Tennis Ball Part 1: A Tool You Never Knew You Had
Feeling sore, tight and fatigued? You’ve stretched until the cows came home but you really don’t fee any better. You’ve deloaded, done your recovery session, even taken a hot bath. You know what you need is some deep, hard, painful soft tissue work. Oh how nice a massage would be right now. The problem is not all of us have the time or the money to invest in some good soft tissue work. Want a cheap yet extremely effective way to get rid of your aches and pains? Go out to your backyard and steal your dogs tennis ball…with a little understanding and application, this little baby is going to become your new best friend.
What Is A Trigger Point?
A trigger point is a specific area in the muscle where the fibres are over active and cannot relax and release from their contracted state. Most of us at some point in time would have referred to this as a knot.
Trigger points can be actively painful, i.e. you feel the pain at the site or because of the trigger point. They can also be completely pain free, unless they are poked and touched. These are called latent trigger points. Both will cause you issues and further pain.
If you want more information about how to find trigger points, check out this book review, the trigger point therapy workbook.
Diagram from Tandem Point Therapy
What Is Myofascial Pain Syndrome?
Myo is referring to the muscle; fascia is the stuff that covers the muscles. Myofascial Pain Syndrome is therefore when you experience pain as a result of dysfunction in your muscles and fascia. It is basically a fancy name for muscle pain. Myofascial Pain Syndrome occurs when a muscle and/or its fascia has trigger points.
How Do Trigger Points Cause Pain
Not only do some trigger points hurt you right on the spot, they can get you in places totally unrelated. A big symptom of a trigger point is its referred pain. Trigger points have the ability to send their pain to another part of the body. Trigger points can cause:
- Neck Pain
- Jaw Pain
- Back Pain
- Headaches
- Tennis Elbow
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- General Muscle & Joint Pain
Often joint pain we experience is simple referred pain from trigger points. It is common to feel referred pain from a trigger point in your wrists, shoulders, knees and hips. To test it out, extend your wrist. The muscle that pops out on the top of your forearm is a common place for latent trigger points. Press around there, you are most likely going to find some sore points! Some of you will even find pressing on those sore points will refer pain down to your wrist.
Sometimes, you just don’t know they are there. In this case, it’s not too serious, but if you have knee pain and it is because you have some trigger points in your calves, it is very easy for it go unnoticed and untreated. In fact, this is a common cause, or secondary cause of knee pain. The pain caused by latent trigger points is often more worrying than those of active ones. Trigger points make the muscle tighter and shorter, often reducing range of motion. If you don’t know they are there, chances are they will go untreated and can lead to further injury and bad mechanics.
pic: johnny alive
Tennis Balls Rock
We have seen and discussed the benefits of foam rolling. But, a tennis ball allows you to be a lot more focused and really get into your trigger points. Active and Latent! Trigger points respond to pressure. You only have to touch one or have one touched to feel the pain it elicits. As you work through the point you find the pain diminishes as the trigger point starts to disappear.
There are quite a few spots in the body you should be working on, so I have split this post into 3 parts. Part 2 will look at areas of your lower body that need attention, and Part 3 will focus on the upper body. Until then, go and find yourself a tennis ball. A good stretch will help, but doing this soft tissue work will make you feel better, I guarantee.
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10 Responses to “Tennis Ball Part 1: A Tool You Never Knew You Had”
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Tight Hips?
Long term pain from shortened hip muscles can mean permanent hip, knee and lowback damage. Target the muscles involved with specific Stretch Away Pain exercises to reduce and eliminate hip pain. Muscle pain is due to muscle shortening.
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Great post Lauren. Found it quite informative, particularly the trigger points in the calves referring pain to the knees. I’ll start working on my calves!
Thanks fit man,
Part 2 will look at exactly how to do that!
Cheers.
Nice post, Lauren. The trigger points diagram is GREAT! Never tried a tennis ball, but I’ve one of these things forever. They’re super useful for getting into trigger points.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to the rest of this series.
Philip
Thanks Phillip, I have seen those things before. Anything is good, as long as you can get stuck into your trigger points! Tennis balls are just something most people have around the house already, and quite convenient!
“The muscle that pops out on the top of your forearm is a common place for latent trigger points.” My forearm gets sore from being on the computer all day and I can sure feel it when I try to massage it out.
The info on knee pain is making me think….I’ve been using my rebounder and maybe I’ve got some trigger points that need to be worked out in my calves because my knees didn’t hurt when I first started using it…hmmm, thanks!
Hey Jolynn
Thanks for all of your comments and support! I’m glad my articles could be of help to you.
You may be spot on with the knee pain, Give your calves a try. Chances are you have some latent trigger points in there that need working though anyway!
Hope to see you around here again soon
Cheers
I never heard of using a tennis ball like this. It sounds interesting. I will have to read your other posts to see the practical application.
Wow! This is great stuff! Very informative. I will make sure to use these techniques.
Thanks, Lisa
I can’t believe after all these years of suffering that this is what may be wrong with me!! I’ve been in pain since i was a child, (i’m 45 now) it started when i had leg pains and the doctor told me to lay in bed with my legs up for two weeks, then as the years have gone on, gradually the chronic pain has rose up my body. I got pains in my chest like a pulled muscle and couldn’t breath and I have recently had a neck operation as the tightness has caused my vertebrae to stick into my spinal cord. I have recently found a new physio, well he’s a soft tissue specialist really and after about 10 visits he has mentioned to me that that this (Fascia) may be my problem. I’m just on with printing out all the info on your site so i can maybe digest it more on paper. Has anyone else been through the same as me??
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