Body Back Buddy
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List Price: Our Price: $34.95 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Category: Health Care See more product details |
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Customer Reviews of Body Back Buddy
Customer Review: Odd but reasonably intuitive, effective. In the words of Cole Porter, "Experiment!"
Summary: 4 Stars
Like many other reviewers', my BBB didn't come with a "12 page instruction booklet". It came with a small (2" square) 4-page advertisement for itself showing an athletic woman in Spandex holding it in various ways and smiling, with no text description of what she was doing. I put it aside for weeks, afraid of hurting myself trying to use it without knowing what I was doing.
Eventually a severe back spasm led me back to it in desperation and I started gently "playing" with it. I was surprised to find that it's relatively intuitive, despite looking intimidating. If you've ever used a kitchen counter or table corner, square support post, or doorknob to rub your back against, the same instincts apply here -- you just have LOTS more options. Position some knob or another against a sore spot, apply gentle pressure, and wiggle. After a few seconds you'll naturally gravitate toward the motion and degree of pressure that feels good and helps. It's a little slow (I use it while watching TV or doing something else) but inexpensive compared to massage, and with practice you can get very good at controlling the amount, type, and direction of pressure -- something that can be difficult to communicate to another person.
The length can make it cumbersome but also provides what I see as its greatest strength: you can get excellent leverage by positioning one hook-end knob against the target muscle, holding it one of the side protrusions with one hand while moving the free end back and forth with the other. By taking advantage of it as a lever with multiple potential fulcrums and choking up or down with the moving hand, arthritics and fibromyalgics like myself can manage self-massage with minimal strength applied and very little movement. With a few days' practice, I learned to get significantly more benefit from the BBB in proportion to strength and energy exerted than any other self-massage tool I've tried -- that is, whatever area I've targeted feels much better without causing my arms or hands to feel just as bad in trade-off.
For more pressure, position yourself so that the weight of your limb or body is resting on the applied knobby-bit; unlike a tennis ball or knobbler, this gives you pressure from below with control from above -- that is, you don't have to have your hand contorted underneath yourself to move it back and forth while resting your weight on it, nor is there a need to move your whole body back and forth, both of which can be very tiring.
The length also makes it versatile while sitting, if you have room to swing it around yourself. I've managed to rub my neck, back, arms, legs, and feet, all in the same position on the couch, over the course of an hour-long TV program. If I hold it properly, I get a bonus hand massage in the process.
An excellent product, minus one star for lack of instruction. It's referred to in books I own which give more technical advice than this, but one shouldn't have to buy an additional $30 book to avoid letting an item sit in a closet for not knowing how to use it.
Customer Review: The Cadillac of Massage Tools
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Customer Review: Great tool for trigger point therapy
Summary: 5 Stars
So I've owned this for less than one week. I have had neck, shoulder and lower back pain for quite some time. I have been in some kind of constant 24/7 pain in my lower back for the past year and a half, Chiropractic doesn't help. My shoulders and neck have been extremely stiff and painful for the past 6-7 months. I had an episode of vertigo in July due to it.
I was getting ready to have my doctor get me back into physical therapy where they have done TPT (trigger point therapy) on me before with great results. Then I bought this.
I know this is going to sound over the top, or maybe that I am exagerating, but I'm not. Working my trigger points several times a day I have all but eliminated the tightness and stiffness in my neck and my lower back pain is almost non-existent. But, you have to keep it up, not over do it, and do it consistently. That being said, two days after I received this, I went out and bought Clair Davies book, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook. I recommend this because it helps to know what you are looking for and how to address it. There is A LOT to learn, and I figure if I am going to poke and prod around on myself then I want to have a good idea on what I should do and how I should do it. Being to physical therapy before I learned from them, too, and already had an idea of what I was looking for with trigger points. In general though, remember for TPT to work, the trigger point is generally located away from the site of where you are experiencing pain, and also located on the same side of the body.
Muscle wise, this is the best I have felt in a long time (and in such a short period of time) and I would recommend this tool. I would also recommend Clair Davies workbook (or any good TPT book) to go with it as a must have. Learn as much as you can so you can use it successfully.
Customer Review: Joins the short list of things that I could never live without
Summary: 5 Stars
The upper right quadrant of my back is really messed up, with a couple of major pain trigger points. One of my best friends had one of these and I had toyed around with it a few times and was impressed with how effective it was. Then a few months ago I started getting regular manipulations from a doctor. She recommended that I get a Body Back Buddy to help loosen up my back and shoulder. Along with a roller foam that I use to help arch my back a bit, it has helped reduce the pain in my back.
I frankly can't imagine anyone not wanting one of these. If you have pain, it will help you deal with it. But even if you don't have any spots where you have actual pain, it will help you relax and stretch. And heck, it just feels good. And the Body Back Buddy is so well designed that it can be adapted for just about any spot on your body, from the arch of your feel to your upper or lower back, to your calves, to the back of your neck, to your upper shoulders. I strongly recommend using the BBB in conjunction with one of the books available about pressure points.
You should definitely get one of these. Yes, they work. A bargain for the price.
One other thing. There is a similar product, the Theracane. I have toyed around with both. I definitely recommend the Body Back Buddy over the Theracane for a couple of reasons. One is that the double hooks, one ending in a ball and the other ending in a sharper point, to give very different kinds of pressure points. I just found that you could do more things with the BBB than the Theracane. Though frankly, either is going to do your body a lot of good.
Customer Review: better than my wife's massage !
Summary: 4 Stars
So I bought this as I have a tweaked neck from too much Basketball. I was massaging my own neck where it hurt but this made things worse. I realized one day how tight the muscles around my shoulder blade have gotten. My wife tried but too delicate and although I realized these pressure points and muscles where the ones responsible for my neck pain she just couldn't get enough pressure on them. This Back Buddy is great and I've used it for 3 days now and already my neck and back feel better, more loose, etc...
I'd like to mention this is more like giving yourself a deep tissue massage. It's not the gentle rubbing that some people prefer. The plastic contact points are rather small (end of your thumb) and although there are some bigger ones this tool seems to lean towards the firm touch massage. I guess if they had some larger points of contact I would like to try that too (4 stars for this instead of 5) but this is exactly what I needed for rock solid, knotted muscles. Also it's very easy to use and apply more than enough pressure if needed. You can easily work on your back, shoulder blades, etc... for a solid hour without tiring as it's leverage and design works that well. Be cautious not to overdue it the first few days though. I found it works best with shirt off and some massage oil or lotion. Through the clothes works but you can't slide it around as well so this requires a bit more effort.
I highly recommend this for those wanting a firm massage ! Also shipping was fast and this thing is super durable. I'm loving it!