Sports Massage Stick
To focus on the user experience of student athletes and reduce sport injuries In the legs due to muscle and fascial adhesion. I aim to bring deep Trigger Point Therapy before and after sport activity.
Please find the process at bottom of this page
The Issue for Student Athletes
54%
Play whilst Injured
42%
Don’t consider the importance of injury
53%
Of Coaches pressured to make injured children play
“A quick massage during breaks in a sporting event can relieve cramps or muscle pains and provide an energy boost”
“Massage before condition training helps to prevent injuries and should be administered after a warm up session ”
Roll on the process…
Use the arrows on the side to see the process
Engineering Drawing of the massage stick. The measurements are justified based on the anthropometrics of human legs
Understanding the user. Student athletes are often extremely busy with sport taking up a large portion of their day. This results in the following traits on the right hand side
Using a technique known as the 5 why's, this allowed me to get to the core of the problem of students getting injured.
Analysis of existing products.
Various concepts were analysed against the PDS to determine which concept would be more successful
Development 1 - The result of this determined that in order to also teach children about the products usage, the stick would use the form of a human leg
One idea to model the handles in accordance with bones in the leg proved unsuccessful due to the levels of un-comfort this would provide to the user
Instead of focusing on bones, a different approach to consider muscle forms was used instead. This meant handles were more ergonomic for use
Finally using the movements of a leg this was incorporated into the product which was beneficial as it provided another massage technique
Understanding the Massage Techniques
Videos provided by the Chicago Center for Myofascial Pain Relief show the various techniques that the massage stick uses