When it comes to dealing with stress we have to consider addressing both the cause of stress and the symptoms caused by it. The symptoms of stress include tension, anxiety, difficulty sleeping, exhaustion, pains and aches and muscle stiffness. To help you manage those, we have prepared a selection of products that can help you relieve the symptoms of stress and improve your overall wellbeing.
The products we have chosen revolve around massage – and that’s because massage is a fantastic technique for managing symptoms of stress, and comes with numerous health and wellness benefits. Let’s name some of them…
Benefits of using massage products
- Stress and anxiety relief
- Pain and ache relief
- Tension relief
- Improved sleep quality
- Improved blood circulation
- Increased oxygen flow
- Relaxation
- Eliminating toxins from your body
- Improved mobility and flexibility
- Improved range of motion
- Stiffness and muscle spasms relief
- Improved wellbeing
- Enhanced sport performance
- Improved recovery time
- Injury prevention
- Rehabilitation
1. Massage Gun
What comes with stress, and especially stress in the amount we’ve been experiencing since the pandemic started, is tension. A stiff neck, back pain, tensed body and muscles… you name it! A Massage Gun is the perfect tool to come to our rescue! Of course, it can’t eliminate the cause of your stress, because we all know it’s more complex than that, but it’s fantastic at relieving the symptoms of stress.
You can use it to massage the trigger points in your neck, back, thighs to loosen tension in your body and reduce muscle pain. It will increase the flow of oxygen and blood in your system, which will boost your energy, remove waste and toxins from your body and increase your mental clarity.
The powerful vibrations relax your muscles relieving pain, soreness, stiffness. Therefore, you will sleep better, improve your mobility and flexibility and enhance your range of motion. Additionally, massage guns are lightweight and portable so you can easily take them with you or store them after your massage.
The BodyMax Massage Gun comes with 5 different attachments so you can properly address the place of tension. It offers 3 vibration levels from the lightest to most powerful, so that you can increase the intensity of your massage over time.
2. Massage Chair
When it comes to stress relief, massage chairs will act similarly to massage guns – except they require minimum effort and target the maximum amount of muscles in your body all at the same time. Sounds quite perfect, doesn’t it? All you need to do is sit back and relax while the machine does its job, and a few minutes after, you come away feeling relaxed and tension-free.
Aside from supreme relaxation, which nobody can argue, massage chairs come with numerous health benefits – and many of them relate to combating symptoms of stress. Massage chairs stimulate oxygen flow and improve blood circulation, which (as we mentioned with the massage gun) boosts energy levels and helps eliminate toxins from your system.
Getting a massage stimulates your body to release serotonin and dopamine (aka “feel-good hormones”) and decreases cortisol (the stress hormone); consequently, relieving stress, anxiety and promoting an overall feeling of wellness. Stress often comes with insomnia and massage chairs are great at helping you overcome that as well. Some of the other benefits include relieving pain from sore muscles, decreasing muscle stiffness in the neck area, reducing lower back pain, improving the body’s immune system and decreasing headaches.
There’s a variety of massage chairs and their sizes, which directly impacts the areas of the body they can target (usually the bigger the chair, the more places it can massage) so we recommend checking out our Massage Chair Buying Guide to find more information about the differences between various models.
3. Massage Trigger Point Balls
These are the simplest, most budget-friendly, and portable options for trigger point massage. Of course, they’re not as powerful as massage guns and massage chairs as they rely purely on human power, but it’s a good start!
Massage balls are used for self-massage and acupressure of the tensed muscles and points in your body. It’s a simple product that will help you reduce that tension, stiffness at a minimal cost. They come in different sizes and hardness levels so you can choose the most appropriate one to target your area of pain. They’re suitable for targeting glutes, thighs, back, neck, and shoulders. Massage balls can increase your range of motion, decrease muscle soreness and improve your muscle performance.
4. Vibrating foam roller
We’re sure you’ve already heard of foam rollers. Lately, they’ve become popular in reducing muscle soreness after workouts. Now vibrating foam rollers take it to the next level, providing even more benefits. The vibrations are fantastic at muscle relaxation while stimulating blood and oxygen flow.
Regular use of a vibrating foam roller will improve your muscle health and recovery time after training. With the vibrating foam roller’s variable settings, it enables you to deliver different levels of vibration intensity, depending on your needs and targeted muscle groups.
Some of the other benefits include improved sleep quality, reduced body pain, increased mobility and flexibility, and enhanced performance during your workouts.
5. Exercise Equipment
As we mentioned in our previous blogs – Relaxation Techniques for Stress Relief, Stress Awareness Month 2021 – Where to Begin, A Chat With Gordon Reid – Rugby, Stress and Challenges and Meet Lauren – Beating Booze, Dealing With Stress & Home Workouts – exercise has a significant influence on stress management. It stimulates your body to release endorphins (happy hormones) that improve your mood and reduce anxiety. Exercising clears your mind, improves sleep quality and boosts oxygen flow and blood circulation increasing your energy levels, so it’s safe to say that training equipment can support you in dealing with stress.
The most important part here is to find the type of activity you like and enjoy – and that can vary drastically from person to person. You may enjoy walking, yoga or light cycling – or you can take pleasure in intensive HIIT workouts or functional training. As long as you move – it counts. So of course, depending on your preferred type of exercising you will be looking at different training equipment. Some of the equipment you may want to consider includes treadmills, bikes, rowing machines, cross trainers, functional training equipment, weights, boxing gear and trampolines.
Summary
We all know that effective stress management takes more than purchasing the right products – it’s a combination of a healthy lifestyle, stress management techniques, a balanced diet and many other factors… However, there are products that can definitely relieve some symptoms of stress and help you manage them better. Above mentioned massage equipment will help you relax and relieve stress, anxiety and tension; consequently, improving your wellbeing. So make sure to give it a try and massage the stress away!
