This popular design reflects years of feedback from massage therapists, chiropractors, and physical therapists. With 11 therapy knobs, the Body Back Buddy stimulates in between muscles and pinpoints trigger points for a more finely-tuned treatment. Engineered to be lightweight, strong and easy to use. Combines the best of the Body Back Buddy features for those who want the ultimate self massage tool. Overall length is 25 . Comes with a free 12 page instruction booklet. Directions: Hook the Body Back Buddy massage tool over your shoulder or around your side to treat hard to reach areas of the back, neck and shoulders. Hold it comfortably by the handles or the frame so that the therapy knob touches the affected muscle. Push away from your body with your lower or outside hand while guiding the therapy knob with the upper or inside hand. This leveraging technique creates self-directed pressure to the targeted muscle. You can also use the Body Back Buddy to apply healing pressure to many other parts of the body such as your legs, arms, feet, chest and hips. Its versatility allows you to approach each muscle from many angles in creative ways. Since there are hundreds of ways to use the Body Back Buddy, take a moment to experiment and find out what works best for you. Use it standing, sitting, lying down or with a partner. Place the therapy knob on the sore muscle (trigger point) and apply what you consider to be a comfortable amount of pressure. When this muscle compression is released it stimulates a therapeutic response. Pressure preferences vary from one person to another deep and intense or gentle and relaxing. However, only apply as much pressure as you feel comfortable with. More pressure is not necessarily better! Ten to thirty seconds is normally enough time to elicit a therapeutic response in the muscle.
$ 34.95
The Cadillac of Massage Tools,
The Body Back Buddy is by far the best hook massage tool in my collection for a number of reasons.
First off, I also own the standard S-Hook as well as the Theracane and from my experience with all three, this one is the winner by a long shot.
The S-Hook’s main advantage is the ability to take it apart, which makes it very compact for travel purposes. But even still, I like to take the BBB with me unless compact space is absolutely critical.
The Thera-Cane’s main advantage is its simplicity. It is one-sided and fairly light-weight compared to the BBB.
Now for the real review, the Body Back Buddy has many advantages over the above mentioned tools.
– 11 knobs in assorted sizes and shapes from small to round to pointy
– Large enough to command and control comfortably
– Handles are angled for better leverage compared to other tools
– Can use on practically every muscle group from abs, chest, shoulders, whole back, quads, hams, feet, neck, etc…
– Great conversation starter
Summary:
When I say I take my BBB with me everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE! It’s that awesome! I’m at a computer for 10 hours-a-day almost every day and before I found the BBB, I had a hard time releasing tight muscles and trigger points. Although I did have the S-Hook and Theracane, I found myself not using them as much as I do the BBB. My best guess is that it just wasn’t as effective and I quickly got tired of effort required. It’s true that you can use your body weight and larger muscle groups to leverage the pressure on the aforementioned tools, but the BBB is just much better at it.
I especially love the pointy knobs for really digging into deep trigger points in the back, shoulder and feet. The center knob does a great job of releasing tension in the Multifidus muscles along the spine all the way up to the back of your neck.
TIPS:
– I highly recommend picking up The Frozen Shoulder Workbook and the Trigger Point Therapy Workbook if you’re serious about learning how trigger points affect your body. The combination of the BBB and those books make a highly effective solution if you suffer from musculoskeletal issues. This combination helped me recover from a severe snowboarding accident as well as empower me to help myself AND learn about my body.
– There are so many creative ways to use this tool, years later, I still discover new uses!
– Try using the handle knobs to get your chest, abdomen areas. I’ve noticed that people often just ignore the handle knobs, myself included in the beginning.
– Breathing is crucial to getting that “release” or “squishing” on trigger points. Try to breathe and massage synergistically, focusing on expanding the area you’re working on with the breath.
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|Wonderful tool!,
There is only one thing that I wish this tool would be and that is more travel friendly. It is a bit odd shaped and difficult to fit into a small to medium-sized gym bag and back pack. Otherwise I’d take it with me everywhere. It is very effective at getting rid of all the aches and pains developed after sleeping in a bad position, working long hours, sitting at a computer for too long, traveling, and over-exertion. I must have saved several hundred dollars in massage therapy and pain killer medication costs in the past year and a half that I’ve owned this.
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|One of the best self-massage tools around,
First off, I usually have tightness in my shoulders and neck (probably from spending too much time in front of a computer all day at work). I also have stiffness in my lower back from time to time. The BBB is really effective at reaching all my knots and bringing relief through hitting those pressure points (on the neck, upper and lower shoulder blade, and all along the spine). What makes it so good is that when you position the “ball points” on those areas, the tool is designed so that you can use just modest leverage to get to the deep tissue. This is key because you can use this for quite a while and not get tired. I can’t stress the importance of this enough. I find that with proper positioning, I can really get a lot of pressure by simply using my arm weight with modest effort.
Also, I find that with some practice you can actually slide the ball points along your tight areas, which more effectively mimics a real massage vs. just getting point pressure (which I find brings less relief). For instance, by gently laying on top of the bbb (facing up), I can get a very deep lower back massage – and all by myself!
The bbb is also very sturdy. Takes a little bit of experimentation to get used to it, but all in all, it’s one of my favorite self-massage tools and I would highly recommend it.
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