It’s pretty amazing what you can do with just a ball and a piece of PVC pipe! I taught a small group of eight people how to do the Julstro self-treatments for rotator cuff shoulder pain, low back pain, the burning pain you feel between your shoulder blades, hip pain, sciatica, knee pain, shinsplints, Achilles tendonitis, and plantar fasciitis. Actually there were a few other treatments thrown into the mix, so it was a pretty wide-spectrum of treatments. Everyone had a lot of surprises when they found painful knots where they had thought they were “just fine.” If you suffer from rotator cuff &/or upper back pain, here’s a good tip:
If you have pain in your shoulder there is one muscle that is always involved (there are others that may or may not be involved, but this one is in spasm 99% of the time). The name of the “infraspinatus” which is the muscle that lies directly on your shoulder blade. This muscle is one of the rotator cuff muscles and is the key muscle when a person is suffering from a rotator cuff injury. When you want to bring your arm back (for example: to throw a ball or take a tennis serve) your infraspinatus will contract. But if it is in spasm it will cause pain around your entire shoulder when you try to move your arm forward.
Let’s say you are going to treat your right shoulder.Take a ball (a tennis ball or a Julstro Pink ball), hold it in your left hand. Bring it under your right arm pit and put it on your right shoulder blade. Then lean against a wall and move about until you find the “hot spot.” When you hit it, just stay still for about 30 seconds. After 30 seconds, keep the ball where it is and bring your right arm across the front of your body, toward your left side. That will stretch the infraspinatus muscle.
As I said, there are other muscles that can be involved in shoulder pain, but this one will give you the most relief in just a few minutes.
Wishing you well,
Julie