If you have knotted and painful muscles in your back, youll be experiencing some discomfort or even serious pain. Some back, neck or shoulder areas can be really hard to reach. But you may not have to lay out cash on a professional massage. Heres a self-massage tip from John Jackson, manual handling trainer for Alistair Bromhead Ltd, back care specialist and experienced sports therapist.
Get yourself a tennis ball
Before you start your massage treatment, warm up the affected area. You can have a hot shower, lie in a hot bath, or apply a heat pad or hot water bottle.
Now lie on the floor or stand against a wall with the tennis ball between you and the flat surface. Most people find it easier lying down, but as long as you can maintain pressure with the tennis ball, and are able to relax as you do it, you can choose your position. Bend your knees and keep your feet flat on the floor.
Roll around on the ball until it is on the most painful spot. You now have to apply enough pressure to feel a strong sensation, but not serious pain. Think of this discomfort as ten in a scale of ten. At this point you need to maintain the pressure but relax as much as you can until the sensation reduces to what you judge to be seven and eight of your scale of ten. Sometimes this takes only a few seconds or it can be minutes before you recognise this release. Now apply more pressure and wait again for the release point.
After Care
Afterwards its important to stretch the muscle and move it around, so do one or two stretching exercises. Now you can go on to massage another knotted area if required, but if you have other sore areas, dont try to treat too many at a time.
Perform this self-massage technique daily for a few days and dont take strenuous exercise until at least 24 hours after the last treatment. If the knots and pain still havent subsided, thats when you need to seek professional help.