If I am lucky enough to win a big lottery jackpot, one of the first things I would do is secure the services of a massage therapist and have them on call. Unfortunately for me, that cash windfall hasn’t happened yet. However, the next best thing to having my own massage therapist is my full line-up of products from Trigger Point Technologies. I have used the whole kit (Massage Ball, Footballer, Quadballer, and the Baller Block) for over 3 years and it has been a godsend. Now that Running Free is carrying the products, I felt I should share my thoughts.
The Quadballer is great for dealing with the quadriceps obviously, but also the hamstrings, IT Bands, lower back and neck. But my particular favourites are the Footballer and Massage Ball.
The Footballer takes care of any issues from the knee down. Treatment and recovery from sore calves or Achilles that are often experienced after an intense or long run are well taken care of by this device. It has come to my rescue many times, “smushing” out very stiff and sore muscles, allowing me to race and recover from intense efforts or injury.
The Massage Ball is such a simple product but extremely versatile. Not only can it be taken and used anywhere, but it can treat all areas of the body with or without a partner. I’ve used this to treat my calves, hamstrings, quads, low back, shoulder, arms, and pretty much anywhere I had tightness or soreness. Can you use a tennis ball and get the same result? No, I tried that when the products first came out, then eventually caved and bought it. In fact, I just bought another one since misplaced mine somewhere in the house (trying to keep away from my dogs).
The products also come with an excellent DVD which clearly shows you how to use everything. These were not available when I got mine (there were some short videos online) so you really have some extra value here. Their website http://www.tptherapy.com/ also has a ton of information, diagrams, etc. It is well worth a visit even if you don’t have any of their products.
Here are a few more tidbits. You can use of these products to work on some areas of the body yourself (for example the front of the legs), and then when you go to your massage therapist they can spend time on other areas of the body that might need more work. Also, when you factor in the Canadian and US dollar exchange rates, the prices you see here on the Running Free website are likely the best you are going to get. You can search for yourself, but I am confident that you will come back here. And when you do, you can save yourself an extra $5 by using coupon code 11296.
If you still doubt my accolades of the product, I suggest that you give it a quick test run and you will quickly find out how well it works, how deep in the muscle it gets, and how it manages to hit those “trigger points”. If have used all of the other products on the market and nothing works better for maintaining/regaining muscle function, helping with recovery and injury management, and treating the everyday aches and pains while you are waiting for your next massage therapy appointment.
Please recall that I am in no way saying that these are better than an actual massage therapist (Angela Lloyd here at Running Free-Markham is among the best), but we all can’t afford to have a massage after each workout or even once a week so these are the next best option. Especially for old, creaky, broken down dudes like myself.
