can feel them on those muscles right now even though I don't
have trigger points there, it feels really good. It's that kind of hurts so
good feeling, and then if you want more pressure on there, you can just go ahead
and lie all the way down on it. You know get a pillow if you needed to protect
your neck, so you don't have to strain that, but I feel like almost if I'm up on
my elbows for my lower back, it's getting a little bit more pressure on there than
lying all the way back. And again if you want a lot of pressure you take out the
lacrosse balls and just use those specifically. Also with lying down, if you
want to kind of go into the upper traps here, the neck area, then I'm going to go
back into the smaller area here, and I'm actually just going to turn it around
like this, and so that's going to get right between the neck area on those
upper traps, the levator muscles and everything like that. So I have a pony
tail, so it's not hitting quite as much, I'd probably take my ponytail out, but as you
can see right here, that's going to hit those spots. And just like that I can
feel that pressure on there. And a lot of people have those trigger points, the
upper trap, that levator scapula muscle because that's the one that we
pull up when we're stressed out. So again once you find the spot, and there it is,
it doesn't take a lot of pressure. I don't have to put my neck all the way
down, I can feel it right there, and if you want to kind of move your arms out a
little bit and push those down, that will help get it as well. And so again,
starting off you probably want it to be in the plate, it stays put, it's not quite
as much intense pressure, but if you want a little bit more pressure, just take the
lacrosse ball out,
and then do it that way. So if I was just if I was doing it directly, I'd probably
just do one ball at a time because again since it's not in the plate it's a
little bit harder to keep it in one spot, but you can do just one, put it right on
that spot, and then just kind of push down on it that way, and so that's a very
very intense trigger point spot, so again you might not want to start off with
that much, start off with the plate because it's a little more comfortable,
and it's going to hold it in that spot so you can just relax down on it and let
those muscles relax. You can also use this in a chair, so if you're at work, if
you're working on your computer, in class work, or something like that, you can put
it on the back of the chair and still have those trigger points. There are
hole openings here and here, so if you wanted it on a specific spot on your
chair, you could just put a string or little rope, and then tie it in that
specific spot, so it would stay there. So it's a really nice piece of equipment to
be able to use it in many different ways, and you can again, you know, use it with
the plates to start off with, and then if you want more intense later, you can take
those out and get really really specific spots and pressure on there. So there you
have it, that is the massage ball plate by Beaver LAX.
If you're interested in finding out more about the product, you can go to
beaverlax.com, and if you're interested in purchasing the product you can click up
here. And don't forget to subscribe to our channel by clicking down here.
And remember, be safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.