TREAT YOURSELF TO DEEP RELIEF FROM PAINFUL, KNOTTED, SPASMED MUSCLES - EVEN IN THE MIDDLE OF YOUR BACK!

This amazingly simple yet effective self-massager makes it easy to apply pain-relieving deep compression directly to hard, knotted "trigger points" anywhere they occur - breaking up tension even in the hardest-to-reach muscles between your shoulder blades! If you have limited strength or mobility, Thera Cane's patented design gives you all the reach and leverage you need!

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Pressure applied to the muscles by the Thera Cane helps to maximize the flow of oxygenated blood to the muscles. This pressure aids in restoring muscle function by breaking up adhesions in muscle fibers and tendons. The increased circulation helps the muscle to work more efficiently.

EMPOWERMENT

The Thera Cane provides temporary relief from muscular tension, stiffness, tenderness and soreness. It's simple to use and it puts relief where it belongs, in your hands. The personal involvement necessary for using the Cane leads to an increased desire to take more responsibility for one's own health. Using the Thera Cane regularly will put you in touch with your body, closer than you've ever been before, not to mention putting you in control of minor muscular aches and pains. You are never alone when you have your Thera Cane with you.

PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS

We all have muscles that occasionally get sore. It might go unnoticed until we reach for something, or bend over. Sometimes a twist or turn is all it takes. This might produce a crick in your neck or a hot spot between your shoulder blades. Either way it can hurt and it just won't seem to go away. We've all tried rubbing the muscle to make the pain lessen. However, it's hard to get in deep enough, or do it long enough, maybe you just can't reach the spot on your own. With the Thera Cane you can apply deep pressure massage to the back, neck, shoulders, legs, hips, arms, buttocks, anywhere and everywhere... and we show you how.

PROVEN PROFESSIONAL RESULTS

The Thera Cane is used by thousands of health care professionals in a wide variety of clinical settings. Therapists and Doctors from many specialties are making the Thera Cane an integral part of treatment for their patients who suffer from muscular pain and discomfort. Read what some have to say:

"The Thera Cane is a great product and I will continue to promote its use with my patients."
- B. Hudson, P.T.

"The Thera Cane is one of the best self-management tools I have been able to offer my patients."
- B. Headley, P.T.

"Enclosed is a purchase order for more Thera Canes. The first one I purchased has been working out well."
- M. Brown, M.D.

Now read what some patients have told us:

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thera Canes are wonderful!"
- D. Koblitz

"Your Thera Cane is making a difference between taking meds and dealing with my muscle pain drug-free."
- Susan

"My friends are raving about your canes!"
- S. Wyman

Product Specifications:

Weight: 1 lb.     Length: 24"     Width: 15"     Diameter: 1"

Unique patented design, four patents awarded.

Thera Cane is a self massager used to apply pressure to sore muscles. The unique design of the Thera Cane lets you apply deep pressure massage to hard to reach areas of your body on your own.

THE LEVERAGE MAKES IT EASY TO USE!

POSITION YOUR HANDS AND CANEas shown in illustration #1, with the ball in place on top of your shoulder. Next, push both your hands straight down while at the same time pushing outward with your right hand 1 to 2 inches. Your left arm is held in close to your side and remains motionless. Once sufficient pressure is attained move your left arm back and forth so the applicator ball, along with your skin, slides across the muscle. This pressure should be contained within an area the size of a quarter. The more concentrated the pressure, the more effective the response. Now look at illustration #2. By resting your forearm on the upper handle you are able to relax your left arm muscles and achieve the same pressure. Proper leverage reduces excessive hand and arm movement and makes the Thera Cane easier to use. The technique of using leverage is easy to learn after some practice. Be patient and follow the illustrations and instructions.

KEEP THE BALL IN CONTACT WITH YOUR BODY in order to maintain control of the Thera Cane and prevent it from slipping off the muscle. You will have control when your skin is depressed enough from the pressure to follow the movement of the ball across the muscle.

BEGIN WITH LIGHT PRESSURE and short periods of use as your muscles will require a breaking in period. A few minutes work on one or two troublesome points is sufficient. People enjoy using the Thera Cane so much that they tend to overdue it at first. If you do you may temporarily hurt more than you did to begin with. This added discomfort will go away after a restful sleep and certainly within 12-36 hours. The following day it will be helpful and soothing to work on the same area using a lighter touch. In addition, gentle stretching, an ice pack or perhaps a hot bath will make you feel better. With experience you will be able to use more pressure and enjoy extended periods of use.

Prior to using the Thera Cane, stretch your muscles to help in locating areas of tenderness. When using the Thera Cane try to place a stretch on the muscle you are applying pressure to. This will assist you in defining the specific area of tenderness in the muscle. Also, soaking in a hot bath before using the Cane will allow deeper pressure without the residual soreness.

BY USING THE THERA CANEfrom the three basic positions (standing, sitting and lying down), for one particular point, you are able to access the muscle from the most angles possible. This thorough approach will increase the likelihood of obtaining the proper angle of penetration to relieve the trigger point.

THE LEVEL OF PRESSURE WILL DEPEND upon the application. For example, back muscles need more pressure than forearm muscles. A level of pressure midway between painful and pleasurable ("hurts so good") is suggested after the breaking in period. Apply pressure gradually increasing it as you work the ball into the muscle. If the tenderness decreases while pressing, press harder or move the ball slightly to relocate the most sensitive part of the trigger point. If a muscle is extra tender, work on the surrounding area before zeroing in on the more sensitive spot.

