Self Care – Massage Tips

A list of tools 🛠 that you can use to do self care and self 💆massage.⠀
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💦Water bottle, if you use the smaller Costco bottles, you can fill them with water, freeze it and use it as a replacement for a roller. If you are not using it to reduce inflammation (ie. plantar fascitits) you can always wrap a hand towel over it so that you can use the firmness but not ice at the same time.⠀
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🎾Any kind of sports ball can be used as well for those nagging pain points in your shoulders or upper back area. PLEASE do be careful when using these smaller objects on your gluteas (ie.sciatic) as you could irritate the nerve by over doing it. ⠀
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🧺Laundry balls 

🙂 this was my new discovery, if you have ones with little spikes, these work wonders on targeting some of the small forearm muscles (ie.tennis elbow/golfers elbow)⠀
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🍷Bottle of wine, this came as a suggestion from a client a little while back. The neck of the bottle provides a great “handle” to grip while using it to massage your thighs, side of leg, calves. ⠀
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👉Rolling pin, are you a baker? If you have a rolling pin in the house, you can use this as a replacement for a foam roller- you can also cover this with a towel to lessen the pressure.

🏑Cane- the hook part of the cane, is very useful for the upper shoulder area and upper back, which we can’t always reach.⠀
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🌱Back rest of a chair, this is my fave for upper neck, resting your head back on the chair. Using the edge of the back rest to apply slight pressure on the smaller cervical muscles that go from the base of the skull to the first couple vertebra. USE with caution!⠀
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👉Using the edge of your countertop can be useful to help with the forearm muscles. This is very similar to a technique known as Graston. In which a tool is used to scrape the top layers of the skin, this will help bring blood to the area. You may hear a “Rice Krispie” sound and that it’s 👍. Great tip for tennis 🎾 and 🏌️‍♀️ elbow. You can ice your elbows after this technique if you are suffering from a tendinitis flare up.⠀
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👉If you have a foam roller or any other fancy roller, use these to help with decreasing tension and helping increase the blood flow. ⠀
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Stay Healthy. Stay Safe.