My Christmas wish list, along with the usual books, DVDs and bits of kitchen equipment (and the much more expensive Vibram Five-Fingers) has a request for some foam pipe lagging.
I could easily get this myself from the local DIY shop, a few metres of it would only cost 30p, but it’s always good to ask for things you really want and to accommodate smaller budgets on your wish list. I was once sent a wedding gift list which had a pair of kitchen scissors on it – the couple in question have said that, five years down the line, these are still the most utilised and appreciated wedding present they were given.
So why the pipe lagging? I know it’s a cold winter, but even so…
The tools you don’t need
Massager or child's toy?
If you search on the internet, you quickly find that there have been numerous tools designed for the self-massager. These range from tortuous-looking wooden devices covered in spines, through to more sensible looking things. In fact, while looking for a tortuous picture (the ladybird was the best I managed), I came across this handy summary of some of the tools of the trade.
Frankly, I was actually quite shocked when I saw the prices quoted on that page. I’m well aware that this is the festive home-comforts season when people are given such things as a hand-held back massager or the (really very cute) Hug-me Pig Foot Massager so it was time to redress the balance.
The DIY self-massager’s toolkit
Self-massage doesn’t need to be expensive. I can massage almost every part of my body effectively and we’ve spent less than £20 on equipment (and almost all of that was on the single foam roller that we finally invested in).
A selection from our self-massage kit
I would recommend that for the full toolkit you should eventually aim to collect together the following items:
- Tennis ball x3;
- Climbing tape, to tape two of the tennis balls together;
- Hockey ball;
- Baseball – optional and more expensive, but also useful since it’s a bit bigger than a hockey ball. We cheated since ours were a gift from someone who’d been given two presentation baseballs and didn’t really want them;
- Golf ball – again, ours was free by picking it up on a local walk that passes a golf course;
- Foam roller; and
- Thick pipe lagging (the kind with a small bore hole down the middle).
The pipe-lagging is the one precious bit of equipment that I’m still missing and that I’m struggling to cope without. My shoulders have adapted to work round the foam roller and now I’m looking to fine-tune with something a bit thinner. (Do you think I’ve dropped enough hints to my present buyers yet?)
The cheap DIY self-massage toolkit
If your budget is a bit tighter, then you could start out with the following list. I think of this as the “Starter Self-Massage Kit”. It’s got the bare bones that you need to get an effective massage over the whole of your body and is perfect when there are still plenty of big knots to deal with.
- Tennis ball;
- Hockey ball;
- A pack of 4 wide tins of tuna (or similar), taped together if they aren’t still in their multi-pack wrapper;
- A towel (to wrap round the tuna tins and soften it up a bit – thus creating a foam roller); and
- A rolling pin (if you happen to already own one – don’t invest in one just for this since the tuna tins will do).
This second list also doubles up as our holiday massage kit.
On active hotel-based holidays (eg. ski trips) we take plenty of multi-pack tins of tuna with us, a tennis ball and a hockey ball. As the week progresses, our quads and calves loosen up and require less rolling. Since we are also usually eating a couple of tins of tuna each day there is usually insufficient tuna to do any rolling on the last two days!
How best to use your self-massage toolkit
Really this deserves a post of it’s very own so I’ve decided to dedicate the next post to this important topic.
Meanwhile, let me know what’s in your self-massage kit. Are there any obvious omissions from my current toolkit?
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The importance of soft tissue work // Mar 9, 2011 at 21:02
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