LIFE+ Blog

Self-Massage with Lacrosse Ball

If the above stretches weren’t enough to loosen up the knots in your neck and upper shoulders, massaging out the knots by rolling out with a lacrosse ball may work better for you.

Don’t have a lacrosse ball? Use a tennis ball!

Wedge the ball between a trigger point or area of pain and your seat, push your weight back into the ball and make small movement side to side or small circles to rub out the tight spots. Add head turns to the right and the left to maximize the stretch.

Continue for 1-2 minutes on each side.

Figure 4 Stretch

It’s easy for our hip and gluteal muscles to get tight when they endure so much compression from sitting on them for a prolonged amount of time. Here’s how you can stretch out the hips with this figure 4 stretch. Cross one ankle over the thigh just above the knee, hinge forward at your hips until you feel a good stretch in the side of your upper hip. If there’s not enough room to cross the leg over the other, just hug the knee up into your chest as far as you can to stretch out the back of the hip.

Hold for 30 seconds. Repeat 2 times on each side.

Spinal Rotation Stretch

Sitting, especially with slouched posture, puts a large amount of compression on our vertebral discs. Keep blood flow and nutrition flowing to your joints with this sitting twist to stretch out the spine. Push against the outside of your leg to get a strong twist in the spine.

Hold 20-30 seconds. Repeat 2-3 times for each side.

Ankle Pumps

To avoid development of a deep vein thrombosis in the calf, it’s super important to maintain continuous return of blood flow from the extremities back to the heart. Simple activation of the calf muscles via ankle pumps helps increase blood flow by having the muscles squeeze around the veins in our legs.

Repeat for 1-2 minutes every 30 minutes.

Hip Flexor Stretch

When you’re sitting for a long amount of time, your hip flexors are stuck in a shortened position and can tighten over time. Then when you stretch them out by standing up, they pull your back into an excessive arch and can lead to back pain.

It’s super important to stretch out your hip flexors whenever you get a chance to stand up and stretch out your legs.

Stand with your feet staggered in a lung position and lean your body weight toward the front foot by bending the knee. Try to keep your bottom tucked underneath you, don’t arch your back!

Hold for at least 30 seconds (1-2 minutes is even better if you can tolerate it). Repeat 1-2 times on each side.