Body BackMini - Neck and Shoulder Massager

I didn't know this existed until a friend showed me. It does a great job of getting out the knots in your shoulders.

In a nutshell: This product is strong and durable and should last me a long time and will save my hands from self massage. Additionally it has a ton of extra pressure knobs in order for the user to be infinitely creative in their self treatment. I have used the competitors products and they are both great! The extra knobs are worth choosing this one due to the ability to get to so many other muscles and additional leverage. P.s. It came in a HUGE box.I'm constantly self massaging my neck and shoulders due to poor posture and working habits compounding with stress. I recognize that postural correction including postural strengthening and neuromuscular control would be of most benefit for improving my tight, stressed, and overworked muscles however sometimes I just need to alleviate an aggravated muscle with self massage. This tool is the solution!Self massage can be very difficult and sometimes may even work against you. It is important to relax a muscle during massage and this tool was designed to allow the user to apply pinpoint pressure to almost anywhere on the body while maintaining a relaxed position with relaxed muscles.More pressure isn't better with a massage regardless of what some people may believe. It's neuromuscular science, not metal working. A muscle knot is not something that can only be squeezed or wrenched out (often times this can create more tissue damage). Accurate and appropriate pressure is infinitely better to use for massage. - Find a knot or trigger point aka: palpable taught band in the muscle (sometime you need to use your hands to find them or pinpoint your target) - slowly sink into the tissue so as to increase pressure moderately without allowing the knot to slip out from under the pressure - maintain moderate pressure and palpate (aka feel) around the taught band in order to get an idea of size and shape of the knot (visualize the knot as you treat it) - pressure should be firm but not uncomfortable, the goal is to relax the target muscle while applying accurate pressure to the knot - an alternative technique would be to do the same as above but slowly lengthen and shorten the muscle while applying the pressure to the taught band - a relaxed muscle with moderate/firm pressure on a trigger point or knot is able to neuromuscularly (kinda made that word up) decrease the resting tension of the muscle or "reset" to a more normal resting tension (this can take up to 90 seconds with continuous and accurate pressure) - Visualizing the muscle while you treat it and relaxing make a huge difference (anatomy pictures are worth looking at) - Periodically palate with your hand to reassess the size and shape of the knot - experiment with the vector direction of the force to find a different angle to treat the same muscle with - some knots or trigger points will seem to melt away with accurate and appropriate pressure, others with twitch and relax - some will seem to melt away from pressure and move to where you push them... follow the muscle and it's tension, it will tell you where to go next - some knots will feel big and general, explore these and find the most sensitive point of the muscle - some will refer pain to other areas of the body

My body stores its tension in the muscles of my back right between my shoulder blades in that place you can't reach by yourself. I usually put up with it til I get home and can lay down on my Bed Buddy. But, now, with this device, I can easily address the tightness before it becomes painful in just a few seconds at work. As soon as I feel that tightness starting to build, I grab my Body Back and cause that tightness to release. It's simple, effective and ergonomically perfect.

I wasn't sure how this would work for me (and it came with no instructions). As a massager, I was hoping it would help with my stiff neck and shoulder muscles. I also wanted it to serve as a back-scratcher.What I found was that it doesn't work well at both jobs. Just as it is, it makes a good back-scratcher, but when I used it on my muscles I found that the "bird beak" on the business end was painful to use—too hard, too small, and too pointy. Think about the massage tools we all came equipped with: fingertips, knuckles, and so on—they're all cushioned to some extent and they're much broader and more rounded. I filed the beak off, and now it's comfortable to use for pressing on my sore muscles. It's got reach and plenty of leverage, though I find myself choking up on the handle a lot, that is, grasping it further along the handle toward the bend.Having removed the beak, it's no longer very effective as a back-scratcher.The handle is very uncomfortable. I assumed from the photo of the product that the handle would be typical of the overmolded soft-rubber handles on tools of all kinds these days. No such luck (or luxury)—it's just a different color of the same hard plastic as the rest of it, and the little knobs make it worse; they dig into your hands and hurt. I'm planning to fix that with a coating of Lexel, but I think a thick layer of tape would work, at the risk of getting adhesive gunk on your hands. They really should redesign the handle and make it soft and comfortable and to extend further up the shaft.I bought this because it was cheap and looked durable. I'd have given it two and a half stars if that were possible. Now that I've modded it, it works okay for me, but I still need to rework the handgrip.This is okay for the money if you can modify it.

Easy to use, works well, good value for the price.

A good helpful product, however the smaller one could have been of a better quality.

Probably the best money I have spent all year!I get persistent back and shoulder (around the blade) tension and it was impossible to get with just my fingers.This little beauty gets them all!I actually shaved off the point as I found that too painful and not I do not travel anywhere without it.If only it was a different color as because of the size and shape you get some really odd looks! :)

I have constant neck and shoulder pain and have a regular size Thera Cane at home. It is too big to put into my luggage so I purchased this handy dandy one. This will be good to travel with to loosen some knots. It does feel a little sharp in some areas but works okay.

I have seen similar bigger products and felt like trying one. This had the perfect size. I am not excited with the results but still, it is an easy when when you don't have a spare pair of hands available!