Professional, frequent massages are a great way to keep your body limber and injury-free. Unfortunately, massages can also be quite expensive and time-consuming. What if you could still reap the benefits of getting a massage without the expensive cost and time commitment?
Yes, this sounds too good to be true, but in this case, it’s not - enter, the lowly lacrosse ball.
A lacrosse ball is a super hard ball similar size to the tennis ball, that’s absolutely perfect for working out stiff areas of muscle. The best part is that you can use it anywhere, anytime you want without the expense or time commitment of a professional massage.
In the rest of this article, we’ll talk more about the benefits and best practices for using your lacrosse ball.
Benefits of lacrosse ball massages
1.) It's similar to a deep tissue massage.
It’s no secret that there are tremendous benefits from regular massage. In fact, that’s why almost every professional sports team provides regular massage to their athletes. Even if you're using a lacrosse ball instead of getting a massage from a professional, you can still enjoy almost all the benefits of regular massage, which include:
• Reducing pain
• Improved flexibility and range of motion
• Working out knots in hard to reach areas
• Decreasing muscle tightness and stiffness
That’s an impressive list.
2.) Improved athleticism via an improved range of motion.
Using the lacrosse ball to work out knots can definitely help improve the range of motion around the joints. This improved range of motion directly translates to helping make you a better athlete.
For example: Let’s say you’ve been targeting your upper back and shoulders with the ball. The improved shoulder range of motion here should help you improve in exercises like the overhead press and pullups.
When your shoulders can move more easily overhead, you will have more energy to focus on lifting heavier weights or knocking out more reps, instead of simply fighting yourself to get your arms overhead in the first place.
So yes, you can in fact become a better athlete simply by improving your flexibility and range of motion. With frequent lacrosse ball massage you should be able to do exactly that.
3) Low cost & travel friendly
Lastly, two more subtle benefits of lacrosse ball massage include the low cost and the travel “friendly-ness”. It shouldn’t cost you more than a few dollars to get one and you can easily pack it in your luggage anytime you travel.
I highly recommend adding in frequent lacrosse ball massage to your athletic arsenal; especially while on the road traveling.
What are the best muscle areas to massage with a lacrosse ball?
Generally speaking, wherever you’re tight! However, there are some key areas that are commonly tight for most of us, which makes them perfect for abuse from the lacrosse ball. Those areas tend to be:
• Glute muscles
• Side of the hips
• Bottoms of the feet
• Palm of the hands + top of the fingers
• Upper back (especially the muscles that run right next to your spine)
You can use the lacrosse ball to zero in on any specific areas you want. Just remember, the key for this to work though is regular use.
When should I use a lacrosse ball?
That’s the thing, you can rock the lacrosse ball deep tissue massage anytime! It can be part of your morning routine, you can do this type of work before you lift, right after a workout, or even in a hotel room after a long day of traveling.
I do recommend making sure if you are quite tight, to try to use the lacrosse ball for a quick massage daily, but you can get away with just 2 or 3x per week.
The lacrosse ball is a fantastic, and cost-effective, substitute for getting regular professional massages. You will need to invest a bit of time each week into using it but the trade-off is well worth it. Good luck on your quest for a newfound range of motion and flexibility.