sean Posted June 11, 2006 Found this cool practice the other day, google'ing for psoas release techniques. Â Via Massage exercise tools The soft ball is the most effective tool I know of for releasing tension in the abdomen. It releases tension in the superficial abdominal muscles such as rectus abdominus and the obliques, the deeper and very important psoas muscles, as well as releasing tension in the fascial web supporting the organs and releases tension in the colon and the organs themselves, thereby promoting organ health. Â What you may not know is that this practice of lying on the soft ball is also instrumental in relieving lower back pain. If you suffer from low back pain, and this includes sacroiliac pain, then get on the ball and be consistent until you can lie on the ball anywhere in the (hopefully) soft area between your ribs and your pelvis and experience no pain, even when breathing. Â The practice is as follows: lie on the floor (put a pillow or rolled blanket under your ankles to take pressure off of your knees) with the ball in your gut and your hands palms up with the ball between your thumbs and first fingers. This allows you to take some of your weight on your forearms until you can relax down onto the ball. Find a spot where there is little or no pain and work out from there. If one spot will not release and is too painful, do not get stuck there, simply move it around on a slow tour through the whole area between your ribs and your pelvis. Little by little you will erase all the pain in this area and the results will be drastic and many. Your breathing will be easier and more full, tension in your whole body will be diminished, you will experience a sense of lightness, and the pain in your back will diminish as the pain in your front diminishes. They are two sides of one coin. Through this work you may experience emotional releases of varying intensity as this area is the seat of stagnate emotions, being linked to the breath and the solar plexus. Â I recommend at least 10 minutes a day until you are pain-free and then periodically check it out and keep it clear. GOOD LUCK! Â I promptly picked up a softball and tried this. Really interesting. I hit tension right away, deep in my belly. My muscles kind of spazzed back and forth trying to figure out what to do with the softball, relax completely or resist it. Layer after layer. Eventually the muscles more or less released completely and the ball pressed deep into me. At this point I konked out and woke up on my side kind of drooling. Â Sean Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
turbo Posted June 11, 2006 Another good one is the tennis ball. I had a massage therapist recommend this years ago. Put the tennis ball between you back and the wall and roll it up and down the spine. The site you linked to recommeds some other uses for them as well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ian Posted June 12, 2006 Found this cool practice the other day, google'ing for psoas release techniques.  Via Massage exercise tools I promptly picked up a softball and tried this. Really interesting. I hit tension right away, deep in my belly. My muscles kind of spazzed back and forth trying to figure out what to do with the softball, relax completely or resist it. Layer after layer. Eventually the muscles more or less released completely and the ball pressed deep into me. At this point I konked out and woke up on my side kind of drooling.  Sean  Pardon my ignorance, but what is a softball? How big is it? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Yoda Posted June 12, 2006 it's grapefruit sized. Â Are you doing this on your stomach or on your back? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
freeform Posted June 14, 2006 I love posts like these sometimes! Â No great debate - no theorising - no oppinions - just a fantastic technique which I would not have found myself! Â Thanks Sean (it's a really uesfull site too) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sean Posted June 14, 2006 turbo, that's a good tip, I'll have to pick up a tennis ball now. Â Ian, a softball is bigger than a baseball, between 12 inches (30 cm) and 11 inches (28 cm). It's also rumored to be softer, but I've never found this to matter much when one hits you at 40mph in the face. The softball is coincidentally used for a game also called softball which is notoriously only played by women and sickly boys. Â Yoda, on your stomach. (Uh, that doesn't sound right. ) Â freeform, yeah, it's a nice site. I think I might pick up that Flextasy DVD on his site and some rollers while I'm at it. Â Â Sean Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mYTHmAKER Posted June 14, 2006 Try rolling on a golf ball under your buttocks at trigger points. Do it gently. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
