Medicine balls are a great exercise tool. They can also be very effective for self massage. I highly recommend getting regular soft tissue work, but people often don’t get treatment as much as they should.

You can increase the pressure of the self massage by getting harder and or smaller objects. Smaller objects like golf balls are great for focusing on a small area, but it takes longer to work on a big muscle like the quads. The medicine ball is great for soft tissue work because of its shape and pressure. This lets you do big muscles as well as being able to focus on small areas.

I like to get people to progress to harder or smaller objects when they are able to relax during the treatment and they feel what they are using is not working as effectively. If you’re not sure how relaxed your muscle should feel, contract the muscle hard and then relax it. The ball should sink in to your muscle.

Self massage can be used to help improve your range of motion, quality of motion and help you recover from exercise. If you are using it to help improve your mobility, after you're finished with the massage, use the new range of motion in a mobility drill. This will help your body remember how to use this new range of motion. This is not a treatment for acute injury! Go and see a medical professional if you are injured.

The best tool you can use to self massage your hands is a golf ball. Place the golf ball on a hard surface and roll it around under your palm. Find the tight spots and work on them. You can use medicine balls on your forearms, but I’ve found using your knee or elbow is more effective. It sounds weird but give it a go, it works really well.

Tips:

* Focus on tight spots.
* Take the muscle through its range of motion or if it is really painful maintain the pressures until the pain subsides.
* Do not fight the pressure, learn to relax into it.

When you find a tight spot, taking the muscle through its range of motion helps to free it up, because it lengthens the tight fibres under the pressure.

Tags: Prehab/rehab medicine balls medicine ball training