Review and Giveaway: Heskier's OneTool

“Everyone experiences pain, tenderness and tension in their bodies sometimes. We intrinsically know and can identify where in our bodies we hurt.” ~ About Heskiers One Tool.

I am in a line of work that has me on my feet for 6-8 hours at a time, often lifting and carrying things around, so I have plenty of painful, tense spots in my muscles upon which to test this product and, like many people, not a whole lot of extra time and/or cash lying around for professional treatments as often as I’d like.  

The Heskiers OneTool is an ergonomic massage tool designed not only for professionals to use in therapeutic massage and myofascial release treatments, but also for laypeople to use in self-treatment. This little doo-dad is designed to mimic the shape of the hand in order to more effectively apply pressure to the body with less effort and strain on your hands, and can help you reach places you wouldn’t physically be capable of doing yourself for self-treatment.

Upon opening the box, I found a very informative pamphlet (as well as a diagram in the lid!) explaining how the various shapes made by the tool correspond to hand positions to use on the muscle groups, as well as sample self-treatments.

There is also a wealth of information on the website about how to use it, including instructional videos. I highly recommend visiting the Heskiers YouTube channel and viewing their instructional videos.

I found the “How to Use” video especially helpful to view before rubbing yourself down; despite my best efforts with the diagrams, I wasn’t quite getting it at first:

Using the instrument takes a little practice, but I found it very effective for pain relief very quickly.

The (ok, oversimplified) process for a muscle knot is as follows:

1) find the crunchy spot in your muscle that’s giving you trouble.
2) press it down with the part of the implement that is easiest to get at the crunchy spot effectively and hold it for a count of 99 (approximately a minute and a half).
3) rotate the tool to a less pointy side and sort of lightly swipe it back and forth over the freshly pressed spot for a count of 99 (also approximately a minute and a half).

It’s important to hold/swipe for the proper amount of time for the treatment to be effective, and Martin Heskier explains the reasons for this in the aforementioned instructional video (so watch it, folks).

The only problem I found with this tool for myself is that I often lose focus and get bored counting to 99, so combating this meant setting a timer for a minute and a half while I glazed over and paid attention to something more interesting to my brain.

A rousing chorus of “99 Bottles Of Beer On The Wall”, while hilariously irritating to those around you, is unfortunately significantly longer than a minute and a half.

(In case you are curious, you can get to about 87 bottles of beer in the timespan of a minute in a half, but you absolutely cannot do so without bobbing from side to side, because it is physically impossible.)

Other treatments, such as those for the face and head, are a little more delicate and require a lighter touch. I watched the instructional videos for jaw tension and facial massage, not realizing that my jaw pain was actually an oncoming sinus issue (this happens to me sometimes).

So I followed the techniques shown in the video and felt better afterwards, then my sinuses just gushed a surprise post-nasal goo that did not sit well in my stomach. I don’t know if this was a good thing or a bad thing, but it was an unexpected thing.

For the pro bodyworkers out there (or those thinking of becoming one) who are interested in learning more about the OneTool and the Heskier’s Method and possibly integrating these into their practice, the Heskier’s Academy is starting this spring, in April 2016.

A book on the Heskier’s Method is also being published at the same time. For more info on either of these, click here: Heskiers Academy.  

If you'd like to try one of these handy little tools, you can purchase directly from their site for $69.99 (free shipping within the US) in your choice of white, black or orange.  In addition, Heskiers is generously offering one tool to each of THREE of our readers in the US!  Read on to see how you can enter to win.

http://heskiers.com
https://www.facebook.com/heskiers/

https://twitter.com/@HeskiersOneTool

To enter the giveaway, you must leave a comment in this entry as instructed by the Rafflecopter below, then leave the name you commented under and your email in the box in the Rafflecopter entry. (This allows us to contact you if you win!) This will open up additional optional entries to increase your odds of winning.

This giveaway is open to US RESIDENTS ONLY and will end just before midnight ET on 1-18. 

The winner will be notified by email within 24 hours after the end of the giveaway. In order to claim the giveaway prize, the winner will need to respond within 24 hours of notification, or an alternate winner will be selected.

Once the winner has responded and confirmed, their first name will be posted on our Giveaways page.

Good luck everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway