Using tennis balls to relieve muscle pain

My lower back has been bothering me for a while, probably because of all the ingredients and other heavy things I've been lifting and carrying. Or perhaps because I've been going out for a run after a full production day. One way or the other I have to take care of this pain, as it is annoying and often debilitating too (especially in the morning). Since signing up for a "real" massage would set me back at least $80, I decided to try something new: a tennis ball massage. The 1st time I heard about it was a few years back when I came across an article in "Yoga" magazine. I did not remember exactly how to do it, so I went prowling on the Internet, looking for the clues. Right away I found what I was looking for (see the article below). Tennis ball massage did wonders to my back. Check it out!
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Tennis Ball Massage for Myofascial Pain Syndrome
Learn how to use a tennis ball and other massage tools to self-treat muscle knots and trigger points

by Paul Ingraham, Registered Massage Therapist (Vancouver)
This article expresses my opinion only, and cannot replace medical advice. More …
One of my clients was recently describing an experience she’d had with a physician, an orthopedic specialist: “He didn’t know about tennis balls. He asked what helped my back pain, and I told him I always lie on a tennis ball. He looked at me like he was going to refer me to a psychiatrist! How can an orthopedic surgeon not know about the tennis ball thing? Doesn’t everyone know about the tennis ball thing?”
Unfortunately, no: not everyone knows about the tennis ball thing. But it is one of the most time-honoured simple solutions for chronic muscle aches and pains, running a close second to “the hot tub thing.”
Indeed, a tennis ball is simply a handy tool that you can use in the self-treatment of knots in your muscles, technically known as myofascial pain syndrome.1 In this article, I’ll explain how to use a tennis ball properly to relieve knots in your muscles, and also why it works.
Other tools
There are, of course, countless self-massage tools on the market: sticks and widgets, rollers and thumpers, balls and wooden thumbs, and on and on. Many of these tools are handy and fun, but part of the idea of this article is to suggest that you don’t need to go out of your way to buy anything special: most people already have a tennis ball around, and it really is one of the most versatile self-massage tools.
Another tool that a lot of people have handy is a Kong dog toy, of all things. With it’s pyramidal shape, a hardness that varies depending on how you use it, it’s even better than a tennis ball!

The sock trick
Whether you work with a tennis ball, a dog kong, or a rock, most massage tools can be put into a long sock, allowing you to dangle it down your back into those hard to reach places. This gives you much finer control over the exact location of your tool. Of course, if you don’t have unusually long socks — and not many of us do — there are other solutions along the same lines. Kongs can be tied to a rope or string. A tennis ball can be put in a long, soft sack … or in a short sack.
The truly enthusiastic self-massager — you know who you are — may wish to actually craft their very own custom “massage tool sock.” You can easily sew one yourself, or go to any seamstress and pay probably less then $10 to get them to make you a long, narrow sock of sturdy fabric. Amaze your friends!
How to do it
Tennis ball technique is usually most effective in the muscles of the back and the hips: places where you can lie on the tennis ball, pinching it between your body and the ground or a wall. Other locations are awkward, and it is difficult or impossible to apply consistent pressure. However, pressure can be applied to muscles in many ways, and the same principles apply in every case.
Lie down on a tennis ball, placing it in approximately the right location. “Explore” by moving slowly and gently, until you’ve got just the right spot. Trust your intuition. If it feels like the right spot, it probably is.
The sensation should be clear and strong and satisfying; it should have a relieving, welcome quality — this is what we call “good pain.”
The key to successful tennis ball technique is to achieve a “release” by applying just the right amount of pressure: enough to do some good, but not enough to irritate the knot. The sensation should be clear and strong and satisfying; it should have a relieving, welcome quality. This is what we call “good pain.” If you are wincing or gritting your teeth, you need to be more gentle. You need to be able to relax.
Once you have adjusted yourself to achieve the right pressure, relax as much as possible and wait for the sensation to fade to at least eighty percent of the original intensity. This is the “release” — a change in the physiological state of the tissues, or a “melting” of the knot. This can take anywhere from ten seconds to several minutes.
If there is no change in the sensation, you may be pressing on something that isn’t a knot in your muscles: you should discontinue the treatment and seek assistance. Or just try again a little while later.
If you get a release, move on to the next point.
This approach usually gives only temporary relief. Here are some ways to help make it last as long as possible:
Do not use ice or an ice pack on the area.
Avoid drafts on the skin, and generally stay warm.
Use a hot tub, or take a hot bath or shower.
Drink some extra water before and after.
Gently mobilize and stretch the muscles after the release of each knot.
Treat only a few knots at a time.
Avoid sudden movements and strong contractions of the muscle for a day at least.
Why it works
A knot or trigger point is an irritated patch of muscle. The nerve that controls it is firing too quickly, and the tissue is full of junk molecules. The pressure has two effects: it creates a small, local stretch that tends to inhibit the motor nerve, and it deforms the tissue and literally squashes stagnant tissue fluids out of the area.
Or that is one of the theories, anyway. For the full story, see Save Yourself from Myofascial Pain Syndrome!.