•   While applying adequate pressure slowly move the ball back and forth across the trigger point. A gentle wiggle helps to burrow into the muscle.

•   Press directly on the trigger point and hold for five to ten seconds, release and repeat a few times. It is advisable to avoid this technique for the front and side of the neck muscles since this area is very easy to overdue (use your fingers for these areas). This method is more suited for areas of thick muscle mass and only after becoming familiar with your own pressure limits.

•   A systematic approach regardless of the technique used will heighten your awareness and give you the best results.

THE THERA CANE WAS DEVELOPED by a chronic pain patient to help relieve his own discomfort resulting from neck surgery and a herniated disc in his back. By using the Thera Cane along with a daily stretching routine he has obtained long lasting relief.

Self-Management Of Soft Tissue Syndromes (This article appeared in "Advanced for Directors in Rehabilitation" by Barbara Headley, MS, PT.) Therapists working in orthopedics and chronic pain programs often face the dilemma of having a patient who has pain, but for whom all the diagnostic tests are negative. Treating soft tissue dysfunction, especially pain in muscle, is all too familiar to us. Treating these, or any other patient in tight managed care environment demands that we emphasis treatment that targets the dysfunction, and self-management skills by the patients. The Thera Cane is one of the best self-management tools I have been able to offer my patients.
THE TREATMENT OF MYOPAIN The Thera Cane allows the patient to treat virtually all trigger points associated with myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) with less (if any) long-term assistance from health care providers. The problems of MPS seldom resolve never to return. There may be some inherent vulnerability in the muscle tissue that makes the muscle prone to recurrent trigger points. These trigger points cause both pain and muscle dysfunction. The ability of many individuals to work with complex MPS is dependent upon management of these trigger points whenever they flare up. The key to management is intervention immediately when the flare-up begins, not several days later when they can get in to see a therapist. The key is self-management, and the Thera Cane is the ideal tool. Myopain is a problem for people with fibromyalgia as well. Fibromyalgia patients often have a mixture of both tender points and trigger points. The trigger points may reflect a more localized problem, the fibromyalgia a more generalized one. These individuals find that the Thera Cane may be helpful for both tender points and trigger points, and reduction of myofascial pain related symptoms may assist in maintaining a higher level of function.
The Thera Cane is a curved, fiberglass tool that has several knobs on it. The mechanics of this tool make it very easy to use, with little force needed to apply adequate pressure to the trigger point causing trouble. It feels quite awkward initially, and patients tend to fumble with it. I encourage them first to get the feel of it before they begin seriously to address their trigger points. One of the most important lessons I learned as a chronic pain patient who has had two fusions is that I need to feel some control over the soft tissue pain that remains after a very successful fusion. If I did not have a tool I could take with me on lecture tours or vacation, I would travel much less and I would be much more dependent upon medication, and other health professionals assistance. Instead, I carry the Thera Cane wherever I go and treat trigger points as they start to become a problem, reducing my discomfort before it really develops. This sense of self-efficacy I pass on to my patients, who always express some degree of being out of control with their pain. When symptom reduction is at one's fingertips, anxiety and pain are reduced and function increases.
HOW IT WORKS Pressure on the trigger point deactivates it, although the exact mechanism is not known. Measurements of sensitivity pre and post treatment show a decrease in pain, reports by the patient reveal the referred pain pattern is not present after successful pressure has been applied, and often the patient will demonstrate an immediate change in range of motion. Diligent use of the Thera Cane to perform the pressure techniques, therefore, is critical in early and effective management of the trigger points. While the patient reports that the decrease in referred pain is the desired outcome, as a therapist specializing in sEMG for 10 years, I recognize the reduction of muscle dysfunction as the primary benefit. MPS is a movement disorder, and the trigger points "fuel" the muscle dysfunction that develops. Early intervention reduces the potential of a chronic movement disorder developing, with one or several prime movers no longer functioning.
EDUCATING YOUR PATIENT Patients often quickly see the Thera Cane as the solution to their chronic back pain problem. Years of working with this tool and patients has taught me that patients need to be cautioned about trying to fix the problem in one day because they finally have the means at hand. I teach patients that using the Thera Cane requires adherence to certain principles to reduce the muscles from tightening up to protect the area. Health care mandates that we not only provide patients with proper tools, but that proper instruction in the tool be included. The Thera Cane Co. has developed a video on the use of the Thera Cane to supplement instruction by the therapist. Patients who have good self-management skills have much less anxiety about their pain, take medication less, and return for treatments less often. That is not only a benefit to the insurers. The patient is able to function at a higher level and enjoy activity more. The employer sees a reduction in lost time from work. When used at the work site, there are less claims filed and less productivity lost.
WHO IT HELPS Although the Thera Cane may appear to have the greatest application with soft tissue (muscle pain), the tool has also been helpful to patients with arthritis, stroke and spinal cord injuries. Anyone who moves in a compensatory movement pattern has altered the biochemical stresses on joints and muscle. These muscles are then vulnerable to MPS regardless of the original injury or disease, Elimination of the muscle dysfunction in an arthritis patient may reduce their pain to very manageable levels, even though the underlying disease process has not been changed. In short, the Thera Cane can be used by anyone, anywhere, anytime they want to reduce pain and discomfort. Patients like the independence, payers like the cost reduction and most of all, the patient is put back in control.

Click here for a user manual in PDF
http://www.theracane.com/TCmanual_English.pdf