A long, long time ago, I too, was once a globo-gym’er. Day in, day out, I would go hit up my local gym and not spend a minute stretching before or afterwards. Needless to say, this severely impacted my mobility for the worst. When I started functional fitness, my mobility was such a joke, literally; people would literally make jokes about it. So naturally, I did something about it…I spent hours stretching and mashing, using just about any mobility tool I could spend my money on. I progressed, and while I’ve come a long way, I’m no where near where I need to be. Granted, I haven’t been spending the time I should be on it, but it’s also because I haven’t found any cool new toys to play with too.
There isn’t a whole that hasn’t been done with self-myofacial release tools, but the QPoint and QPoint 2 take the simple design of a ball, and add in a very thoughtful feature: heat. Before I go any further with this, please don’t stick your LAX ball into the microwave and try to replicate the QPoint.
The QPoint can be used in any way a standard LAX ball can be used in, and the QPoint 2 is basically your “peanut”. I found that the single QPoint was better at hitting areas such as my calves/achilles, chest, and hips, while the peanut was better off used on my spine, hamstrings and quads. Although softer than a standard LAX ball/peanut setup, the QPoint’s are still firm enough to really dig into those tight muscles. I’m pretty sure the neoprene just acts as a barrier between the actual ball and your skin so you don’t burn yourself. 50 seconds to 1 minute provides ample heat for an hours worth of mashing pleasure; don’t be fooled if the balls don’t feel hot when you first pull them out of the microwave, they will reach their target temperature in about 5 minutes (follow the directions, don’t overheat!). The heat provided in conjunction with the pressure you’re applying to your muscles increases blood flow to the area and relaxes muscles, plus it just feels really nice after a hard workout. You’ll wonder why no one thought of this before; put on some relaxing music and you’ll get lost in rolling around with your QPoint’s.
Before I received my QPoint’s, my mobility had fallen down hill. I wasn’t mashing or stretching like I should have been, busy opening my affiliate, and not really working out either. The pain in my knees had come back, I could feel myself coming forward because my hips were tight, and my overhead position was awful. After spending a little time with the QPoint’s, i noticed a change, not anything dramatic, but a change in the right direction. To be fair, I hadn’t been doing any mobility so results were inevitable. That being said, I got tired of rolling out, stretching, and mashing. The QPoint’s offer such a relaxing experience that it’s hard to not want to use them daily; I’ve got one under each leg as I’m writing this!
The QPoint retails for $15.99 and the 2 for $24.99, and honestly, that will probably put some people off. The price is definitely the biggest downside to the the QPoint’s as it will only probably attract the people in most need of SMR. I believe that at least having the QPoint is worth it, the heat really makes a difference and the size is versatile enough to use anywhere on your body. You can save a little bit of money by purchasing the kit for $36.99 too. You shouldn’t put a price on your mobility, as it directly correlates to your athletic performance. I wish they made a bigger version; I like to use these on my bed versus the dirty gym floor, and I can’t dig into my hips adductors as much as I would like with either of the QPoint’s.
You can snag your kit at http://www.Qworkoutrecovery.com! “See what better feels like.”