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Best Self Massage Tools

March 13, 2010 by Lisa

I am a big fan of self massage and I have tried dozens of tools to help me achieve it effectively.

There were 4 things that, combined, helped me reverse fibromyalgia, and they were:

1) Releasing negative emotions and cultivating positive emotions
2) stretching
3) trigger point treatment via self-massage and other bodywork
4) guaifenesin

There were many other things that I did and that contributed to the overall healthy, good-feeling body I have now, but these were the 4 biggest ones.

So, I consider myself an expert on self-massage tools. Here’s my favorites, in order of how much I like them:

#1 Best Self Massage Tool – The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook

So this is the trigger point bible. I love it. It helped me reverse my fibromyalgia. From it, I learned what trigger points are, what causes them and perpetuatues them, how to treat them to get rid of them, what tools to use, and WHERE the trigger points were. This last part was so important because trigger points cause referred pain, which means that where you are feeling the pain is not where the area that needs to be massaged is.

Example from my own body: I had a burning pain in my upper back after exercise. I treated it with heat for hours but it never went away. I pulled out my book and discovered that the pain was coming from muscles in the front and sides of my neck. Massaging them caused the pain to go away right away.

another example: I was jumping on the trampoline with my son and had a sharp, shooting pain in my ankle that stopped with rest but then hurt every time I walked. Sounds like I sprained my ankle, right? nope – I pull out the book and discover that I had a trigger point in a long skinny muscle on the outside of my calf. Treating it eliminated the shooting pain.

These are the kind of sneaky, insidious pains that trigger points cause. If we can’t find them we can’t treat them, and if we can’t treat them they don’t go away, and when we get enough of them, we are overpowered. sigh. I think this is one way that fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, AND chronic myofascial pain start.

So get the book – keep if forever. And then you will have the power to help yourselves, your family, and your friends become free from chronic pain.

“I am literally better off knowing about trigger points than I would be if I had won a million dollars.”
A quote by birdie, a reviewer of the Trigger Point Therapy Workbook on the amazon sales page for it. I totally agree with birdie.

#2 Best Self Massage Tool – Sky Ball

This is a toy I picked up for my son at Walmart one day. I was mostly cured from fibromyalgia already but still treating myself for the odd trigger point I developed.

In the Trigger Point Workbook they recommend using a tennis ball or a super ball for self massage, depending on where you massage or how hard you want the pressure to be. I always had several super balls and tennis balls in socks around the house so I could pick one up and use the sock to drop it behind my back and rub against a wall

ball massage against wall Well, one day I spied this ball sitting around and tried it for self massage instead. It was vastly superior over both tennis and super balls. You don’t need a sock, it’s easy to manuever behind your back, it can get many muscles at once but is hard enough to still provide good pressure to all of them.

You can do your hips and calves and even the front of your body easily because it is big enough that you aren’t squishing yourself against the wall or floor while you try to massage.

I no longer have balls in socks everywhere. I just have this ball, and it is the only self-massage tool I still use on a regular basis. If you are treating hands or feet though, you may still need a super ball. If you don’t have any kids, you can find super balls in those quarter machines at the front of supermarkets.

#3 Best Self Massage Tool: AccuMassage

This thing is the best darn neck self-massager available. You can get leverage, so you don’t have to do much actual work with your muscles, and the balls just really get into your scalenes and sternocleidomastoids.

I love this massager. I highly recommend it for anyone with headaches or neck issues and especially anyone with fibromyalgia.

I don’t like it for anything but the neck, but it’s too perfect at the neck.

#4 Best Self Massage Tool: The Knobble

Perfect for strong pressure on one trigger point, but it saves your hands. You can also put it on a table and do your palms or put it on the ground and press your feet onto it.

Great tool, especially if you find individual trigger points that are just huge and horrible, like one I had on the outside of my right calf that caused what the army doctor called sciatica and was caused by too much driving (and my tense nature).

That trigger point sat dormant for something like 10 years before I ever discovered it was there, and then it took several months of working with a knobble before it finally went away.

#5 Best Self Massage Tool: The Body Back Buddy

This was one of my first ever massage tools, and I liked it. I am not as likely to recommend it now because now I prefer the acumassage and the big sky ball, but this tool was very useful to me for a long time, so I have to mention it. Mine cost me $65 so I am loving this price.

Not recommended Tool: Solomax – this is the curved thing with the wheel on the end. I didn’t like this because I was never able to get any actual pressure going with it. I don’t recommend it for serious self-massagers.

So, have a question or have a favorite? Leave me a comment here! Thanks – Lisa

Highly Recommended: 30 Days to Feel Better From Fibromyalgia

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