Back Pain? Recycle Your Old Wheels!

Inline Skating Newsletter Article

Back Pain? Recycle Your Old Wheels!

I've had a problem with low back pain for years due to a damaged disk in my spine. Skating has been great for it, but my active lifestyle and age have been catching up lately, so I'm pursuing other avenues of relief. One is a series of Yoga stretches I learned in May while attending an Eddy Matzger clinic. Several of the 20 other skaters there also suffered from frequent back pain. JJ showed me his tennis ball contraption which got me thinking about self-massage.

In a moment of inspiration soon after starting a program of physical therapy treatments, I came up with a new way to perform my own deep tissue massages while seated at my computer or driving, using a pair of old skate wheels (with bearings removed) and a wine cork.

I don't know what to call this little apparatus except "My hero!" It's so simple and so free to assemble! Just find a way to squeeze the cork between the two wheels--you may have to try several corks because they vary slightly in size. Adjust the space between the wheels to fit the thickness of your spine. I showed my "prototype" to my physical therapist and he immediately recognized and appreciated its value. So does my back.

To do your own deep-tissue massage, just wedge it between your spine and your chair's backrest and then lean forward and back for a penetrating massage wherever you need it. It's not a perfect product, though: aggressive massaging (as in lying on it) will make the wheels slip off the cork. I tried hammering a nail through the center of the cork to fatten it up after lodging it in place, but the cork gradually compresses after a while to accommodate the available space. So please, let me know if you discover any "manufacturing improvements" to share here.

Finally, a good use for recycling old skate wheels! Maybe we can all save a rubber tree as well as our backs!

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