Do you want an effective way to self-treat & resolve pain? Take a minute to read this article for some helpful tips.
Trigger Point Therapy – Quick Pain Relief Techniques using a Lacrosse Ball
Hopefully you’ve already read our article on Trigger points & muscle spasms and why they occur. If not, take a moment to familiarise yourself. If you already know, Read On!
Ever moved your body in a certain way and all of a sudden you’ve felt a sharp pain? Your immediate response is to take your hand, find the point of pain and what do you find, a really tight muscle, or a muscle spasm. Then what’s our natural instinct? Push on it! Sometimes you can resolve the pain but other times it just won’t go away.
Have you ever had a physiotherapy session? Walked in with excruciating pain and at the end of the session told your physio, “I don’t know what you just did to me, but I feel a million times better?”. Well here’s one of the techniques that we use to get that effect and we want to share it with you. Sometimes, the pain you experience may just need a bit more pressure than what your fingers can produce.
Ever seen or used one of these red balls? This could be your new best friend that works at decreasing the pain associated with muscle spasms of trigger points. We recommend that every person have access to a lacrosse ball at all times, whether it’s in your office, at the gym or at home. 5 minutes with this bad boy can give you a world of relief from all that built up stress throughout your day.
Made of solid rubber, this is one of the most effective self-release tools available and they are cheap at less about $15-20.
Here’s how you do it!
Trigger Point Therapy
If you missed our previous article on Trigger points & muscle spasms. A trigger point is simply described as a small knot in the muscle that is tender to push on. Now what do you do with it?
Push on it harder!
Essentially the foundation of trigger point therapy resolves around applying pressure to painful knots in your muscle that help elicit a relaxation response. When you perform your self-releases, if it hurts then you know you’re on the right spot!
But what do I do?
If you follow these simple tips you can deliver an effective release independently;
- Place the lacrosse ball around the affected area, explore and find a knotted-up muscle that produces a strong pain single
- Now knead it out! Either stay in the same position or slowly move the ball around the area
- RELAX – The normal response is to contract and fight against the pain, but if you don’t relax, you will achieve nothing
- Apply direct pressure for 30 seconds to 5 minutes.
- ALWAYS RETEST – how will you know if you’ve made an improvement if you don’t retest after you treat yourself?
Now let’s get into the fun (or painful) stuff!
Neck Pain
Ever found that your neck was stuck in position, stiff or painful when you move it. If you have a desk job, this is not an uncommon occurrence. Symptomatically, your body will almost always respond by spasming up certain muscle groups which unfortunately give rise to trigger points. The muscles often affected are the levator scapula, scalenes and upper trapezius. Grab that ball and explore those tight next areas!
Low Back pain
Whether you happen to have pain from a long day sitting at the office or if you’ve pulled your back at the gym. You’ll find that your pelvis and spine have put themselves in strange positions and there will be localised points of tenderness on either side of your back. Place the lacrosse ball towards the side of your spine and relax your body weight into it!
Shoulder pain
Have you ever raised your arms overhead or performed a shoulder press and had this annoying shoulder pain that doesn’t go away? Well you might have a shoulder impingement! Put simply, this means some tendons inside your shoulder joint are getting squashed. Quite often, tightness in your posterior capsule causes the shoulder joint to be pulled further into the socket, reducing the available space for your rotator cuff tendons. Give this posterior capsule release a go!
Arm pain
Do you experience pain on the inside or outside of your elbow? Maybe it was from performing a long game of a golf/tennis. Perhaps it was when you performed a dynamic movement rock-climbing, or even simply picking up a heavy object from the ground? Whatever it might be, pain in this area is attributed to attachments of the muscles in your wrist. When they become too tight or you sustain an injury, the repetitive pulling on the bony attachment causes pain. Pain in these areas are commonly known as Tennis Elbow (below – top) and Golfers Elbow (below – bottom). Give them a bit of love and fix that injury with these simple releases!
Hip Pain
The piriformis is often a nasty contributor to a variety of problems including low back pain, sciatica and piriformis syndrome. Tightness in this area can compress the sciatic nerve which elicits all sorts of pain responses. Because of its direct connection to the pelvic, if this muscle is overly tight it can pull your lower back into positions they shouldn’t be in.
If you experience any of these, give this is a shot! Be warned though, this will be one of the most brutal releases there is. When you hit the spot, you’ll know! But don’t be worried, breathe, relax into it and you’ll find a world of relief.
Place the lacrosse ball around your glut area. If you feel a sharp pain, perhaps even referral into your legs, you’ve found it!
Leg Pain
Generalised leg pain is not uncommon. After all you must use them every day. But what’s worse if you do not use them enough! Having a desk job causes a world of problems for muscle and joint health. Sitting down for extended periods causes all the muscle in your lower half to tighten up. So, the next time you need to get active and feel all that excess pain, it may be due to increased stiffness.
If you read our Shin Splints article you may have seen the image on the left before. Place one lacrosse ball on the outside of your shin, and compress a second into the inside. Works Great!
Pain in your knee? Having an overly tight ITB and Quadricep causes the attachments into your knee to pull too hard. Combining a lacrosse pain release to get into the specific nasty spots with a foam roller is a great way to manage this!
Foot Pain
Do you have pain on the underside of your foot when you walk/run? Well you may have a condition called plantar fasciitis. Underneath your foot you have strong connective tissue that acts to maintain a stable arch and prevent your foot from collapsing. When micro tears start forming the band becomes inflamed and tightens up. This results on the band pulling on its bony attachments.
Place the ball underneath your foot with moderate pressure (be gentle, this one is sensitive!) and roll back and forth to loosen it up! You’ll be surprised at how well this works.