Microtrends Book

Do you know this feeling that there is something important that is happening around us, and by the time one recognizes the opportunity, it's too late and there is fifty million people who have already recognized the trend, spoke with those who are at the forefront of the trend and created a nice little business out of it? Missed opportunity no more! Check out this book I heard about on Chicago NPR. It's called "Microtrends" by Mark J. Penn who was a campaign consultant for President Clinton and now is working with Hillary Clinton on her campaign trail. This book is immesurably helpful for both politicians who are trying to reconnect with their electoral base and marketers who are looking for new angle for their products and services. The book is divided into 15 chapters with headers like "Politics", "Teens", "Food, Drink and Diet", "Technology", "Looks and Fashion" etc and equally juicy sub-headers ("Archery Moms", "Militant Illegals", "Neglected Dads" and "Vietnamese Entrepreneurs" to name a few). Granted that not every microtrend will lead to the significant changes in the society, but knowing about these growing opportunities makes marketer in me rub my hands with glee and say in Mr. Burns-like voice "E-excellent"!

Windy City Wine Festival

Our weekend was quite exhausting: we signed up to participate in Windy City Wine Festival. It is a 2-day long event in Grand park area in downtown Chicago. We started our Friday at 5:45 am and shortly thereafter we were in our new production facility making caramels (Chai latte and Orange/Honey). After the successfull wrapping we moved on to downtown Chicago to set up our tent. This was our 1st big event and we debuted our new banners with the picture of the caramels having a " meeting". it was displayed on three split banners with just a picture and the website info in small font. People were very intrigued and stopped by our booth just to see what this was all about :)

Overall event was a big success: we sold a lot of caramels and spread the good word about other places that sell them. here is the picture of us at the end of Friday: clearly we're about to collapse!

P.S: apparently Dhruba and I were featured on Fox News on Saturday, 9/15. I didn't even know so could not TIVO it. I also don't know exactly what was featured: is there anyone out there who's seen it? Please let me know: drop me a line at katie@dasfoods.com

Eugene and His Bees

One of the ingredients in our caramels is honey from Gentle Breeze Honey, small family owned company owned by Eugene and Donna Woller. Dhruba and I visited Eugene and his apiary last Monday, 9/3 to pick up more honey and meet the bees. The 1st time we bought 60 lbs of honey from Eugene at Dane County Farmer's market in Madison, WI (a great venue for anyone who wants to support local farmers and get delicious produce at decent prices). This time we decided to actually go and meet "worker bees" (literally) and chat with Eugene about his business.

First of all: Mt Horeb, WI is a gorgeous hidden Elven land, very Tolkien: hidden and green, just off the highway about 12 miles away from Madison, WI. Bees were the 1st to meet us by the barn next to Eugene's house, where the honey is extracted and processed. Then, Eugene came and gave us a small welcome gift: little watermelon (yum- yum!) from his garden. It was very clear right away that Eugene found his calling in beekeeping: as he had said " I would be happy to die one day right here by the bees". I liked him right away: his passion for his craft was truly contagious.

