When muscle pains get localised, the best remedy to soothe their soreness must be equality as localised. A targeted solution for treating often hard-to-reach areas.

The crevices of the shoulder bones come as a common example of this, in addition to large areas of the upper back. Trying to reach these areas yourself might leave you feeling like a t-rex trying to touch its toes; human arms just don’t bend that way.

Although it’s nice to visit a sports therapist who can address these issues for you, there is a vast array of highly-effective home solutions that you can use to address these areas with convenience.

Here in our latest blog today, we’re going to be getting in touch with some of the most revolutionary tools in muscle recovery right now; allowing pain to literally be rolled away.

How do Massage Balls Work?

Taking a do-it-yourself approach to massage therapy comes with many unexpected benefits. It’s accessible at all times, finding the source of the pain has never been easier, and you’ll know exactly when the treatment has worked.

Not even the world’s best masseurs can feel pain for you, which is why the roaring success of products like Hand Therapy Massage Balls has endured for so long. 

These foam-but-firm balls of magic work wonders when targeting tight muscle spots, particularly in those hard-to-reach areas around the body. 

When wedged between the body and a hard surface, the ball can easily roam around finding the right tension spots to target. They can be used against both the floor or a hard vertical surface like a wall. 

Massage balls have become a staple piece of equipment in physical wellness, largely due to how accessible and easy to use they are. The most popular ways to use a massage ball include:

The Shoulder Blades

Place the massage ball between a wall and your back, positioning the ball carefully, and roll the ball back and forth along the muscles surrounding the shoulder blades; extending your knees to position the ball in the best spot. 

You can also change the intensity of the ball by pushing more or less firmly against it, placing your hands on your upper thighs if you’re in need of a bit more stability. 

The Neck

Lie down flat on the floor with your face facing up and a massage ball placed comfortably under the arch of your neck. 

For maximum comfort and safety when doing this, avoid adding too much pressure to the cervical spine area, and focus more on the muscles that run between the base of the head and the corners of the shoulders. 

This area takes a lot of stress, and the even approach of the method ensures that stress, soreness and tightness are evenly eased. Switch sides, hold positions and move around, whatever works best for you is perfect.

The Feet

There’s an old tale that when stress gets old, it gets heavy and sinks down in the body to the feet. Unfortunately for most people, this is where it stays, cultivating a litany of mobility and pain-related issues. 

Luckily, this is one of the easiest forms of muscle rehabilitation in the world and is best completed when sitting down. Rolling the balls back and forth under the soles of the feet is a great way to soothe out those sensitive pressure spots, and requires very little effort or energy to see results. 

We’d need all day to go through the entire list of ways the SMUG Hand Therapy Massage Balls can be used, but the three that we mentioned above are by far the most useful to have to memory when painful sensations come knocking at your door. 

Massage balls offer a powerful way to locate and treat muscle aches and strains right at their source, and they’re highly versatile and easy to explore with. Their benefits run deep and aren’t limited to just the muscle tissue. 

What is Lymph and Lymphatics

Lymph is what’s produced when the fluid tissue responsible for removing waste leaves the cell, it’s almost like a byproduct of the cleaning process. But nothing is ever wasted when it comes to the body, which is why it has an amazing lymphatic system that it uses to excrete waste like lymph. 

Lymph nodes form a really important part of this system because they’re responsible for removing anything harmful, including cancer cells. They use white blood cells called lymphocytes to filter the lymph before it rejoins all the other waste in the bloodstream.

Can Lymph Nodes Become Blocked?

However, the system can also become blocked, causing the fluid to quickly build up. This causes a scary-sounding localised type of swelling called lymphedema, which distorts the shape and appearance of the skin; bringing the system’s waste management process to a grinding halt. 

This experience is of course very painful and debilitating, which is why it’s so important to keep the thin tubes of the lymphatic system clean and clear. This is very achievable with the SMUG Hand Therapy Massage Balls, and there are a few important areas of the body to note when doing this.

How to Clear your Lymphatic System

Let’s start at the abdomen. Because it’s home to so many vital organs, all of which require a constant fresh flow of nutrients, the abdomen is also full of lymph nodes, especially in the areas closest to the heart. 

To engage this region with the massage ball, we suggest a flat, face-down position with the ball between your abdomen and the floor. Use your hands and feet to guide the contact and intensity of the ball.

There are plenty of lymph nodes to be found elsewhere too. The underarm and groin areas are major hotspots for lymph nodes, as well as the base of the neck.

The neck is a particularly important region for the lymphatic system because it’s also where the system ends at something called the thoracic duct. This duct is responsible for emptying the lymph back into the blood circulation. The bloodstream then removes the lymph waste from the body, as it does with all other waste.

Applying the pressure of the massage ball to this area will encourage the fluid involved in this process to flow more efficiently. 

Although the SMUG Hand Therapy Massage Balls have pioneered muscle therapy as a standalone solution, they also work incredibly well with techniques for lymphatic and muscle wellness. 

A really good example of this is found in deep pressure stimulation, a similar pressure technique focusing on draining the lymph nodes found around the delicate eye area. Blockages in this area are very uncomfortable, which is why it’s common to use weighted eye masks.

If you’re looking to achieve mass drainage of the lymphatic system, which we ensure you is a very flushing experience, try out a pair of massage balls with the ancient techniques harnessed by an acupressure mat.  

These mats stimulate thousands of passages and nodes along the lymphatic system all at once, relieving many of the vital passageways in the process. The mat’s accompanying pillow will also work well with the natural curvature of the body, notably along the lower back and neck. 

Discover more ways to look after the body’s natural healing system here. 

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