The owner of Camarillo Yoga took a workshop of mine in Pasadena about a year ago and started using the Yoga Tune Up® Therapy Balls in her classes. Soon thereafter, she was buying hundreds of balls as all of the students who rolled out their knots and kinks in classes wanted to bring a pair home (for that “on call” self massage we all need!). One of those students is Andrew Barton, a professional airline pilot (who also happens to teach Yoga). Andrew shares with us how he rolls with the Yoga Tune Up® Therapy Balls…..
In this video he shows his creative self-massage techniques with the balls during his flights. Ever the captain, he also shows his specific quick fixes that he designed for the flight attendants using the YTU Therapy Balls. Andrew displays how you can roll out shoulder pain, hip pain, foot pain and even a stiff lower back. The Yoga Tune Up® Balls are designed with a special grippy rubber that grabs onto layers of skin, connective tissue and muscle to provide a deep penetrating massage that kneads you right to the bone providing targeted trigger point therapy. On long flights, our bodies become profoundly dehydrated and stiff due to the circulating air, and sitting still in cramped uncomfortable seats. The Yoga Tune Up Therapy Balls introduce movement and circulation back into those stiff tired muscles, so that the body is refreshed, rehydrated, and nudged back into vibrancy.
In fact, when I told my student, Dominic, who is a flight attendant, that I was writing this blog about a Pilot and the Therapy Balls, he told me to add this, “My whole body aches due to jet lag and servicing our customers at 38,000 ft. I find IMMEDIATE relief by using my YTU Balls in the galley and at my hotel layovers. I have no idea how I survived the friendly skies with out them.”
I travel nearly 170 days a year, and am proud to say that my body feels fantastic when I travel. YTU keeps me limber, strong and deeply relaxed, but the balls play a significant role in trouble-shooting areas that are culprits of stiffness and tension with my long bouts of travel! I am so grateful to Andrew for showing me even more ways to use my balls when in cramped spaces on the airplane! Wait till you see what can be done in the cockpit!
Let us know how you use your Yoga Tune Up® Therapy Balls when you travel!
It is great to hear how others are using the YTU Therapy Balls. I would never have thought of taking them with me throughout my day. I can see how they would work wonders on long road trips and while traveling.
Thanks for sharing.
Susan Stansbury
I’m short so my feet do reach the ground in a regular airplane seat which causes my lower back to ache for the entire flight. I’ll try rolling the Yoga Tune-Up balls between my lumbar spine and seat back on my next flight to relieve the pain.
Great to know that I can use my Yoga Tune Up balls on the road…I travel frequently and definitely suffer from low back pain after a long flight. I will be packing my balls to add to my jet lag-bag-of-tricks!
the yoga tune up balls are more convenient than carrying a giant foam roller
great interview… I travel all the time and feel lots of tension in my shoulders when I get home. The balls are a convenient way to get ride of this pain when on the road.
What a great video! I love that Andrew displayed so many different and easy massage techniques using the Yoga Tune Up balls. I will definitely bring mine along on my next trip.
My Yoga Tune Up balls go every where with me and I keep a set in the car…you never know when you’ll need a good roll!
This was a great tribute to Yoga Tune Up, yea!
I brought my yoga tune up balls with my on my last airplane flight. I love it! Yoga Tune up balls healing the world, 2 balls at time!
YTU classes at Equinox Santa Monica have occasional sessions on just this! Took one taught by Tiffany–amaaaaaaaazing!
I just purchased a pair of yoga tune-up balls and I already feel my muscles loosing up. Especially in the shoulder joint where I hold most of my tension. It is like carrying around my own personal masseuse.
The positions the Andrew describes as causing problems are the same positions people experience while working a desk job. He has found ways to directly address the painful areas, while people at a desk might just shift or take a five minute break to alleviate the symptoms for just a few moments. How great would it be if everyone in all types of work took time for specific self care rather than avoiding the issues and causing further problems down the road.
This was great to watch this airplane pilot use these yoga tune up balls as his self massager… even for relieving stress in his ankles… scapula area,, A definite to carry in my bag during the day !!!
I’ve been using my Tune Up balls while traveling. It’s great to be able to do self massage during and after plane flights. For me, sleeping on the plane usually means uncomfortable head and neck positions, resulting in sore neck muscles. I like to use the massage balls directly on the sternocleidomastoid, levator scapulae and trapezius muscles. This can be done on the flight itself.
Very exciting to have such a compact tool to relieve tension and stress! A decade ago, I discovered S.H’s melt technique, but living in an NYC apartment, I just couldn’t commit to a big foam roller. These tune up balls are fantastic, both for the world traveler and for New York City pavement-pounding yoga teachers.
This is wonderful and so easy to do. I usually travel overseas and my back gets very stiff during these long flights, After reading this and hearing Gil Hedley’s “The Fuzz Speech” yesterday, I will try this on my next flight. I am positive that staying hydrated and loosening up my “fuzz” and muscles will get my to my destiantion with a happy and healthy back.