Eugene had told us about bees and their collective behavior; seems that one could model

organization behavior on the life of bees. Queen Bee is the CEO and the president of each comb or the colony. They lay eggs or supply the colony with new workers. Each queen bee lives about 3 years (compared with measly 3o days for a worker bee). The other kind of bee that can be found in the colony is a drone: his lone responsibility is to come and sort of " have sex" with the Queen Bee. Drones are blind have hairy legs. Once the drone ejaculates he either dies or is not allowed in the colony anymore and wonders around until he dies. Poor bastards.

Queen Bee lives the life of luxury and constant pampering: she gets all the bling and everyone is there to serve her, groom her. In return she lays eggs and that's about it. Once the eggs are laid, the whole army of "babysitters" make sure that the embryos develop and get nutrition they require. The turn semi-developed embryos on daily basis. Gene had pictures of this process, which reminded me a little bit of the Orc hatchery in the Lord of the Rings movie.

If one of the embryos is not developing properly, it is kicked out of the nursery immediately: the real estate there is precious and only the fittest ones are allowed to survive. How very Darwinian, I thought. Here are the pictures of colonies. Each little "drawer" is a colony and at the center of it is a little pampered miss Queen Bee

Early each morning a small party of bees goes on "reconnaissance mission" to find nectar. Then the rest follow and all day bees collect nectar and bring it back to the colony. The season typically starts around May and ends in October. During the winter, bees hibernate and are busy keeping Queen Bee happy and warm. Even in the dead of winter, the temperature inside the colony near the center is perfect 72F!
Eugene collects honey all season and depending on the month it has a different taste. The honey we bought tasted like the end of summer: rich, decadent and buttery. It works perfectly in our caramels and gives them brightness and extra melty texture.
Eugene and Donna (below) were the most gracious hosts and were feel honored to have met the bees and their keepers!

Gene, Donna and Das Caramelini!

Wonderful World of Manufacturing

Last week was a busy one (and frustrating too!). That's the reason for not posting. Several things happened, that made life more difficult:
1. Steve refuses to wrap softer caramel; hence we had to struggle to get the right texture.
2. When the caramel is too hard, Steve also freaks out. In fact, two of the blades that cuts the caramels into the neat little cubes broke off last Thursday. As a result, we had to deal with replacing the blades. A tool guy came out on a short notice to take a look at the broken blades. After short consideration he announced that he has to take all of the broken blades plus the "healthy" one that we had to pry out as an example (after which it became unusable) to his shop and he would call me later with the verdict on how much it's going to cost. The blades are made of hardened steel (similar to what the kitchen knives are made of). Therefore, the replacement blades would have to be the same too. 1/2 hr later the guy calls back to tell that 4 blades that would be made of stainless steel (a temporary solution at best) would cost me $490. Naturally, I gasped at this obvious fleecing and started making more phone calls to find another alternative. Lo and behold: the blades were finally located by our mechanics, Larry and George in Detroit. Thanks to a guy named Dirk More (Moore?) who has a machine and tool shop there, I received 4 beautiful hardened blades the next morning at the acceptable cost of $64/each.
Additionally, Dhruba also found a shop in Racine, WI that fabricated two stainless steel blades for us for $200. they did a decent job, especially considering short notice.
After such an eventful week all we could do is retire for the Labor Day weekend, which was not entirely Labor-free. In fact, for the first time in my life I experienced a twinge of irritation at the fact that Monday was a holiday (darn it, I could have made caramels!). Here is why (so that you don't think I am completely insane)
We have a big event coming up this weekend, that will require large caramel inventory: we'll be participating in the Windy City Wine Festival in downtown Chicago. We'll be sampling and selling our caramels and need to accumulate enough caramels to sell.
So it's going to be a 5 am wake up for me tomorrow.... Oh well. At least I don't have to put together a long presentation to the upper management for corporate "alignment"