published 04/02/09

Review of the ShiatsuBag and ShiatsuBalls

A “bag of balls” is an interesting and useful self-massage tool

by Paul Ingraham, Vancouver, Canada MORE
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Credentials and qualifications

I am a writer and retired Registered Massage Therapist (unusually well-trained for a massage therapist, a 3000-hour program). I’m almost done with a Bachelor of Health Sciences degree. I am a peer reviewer for The Natural Standard, and a copyeditor for Science-Based Medicine. My most important qualification is more than a decade of workaholic post-graduate study, clinical experience, and constant conversations with readers from around the world, including many experts who have provided countless suggestions and criticisms.

For more information, see: Who Am I to Say? More information about my qualifications, credentials and professional experiences for my readers and customers.

The ShiatsuBag is an 18" round satin-Lycra bag of massage balls, available from ShiatsuBag.com. The 15 balls in the bag are roughly the size of softballs, but come in two slightly different sizes and densities. The basic idea of the Shiatsu Bag is that you roll around on it, and the many points of contact make for a particularly thorough self- massage. The balls are made of a foam rubber with a particularly pleasing texture, and are useful individually — they can easily be removed from the bag, which makes the tool much more adaptable and something like a 2-for-1 deal.

With so many extremely cheap or free massage tools available that are perfectly good, there’s rarely any need to pay much for one. How good can a massage tool possibly be? As regular readers will know, I am not a sweet and forgiving reviewer, and I really dislike massage tool products that promise too much and cost too much. How about the ShiatsuBag? Will I be kind to it?

Yes, I will. I won’t be a big meanie, anyway.

ShiatsuBag, USD $39.95 @ ShiatsuBag.com

A satin-Lycra bag full of bag of nice massage balls — pleasant and interesting to work with, and quite adaptable to different goals.

The ShiatsuBag gets a thumbs up from me. I think it’s an interesting enough tool to justify the cost, and I think the manufacturer’s website is straightforward and reasonably humble. As always, I think some of the marketing language could be dialed down a little bit, but the copy is much less awful than on most websites selling massage tools. Also, when I told the manufacturer that this was my opinion, he immediately replied: “How can I improve it?” Gotta like that attitude.

Experimenting with the ShiatsuBag

I experimented with the ShiatsuBag for quite a while before deciding whether or not to endorse it. My concern was that it’s “just a bag of balls,” and not a serious therapy tool. It’s pleasant to roll around on — and that ain’t nothing — but it’s not a particularly good tool for locating and treating trigger points (muscle knots), which is (or should be) the main goal of most self-massage. Effective trigger point therapy is probably characterized by control, precision and focus … not by broad and imprecise stimulation of large quantities of tissue. And so I cannot see how the arrangement of foam balls in a bag provides any significant advantage in the treatment of myofascial pain syndrome over the usage of individual treatment balls.

Effective trigger point therapy is characterized by control, precision and focus.

I found that I could achieve some precise pressure with the ShiatsuBag — it is somewhat possible to settle your weight onto a particular ball. But it’s not especially easy, either: adequate precision and pressure were both difficult to achieve. The balls are not only too large for really focussed pressure, but they interfere with each other — I kept wanting to settle my weight more heavily onto a ball that has gotten (somewhat randomly) into a good spot, but the other balls were always in the way. I was able to improve my ability to isolate pressure with the bag by removing some balls from it.

General (unfocussed, imprecise) massage is infamous for having pleasant but exasperatingly minor and temporary therapeutic effects, and yet this is essentially what the bag o’ balls does: it’s a general, fairly unfocussed massage tool. So, why bother? Why spend money on it?

I decided that ShiatsuBag’s limited utility for treating trigger points is a minor limitation, but not a deal-breaker. Although difficult to control, I did often manage to achieve nice arrangements of the balls — while not exactly a replacement for precise trigger point therapy, any pressure on your muscles is better than no pressure at all, and the experience is pleasant overall. In certain applications, I found it to be superior to a “precise” massage. For instance, I have many minor trigger points throughout my upper back — far too many to work on them one at a time with a single ball. A bag o’ balls has a clear practical edge here, allowing me to quickly give a little bit of pressure and stimulation to many points throughout the region. Working with the bag for a couple of minutes is also a nice way to prepare for and support other more focussed self-treatments.

The ShiatsuBag’s limited utility for treating trigger points is a minor limitation, but not a deal-breaker.

So many-points-of-contact is definitely good for certain goals and needs, proving the point that a massage tool doesn’t have to excel at trigger point release to be worthwhile.

It’s all about the balls

I have long believed that a nice selection of balls is the best massage tool collection you can have. And the best thing about the ShiatsuBag is that it comes with 15 removable and high-quality balls in two sizes and textures.

The foam rubber balls in the bag are worthwhile tools in their own right.

The balls are made of a smooth-feeling foam rubber that doesn’t slip easily, but doesn’t grab the skin uncomfortably. Their texture — both the harder and softer balls — is so appealing that I have passed them to several clients just to give them a feel. “Feel that ball, eh?” The manufacturer did the homework and chose a ball material well. Many times I’ve heard claims that the material of a massage tool is “special,” and found the claim to be as inflated as the price. But these balls not only do feel kind of special to me, but they are inexpensive as well: five for $10.95, if you want to buy some separately.

They are a welcome addition to my large collection of massage balls and tools — in fact, they almost immediately became my favourites.

ShiatsuBag
available for USD $39.95 at ShiatsuBag.com