My Tush Hurts!
By Ross Ashcraft
Well, your butt hurts. You sit on it all day and you can’t figure out what you could have possibly done to irritate it. The answer is “you sit on it all day.” The gluts are the biggest muscle in the human body. They also happen to be the laziest. They will make the lower back do what it should be doing—one major cause of lower back pain. They will make the thighs do what they should be handling—one important cause for hip and thigh aches.
The problem is that it’s not the easiest place to fix once it has been annoyed. In fact it’s quite awkward to self-massage the gluts at all. The BEST solution to pains caused by the gluts is to find a massage therapist. Ask your therapist for extra attention to your gluts. You can have this muscle worked on through a sheet AND your underwear or you may choose bare glut. If you are comfortable, I recommend using the option of getting a bare glut massage. It will be handled professionally and without exposure of any unnecessary body parts. It is a much more effect use of your massage session and it feels way better than having the sheet in the way.
Self-Massage
1. Find a couple of balls of various sizes and thicknesses: tennis balls, rubber balls, baseballs, etc.
2. Pick the softest and sit on it in comfortable chair. Shift it to any tender area you may find. Use your own judgment and place a harder ball in its place.
3. Let your body sink into it.
4. Once the muscle has relaxed, gently raise your whole leg and hold for 5 seconds—you may leave your knee bent
5. Rest for 5 seconds
6. Raise your whole leg again and then move it in clockwise circles for 5 seconds
7. Reverse directions and move in counter-clockwise circles for 5 seconds
8. Lower your leg and rest
9. Shift the ball to a different spot or replace with a harder ball and repeat steps 3 through 8
Please try this technique and let me know what you think.
