Area woman realizes self-massage with tennis ball is the best thing ever

On Wednesday morning, I laced up my shoes to run, and felt a twinge. Or, to put it more accurately, I felt a whole mess of twinges—in my right peroneal tendon, in my left glute, in both my hip flexors. The twinges, plus the snaps, crackles and pops I heard when I stood up, clued me in that it might be best to skip the run.

But it wasn’t a rest-day kind of sore so much as a “how can I work this out?” kind of sore. My brain cycled through my options: Swimming? NONONONONOTOOCOLD. Riding the stationary bike? Boring. So boring. Too boring. Yoga? Yeahhhh …

I’m in DC for the week, so I looked at my schedule, looked at Willow Street Yoga’s schedule, and high-tailed it over there for a class.

It was the last class of the season, so the instructor worked on restorative yoga, a passive, relaxing form of the practice. We worked on joint mobility in our hips, eased tightness out of our hamstrings and self-massaged with tennis balls. I tried to keep my mind blank and my focus clear, but kept thinking: Why do I not self-massage with tennis balls all the time? And: Is my foam-roller going to get jealous that I’m cheating on it?

After the class, I felt like someone had given me a new body. I walked down the street to City Sports and bought myself a can of tennis balls.

What’s your favorite self-massage tool? (If you don’t have one, check out this Runner’s World feature on the topic).