"C'mon baby make it hurt so good."...except I don't make it hurt. |
I have been playing with this thing since I got the Mobility/Stability Combo Pack and I have really taken a liking to it. I'm not saying these are the four places where other people should use it, they are just my favorite for my body! There is a lot of other areas that can be treated with the ball.
Fibular Head/Lateral Gastrocnemius (Calf)
The lateral calf/fibular head area is often a must treat area when I assess my patient's when doing IASTM or working on restricted ankle dorsiflexion. It is no surprise that this is an area in need of treatment for myself either considering my history of terrible ankle mobility.
Suprapatellar Pouch/Quadriceps Tendon
I don't have tight hip flexors but man do I have a mobility issue in my quads. I actually had a slight calcification of my distal quadriceps tendon when I had an x-ray done this past summer. If I don't work at this very often on my left side I actually get issues when trying to achieve full knee extension like in a plank position.
Posterior Shoulder - Teres Major & Minor/Infraspinatus/Lats
I have pretty poor shoulder mobility in many different directions. However, after spending 5 or 10 minutes on a few areas around the posterior shoulder and my lats while doing large arcs or shoulder circles I was able to rapidly improve my shoulder motion. I'm talking about going from a -1 FMS score to a modest 2. Instantly.
Intrinsic Foot Musculature/Plantar Fascia/Abductor Hallucis/Flexor Hallucis Brevis
Need a free pedicure? Roll this ball along the plantar aspect of the foot for a few minutes and you will be bound to hit a few "spots". This is definitely something I need to try and do more of considering how terrible my great toe extension/dorsiflexion is. This is something you can do sitting at a computer desk or watching TV...No reason not to spend a couple of minutes getting better.
In fact, using something like this mobility ball, a foam roller, or a stability/corrective exercise only take a few minutes out of your day to complete them. You can do a large majority of them while doing other mundane tasks like brushing your teeth, watching TV, checking emails, reading blogs, or surfing Reddit. There isn't really a good excuse to not being on top of this if you have issues. As Gray Cook would say, " it took a habit to get you into that pattern, and not it's going to take a habit to break that pattern. "
That's it for today, don't forget to sign up for my giveaway!