Back pain and other aches throughout the body can inhibit your everyday life whether you are a dancer, athlete or neither! It decreases your range of movement and your body compensates for this by putting additional strain on other parts of your body. To have regular deep tissue or sports massage can be expensive or hard to fit into a busy lifestyle. This is why so many of us struggle along and can ultimately lead to surgery or joint replacements in later life.
Body aches and pains can be a result of the DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) through rigorous exercise, from tension which has built up slowly, or remnants from an injury. Easing this muscle soreness is now big business for pharmaceutical companies who rely on paracetamol and other pain killing drugs to mask the pain. Whilst they can be effective, they do not treat the cause of the pain inside the muscle fibres. The pain then typically returns once the effects of drugs have lapsed. This can be the start of a vicious circle and no surprise why so many people use pain killers daily to manage back and general body pains.
The good news is there are inexpensive and effective ways of relieving the pain and releasing the tension……………..
The use of either a tennis ball or firm small ball is a fantastic way of easing out the knots in muscle fibres. You simply need to place the ball on areas where you feel muscle tension whilst laying down on the floor. The other fantastic and perhaps more multifunctional method is rolling out with a pilates foam roller. You can purchase these for around £10 from any major health and fitness retailer. By using a foam roller you can pretty much release tension from anywhere in the body. Just roll the pilates roller up and down, or side to side on the area of concern (just like a rolling pin).
Deep tissue massage on a weekly basis will not only ease your tension but help to shape a toned body and prevent/improve cellulite by encouraging blood flow packed with oxygen to these areas. You will also benefit from ‘waking’ parts of your body which typically get neglected (like the middle of your back, Achilles tendon etc) and creating more physical awareness and connectivity.
Do not just suffer, do something about it. Get your equipment this week and tune in to these You Tube channels to transform your body!
Posture Video’s ‘Remove muscle knots yourself’ is a great guide and also American Yogini’s, ‘use a tennis ball to relax’ has a couple of good exercises too if you are using the tennis ball method.
The best video guidance on rolling out is certainly Ashley Borden’s rolling out guides.