Fitness Mad Massage Ball Set

Product Information

The weight of the massage ball isn’t as important as the other qualities, however, if you want to transport your massage balls as you travel, then lighter is better. One trigger point therapy treatment completely relieved a nasty stubborn hip pain that I'd had for five months! ” ~Jan Campbell, retired French language teacher, Palm Springs, recovered easily from several months of hip pain

It goes without saying that you'll want your massage ball to stand up to prolonged use, so it's important to choose massage balls that are made from durable materials and are designed to withstand repeated use without breaking down.

A massage ball’s density will determine how intense of a massage it provides along with the size of the ball. Fibromyalgia is a name given to a clinical syndrome whose main features currently are the presence of chronic pain simultaneously in many areas of the body together with multiple somatic symptoms. In particular, persistent and substantial fatigue, sleep disturbance and cognitive difficulties are among the most common of the symptoms. Decreased pain threshold is almost always found, and is strongly correlated with the extent of body pain. Because the symptoms and their intensity are variable, the boundaries of fibromyalgia are somewhat indistinct. The identification of fibromyalgia is based on the overall severity of symptoms. The gold standard for necessary severity was set by the 1990 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria: roughly, it is the level of symptoms found in persons with ≥11/18 tender points when examined by capable examiners. As fibromyalgia symptoms at less than criteria level are often found before fibromyalgia is diagnosed, it is uncertain when fibromyalgia begins. There are no consistent clinical laboratory or imaging abnormalities. Some trigger balls have grooves all over them to help get into the trigger points more effectively. You can also try a spikey massage ball for your myofascial release ball exercises. What’s more, is that most of them are cheap yet will provide benefits much greater than their initial costs. If you don’t have a trigger point ball, you can start by using a tennis ball. A tennis ball massage may be perfectly effective for some parts of your body. It might not be hard enough for others, which is where trigger point balls (which are a lot harder) are very useful.

A sore throat or a lump in the throat is often caused or aggravated by trigger points anywhere around the throat. 48Smith DR. Prevalence and Distribution of Musculoskeletal Pain Among Australian Medical Students. Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain. 2007 Aug 29;15(4). Massage balls are used to apply extremely firm and targeted pressure directly to the muscle for deep compression and release. Ideal for targeting small muscles such as calves, piriformis and pecs. Many years later that organization still has only a few dozen certified therapists in its directory, and yet it remains one of the few and largest directories of its kind. If you live in a big city, there’s a fair to middlin’ chance that you can find one of those therapists. But certification of trigger point therapists is generally an amateurish and fragmented mess, with many businesses and organizations competing to be the standard. (Even this document is part of the mess: a sanity-inducing part of the mess, hopefully, but nevertheless a good example of how everyone and their dog is out there trying to provide “the best” information/training/therapy in this field.)

Certification Board for Myofascial Trigger Point Therapists [PRO] [PATIENT] — A small professional organization for trigger point therapists dedicated to “advancing the professional standards of myofascial trigger point therapists through the establishment and maintenance of criteria and procedures for certification.” They offer a modest directory of a few dozen trigger point therapists around the United States. I hope you have enjoyed learning how to use a trigger point ball. What are your favorite trigger point therapy ball exercises? I’d love to hear how you get on with these exercises so please do leave a comment in the box below! Too negative specifically. Some are offended by my criticisms of a treatment option that they personally use and like. Or sell! Modernized: Dramatically improved the tone of the introduction to the “medical” section of the book with a healthy dose of skepticism. I’ve added what I hope is a persuasive warning about how easy and dangerous it is to start blaming things we don’t really understand. [Updated section: Medical Factors That Perpetuate Pain: The effect of statin drugs, nutritional and hormonal deficiencies, infections, and inflammatory diseases.] Both the foam roller and massage ball are what one would consider as essentials in any myofascial release toolkit.

Estimates of the incidence of repetitive strain injuries generally range from 3-6% of all cases requiring time away from work. In comparison, MPS is ubiquitous. In my own clinical experience, treating RSIs represent a negligible fraction of my work, whereas MPS is either a cause or complicating factor in nearly every case I treat — including the RSIs! In 1996, Interiors and Sources magazine reported that, “the total number of serious injuries or illnesses attributed to all repetitive motion was just ... four percent of the total number of cases requiring time away from work. Of those, the majority of cases or 53 percent were recorded in the manufacturing sector ... ‘Clearly, most repetitive motion injuries are not occurring in the offices of America,’ said PJ Edington and executive director of the Center for Office Technology (COT). ‘And the so-called epidemic of office-related repetitive motion injuries reported in the media has been a clear case of misdiagnosis.’” It’s also much easier to roll up and down with this kind of massage ball as it stays in one trajectory rather than rolling around. This may seem obvious, but it’s actually disputed by some people, believe it or not. Like everything in biology, “it’s complicated,” but I think the argument was settled by a little science experiment in 2004 ( Graven-Nielsen etal), which showed that subjects could still feel pressure and painful pressure on muscles even with anaesthetized skin. I’ll bring this up again later on when we get deeper into the biology of TrPs. Too advanced. Although I work hard to “dumb” the material down, quite a few people still just find it too dense and dorky. Thank you so much for taking the time to put this book together, and in a way that makes it feel like you wrote it just for me! You have a great writing style.

David G. Simons Academy ( DSGA) [PRO] [PATIENT] — Dr. Simons co-authored the famous big red texts — the seminal text on myofascial pain syndrome — with Dr. Janet Travell. DGSA is named in his honour, and has offered courses in dry needling and manual trigger point therapy worldwide since 1995 (although they seem to be primarily serving Europe). They are hardly the only provider of such workshops, but I single them out because I specifically appreciate their attitude towards certification: they offer to teach skills, not certification levels in a branded treatment “system.” (I don’t necessarily object to branding of training, but I prefer this more academic approach to training.) They maintain a decent bibliography of trigger point research. (See also Seminarios Travell & Simons, offering trigger point courses in Spain led by Orlando Mayoral — there is a regular exchange of experience between DGSA and Orlando Mayoral.)

Frequently asked questions about this book

Beginners may find it extremely painful to use, however over time and with enough use you should get used to it. One trigger point therapy treatment completely relieved a nasty stubborn hip pain that I'd had for five months! You’ll want to choose a ball that’s dense enough to provide a deep tissue massage without causing too much pain. This is just one interesting example of research on this topic. For a bigger picture view, see the next note. Firstly I would like to thank you for your Trigger Point therapy book, which is very easy to read and follow (and the witty sense of humor doesn’t hurt!).