Disclaimer: I received the Addaday Pro Massager to review as part of being a BibRavePro. Learn more about becoming a BibRavePro (ambassador) and check out BibRave.com to review, find and write reviews!
UNKNOWN FACT ABOUT ME: I’m a knotty person.
I don’t mean knots in my hair … although this godawful winter weather has been wrecking havoc on my tresses. No, I’m talking about the ones in my muscles. How many are there? Well, let’s just say I could spend an hour playing Connect the Dots with my Muscle Knots. Getting rid of them … once and for all … is on my list of fitness goals for 2019 so I was THRILLED to receive my Addaday Pro Massage Roller!
Now, before getting into my first impressions, I need to apologize. Jackey and I were so excited about becoming BibRave Pros that we jumped in with Addaday, not realizing it would mean several posts from both of us. In the future, we will take turns. I must confess, though … this puppy is AMAZING and Jackey loves hers, too, so it was a good choice to be impulsive with!
Anyway, back to those knots. There’s a ton in my upper shoulders as a result of too much stress from some seriously dark days. (Especially 2010 to 2013. They about did me in.) I did see a physical therapist to get them worked out with heat therapy, ultrasounds and massage, but it became too expensive so I quit and those knots remained.
Let’s now travel down to my calves, (be sure to wave hello to the knots in my thighs and a particularly troublesome one in my left buttock.) The knots in my calves are the truly nasty ones and have caused me the most issues. (Should I name them for the sake of this blog post? Better not. Then I’d become too attached and they’ve been around for long enough.)
For the most part, we’ve been able to coexist. They grew worse, however, during my ten month recovery from a partial plantar plate tear. During this extended time, I either wore a boot or carbon graphite inserts and had to walk with my second toe taped down, causing me to limp short-strided with hardly any bend at my ankle. Because of this, my calves became extremely inflexible and those knots doubled, causing even more pain in my feet.
After recovering, I’ve tried to work them out using a roam roller as well as another popular brand of roller and my CAF. (Rather than spend hundreds on a BFF, I bought a $20.00 car polisher from Walmart and called it my Cheap *** Friend.) Nothing worked, though, not necessarily because of the products but because I was inconsisent and it caused too much pain. So once again, I quit and those knots remained.
And now we’re circling back around to why I’m so thrilled to receive an Addaday Pro Massage Roller … because 1.) I clearly need one, 2.) guilt and obligation will force me to use it and 3.) it’s awesome. I could tell the first time I used it! I started using it every day after receiving and here’s what I love about it so far:
- The rubber grip handles that makes it easy to maneuver.
- How the body is stiff and doesn’t flex like my other massager, meaning I don’t have to apply as much pressure.
- The rotating beads vary in size and softness so you can use different ones for different body parts, targeting the massage deep into muscle.
The Pro roller features a PATENTED DESIGN that offers both soft and medium density Skin SurfaceTechnology (SST). SST allows the massage gears to connect accurately with the human skin and fascia. The roller can offers the user a massage that feels either firmer or softer. The Pro roller also offers a pinpoint precision gear that can target hard to reach areas such as the achillies, shin, shoulders, and forearm.
http://www.addaday.com/product-page/pro-massage-roller
I also like how it’s not intimidating … which, yeah, sounds weird considering the looks of it, but some foam rollers with all the knubs intimidate me. Plus I can better control the amount of pressure put on each knot so I feel less bruised and sore the next day. I mean, it took a long time for me to get these knots. I’d hurt too much if I tried to get rid of them too soon! Plus with the Princess Half Marathon on my horizon, it wasn’t a good time to go all out.
So here’s what I did instead. I first watched an Addaday tutorial video to make sure I was correctly rolling:
Once I had a better grip on how to use my massager, I followed this routine after each workout:
- I first used my CAF as a way to warm up my calf muscles!
- Nex, I lightly rolled up and down my calf to further warm up the muscles.
- Then it was time to go to town on the knots with the gray medium roller bead that helps to flush out lactic acid, applying more pressure and pausing in the center. This was often hard because my knots are so large, they’d slip to the side to avoid direct pressure. Wearing compression socks helps with this. So does using the smaller red bead with the larger beads on the side “trapping” the knot in place, if that makes sense. (The red Pin Point roller is actually for shin splints, achilles and other hard to reach areas, but it worked for me beautifully in this way.)
- Gently tell my puppy that rolling time does not mean cuddle time.
- Afterward, I spent a few minutes doing calf stretches recommended by my foot doctor and drank lots of water to help flush out lactic acid.
Now, how do I feel so far? The knots are still there which is to be expected. Like I said before, they took a long time to develop and it’s going to take a lot of hard work to get rid of them. But I can already feel a definite improvement … the largest ones don’t slip away from direct pressure as much and I’m feeling less aches in my feet that, according to my doctor, is from my inflexibility and muscle knots. (If I hit one just right, I can actually feel pain shooting through my foot.)
Plus, I really enjoy using my Addaday Pro Massage Roller! And now that Princess if over, it’s time for me to amp up my efforts by doing a 30-Day challenge, rolling at least once or twice a day so stay tuned here for updates or check us out on Instagram Stories for daily accountability posts.
Not gonna lie. I’m kind of dreading this challenge … but I seriously need it.
And if you’d like to give Addaday a try, be sure to visit their website! Besides massage rollers, they have foam rollers, rubber massage balls, calf stretchers and this awesome-looking Boomerang for rubbing your shoulders that I have my eyeball on! I could use that on my shoulder muscle knots.
Until then, thanks for reading and have a joyful day!
