My pretty educated guess is that most of you out there probably don't have a clue as to what to do with soft tissue work, unless I've trained you, then you better be on the soft tissue work wagon or so help me. Most are quite baffled as to what the crap these things are and what they are used for. Below I have pictured many of the tools used for soft tissue work
I probably should have arranged them in some sort of ascending/descending order but it just didn't happen, brain wasn't quite ticking in the fashion. The items pictured above are foam rollers, for the most part at least. The white one 2nd from the top is the least dense and is something I usually use for some of the older population that are a bit more sensitive with soft tissue work to start with. The gray/metallic black roller at the top is a little denser, personally the difference between the white one and this one isn't great enough for me to really have the desire to use it, but it's there if necessary. The black one 2nd from the bottom is probably the most common one and the one I use the most personally, it's pretty dense, hell when it's fresh out of the box it's as hard as a rock, breaks up the muscle tissue pretty good like that though. The final thing that's got the black stripes on it, yeah it's exactly what it looks like, a PVC pipe, I've coached athletes that had to use these before so yes there is a reason for having one, some spots I even find these more useful and bearable to use. It rolls and it's a bit harder than a foam roller, but not quite enough to make you feel crushed after your done with soft tissue work.
Above I also have pictured a couple things that you may not have known how to use for soft tissue work. The singular balls by themselves are a tennis ball and lacrosse ball. They both can be used to get some more localized and specified soft tissue work. Sometimes I skip the roller completely and go after certain areas with a lacrosse ball because it's going to be more worth the time. The other object is a peanut, I use this on the the thoracic spine, it works perfectly because you can target the soft tissue around the spine, but the indent avoids contact and pressure on the spine directly. Nothing really tricky about it, it's just 2 lacrosse balls or tennis balls taped together.
So if any of the items you've seen here today are foreign to you, make yourself more familiar with them and you will be better off. Hope this helped some of you out there, go out and get after it today!
I probably should have arranged them in some sort of ascending/descending order but it just didn't happen, brain wasn't quite ticking in the fashion. The items pictured above are foam rollers, for the most part at least. The white one 2nd from the top is the least dense and is something I usually use for some of the older population that are a bit more sensitive with soft tissue work to start with. The gray/metallic black roller at the top is a little denser, personally the difference between the white one and this one isn't great enough for me to really have the desire to use it, but it's there if necessary. The black one 2nd from the bottom is probably the most common one and the one I use the most personally, it's pretty dense, hell when it's fresh out of the box it's as hard as a rock, breaks up the muscle tissue pretty good like that though. The final thing that's got the black stripes on it, yeah it's exactly what it looks like, a PVC pipe, I've coached athletes that had to use these before so yes there is a reason for having one, some spots I even find these more useful and bearable to use. It rolls and it's a bit harder than a foam roller, but not quite enough to make you feel crushed after your done with soft tissue work.
Above I also have pictured a couple things that you may not have known how to use for soft tissue work. The singular balls by themselves are a tennis ball and lacrosse ball. They both can be used to get some more localized and specified soft tissue work. Sometimes I skip the roller completely and go after certain areas with a lacrosse ball because it's going to be more worth the time. The other object is a peanut, I use this on the the thoracic spine, it works perfectly because you can target the soft tissue around the spine, but the indent avoids contact and pressure on the spine directly. Nothing really tricky about it, it's just 2 lacrosse balls or tennis balls taped together.
So if any of the items you've seen here today are foreign to you, make yourself more familiar with them and you will be better off. Hope this helped some of you out there, go out and get after it today!
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