Can you massage your own legs effectively?

So I’ve got a reasonable (for an overweight, middle aged desk jockey) amount of miles in this year so far, but my legs are feeling tight and heavy, despite me doing all the stretches etc that my physio has me doing to avoid a recurrence of various hip/knee/calf/ITB problems.

So I was wondering if it is possible to give your own legs a passable massage to help get the knots out and freshen up the muscles?

Rather than google “self massage” 😯 I thought I’d ask on here first

Before you ask:

Regular proper sports massage is too expensive to do regularly, and

Disability (and her general preference to avoid any physical contact) prevent MrsMCTD helping out.

Let the mickey taking begin!

When on skiing holiday’s I will use a deodorant can like a rolling pin on my quads and the side of my thighs as well as getting my thumbs into the sore areas. I find it helps recovery overnight and reduce muscle soreness and fatigue the next day. But since i’m getting into my more mature age I find I can no longer get away with stretching before and after exercise, so will spend a good 20 mins or so stretching after a good workout/ride.

A foam roller is good & there’s plenty of online vids to help show you what to do.

You can also get knobbly plastic hand held things that are pretty good. Have a look on somewhere like physiosupplies.com

I use “the stick” workers really well

Foam roller, yes. By hand, no. Tried it when I had shin splints. Best to ask someone who really doesn’t like you to do it.

another nod towards a foam roller. embrace the pain!

See if you can find a local uni with a sports dept. They often look for subjects to practice on, and if you’re really lucky you may find one that goes mountain biking and is willing to trade for bike maintainence and dog exercising 😉

foam roller seems good, there is some kind of vibrating electric massage thing but I’ll let you google that 😉

Other one is find some people doing their sports massage training. They have to do 200 hrs (i think) of practice

Foam roller is quite incredible!

Home

There are these things as well.

I have a home made one and it does help.

No, you can do them inaffectively though

I keep hearing about the dreaded foam rollers…..

Never thought of sports massage students – I’m within 30 minutes of 4 universities, and seem to be a few private trainers as well, so that might be worth a go, though I guess the unis have a constant supply of willing volunteers!

I have “the stick” and it has been very useful and easy to use.

Is “The stick” this one?
66fit Trigger Point Massage Stick

Foam roller, or for real men, a rolling pin (caution, this is unbelievably painfull)

I bought a foam roller at the weekend and went for my first run in around 2 years. Only 2 miles but no tightening of the ITB band which had put a halt to my running and had started kicking in after a mile previously. I just bought a cheap £10 one from Argos that someone on here linked to the other day. I wouldn’t so much call it painful to use as a horrible discomfort but you really can feel it working and you know exactly when you’ve hit a tight spot!

Will give this Stick a go for £15.73:
66fit Trigger Point Massage Stick

This looks painful:
http://www.physiosupplies.com/exercise/foam-rollers/rumble-roller-extra-firm-black-full-size-15cm-x-77-5cm.html#.USaf30JX-FI

Ive tried foam rollers and they are much more effective than trying to knead the leg muscles by hand or using your knuckles.

Argos do a foam roller for, I think, £19.50 that has that roller stick thing in the middle of it, with a ‘zig zag’ roller and then a round roller.

I bought it the other day, only really used the ‘soft’ (hah, yeah right!) round outer roller because that’s painful enough!

+10 for foam rollers! I’m training for a marathon and use the roller everyday, I don’t think I could do it without it for the ITB’s.

i did get my first sports massage on my calfs today. I don’t think you can substitute someone with the knowledge pinpointing the exact spots that are hurting (and she was pretty hot). Did cost me £40 for the pleasure/ pain. Foam roller only a tenner.

Foam rollering my calves and quads right now in front the TV. Agony! But i can feel the benefits if I do it regularly.
When I hit a tight spot I can feel the ‘pain’ travel. It then eases and I move on.
You can really feel how tightness in one muscle can have repercussions in others.

I’ve got one of the hard blue rollers which my sports therapist recommended.
here
https://www.physique.co.uk/dolc_product.asp?PCId=435

These are good series of Self massage videos (ooh er missus) I found on the YouTUBE
Very thorough.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl23kKc317E&list=PLTZWWF2VHlz113_4C37yFOxlNH_ov9L1y&index=3

I read that as “can you message..” and I do on occasions get quite shouty and sweary at my legs, and they seem to listen when I give them the Full Metal Jacket routine. Stupid **** useless limbs! Work, you withereing white fleshy lumps of sh**!