Your Lacrosse Ball Is the Most Underused Piece of Surf Gear in Your Car

Rob Case had just spent two hours turning my surfing technique inside out. Level 2. The kind of session where you leave the water knowing you're a better surfer — and feeling stoked to surf more.

Then I sat in a car for an hour.

By the time I pulled into the driveway, my upper traps had locked up, my lower back was reminding me of every paddle-out, and my forearms felt like someone had filled them with concrete. I'd done nothing. No massage, no movement, no recovery of any kind. Just a heated seat and a podcast.

Most surfers do exactly this. Session ends, wetsuit comes off, drive home, wonder why they're wrecked the next morning. The missing step isn't a stretch — it's a massage. And the tool you need is only $5.

Why Massage, Not Stretching

Here's the finding that reframes everything: in a meta-analysis of 99 post-exercise recovery studies, massage was the most effective single technique for reducing delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and perceived fatigue — outperforming stretching, electrostimulation, and active recovery (Dupuy et al., 2018). A 2025 umbrella review synthesizing 29 systematic reviews covering 863 unique RCTs — published in Sports Medicine — found strong evidence for massage's effectiveness in reducing pain at multiple DOMS timepoints (24h, 48h, and 72h post-exercise), in contrast to weak evidence for stretching and electrical stimulation (Wiecha et al., 2025) [2].

Stretching has real value for mobility. But if you're choosing one thing to do in the 15 minutes after a surf session, the evidence says it should be massage.

The mechanisms are worth knowing: massage appears to work through local circulatory effects — increasing blood flow and lymphatic drainage — mechanical disruption of early fascial adhesions, and neurological modulation that damps the peripheral and spinal-level pain signaling after exercise. All three of these mechanisms can be engaged by self-applied pressure, particularly when you use a tool that amplifies force.

There's a timing argument here too. Your muscles cool and stiffen during the drive. Whatever work you do after sitting for an hour is fighting against the tissue tightening that happened en route. Do this in the parking lot, or in the first five minutes of sitting in the car before you've driven away. The window matters.

What Surfing Actually Did to Your Body

Before the protocol, it's worth naming exactly what you're treating — because the post-surf fatigue pattern is specific and the car-based solutions track directly to it.

Shoulders: The upper trapezius and cervical extensors spend your entire session in sustained isometric contraction — head lifted, neck in extension — holding your gaze toward the horizon across every paddle and pop-up. In a two-hour session, the cumulative load on this structure is significant. Post-surf upper trap tenderness is nearly universal.

The infraspinatus and teres minor — the shoulder's external rotators — work throughout every paddle stroke as part of the rotator cuff's stabilizing force couple, holding the humeral head centered against the powerful internal rotation forces of the pull phase. They also load eccentrically during arm recovery. The result over a long session is cumulative fatigue in muscles that don't announce themselves loudly — until the morning after.

Lower back: Prone paddling is sustained lumbar extension. The lumbar erectors and quadratus lumborum hold this position for most of the session. For surfers in their 40s and 50s, this is often the first place they feel it — and the most persistent.

Between the shoulder blades: The rhomboids and mid-trapezius stabilize your scapula through every stroke. They're chronically fatigued in high-volume surfers and particularly poorly served by immediately returning to a hunched driving posture — which is almost exactly the opposite position from what they were just working in.

Forearms: Overlooked every time. Your forearm flexors and extensors resist water throughout the catch phase of every paddle stroke. Forearm tightness is the kind of thing you don't notice until it becomes a chronic issue.

Hips and glutes: The explosive component of the pop-up is a glute-dominant movement. The turned-out hip position of regular and goofy-foot stance loads the piriformis — the deep hip external rotator — in a sustained shortened position throughout every wave.

The 10-Minute Car Protocol

You need almost no equipment for most of this. Where tools help, I'll flag them. The foundational item — a lacrosse ball — costs about five dollars and fits in any surf bag. Keep two.

1. Upper Trap and Neck (2 minutes, no tools required)

Setup: Seated in the driver's seat. Reach your right hand over your left shoulder — or work with your left hand on your right shoulder.

The movement:

1. Use your fingertips to locate the upper trapezius at the base of your neck — the thick ridge of muscle running from your neck toward your shoulder.
2. Apply moderate, sustained pressure to the most tender point. Hold for 30–60 seconds without moving.
3. Release and walk your fingers an inch along the muscle. Repeat.
4. Work the full length of the upper trap from neck to shoulder, spending time at each tender spot.
5. Switch sides.

What right feels like: A dull, satisfying ache at the point of pressure — the classic trigger point sensation of "hurts but you want more." Not sharp. Not radiating pain down your arm (that's a red flag — see below). Your neck should feel incrementally easier to turn as you work each point.

Common mistakes:

• If you're rubbing fast across the muscle: You're getting friction, not compression. Slow down and hold each point.
• If you feel nothing: Go deeper or find the belly of the muscle. The upper trap sits surprisingly far forward on the shoulder — not at the back of the neck.
• If you feel sharp or radiating pain: Stop. This isn't DOMS — see the red flags section.

With a tool: A lacrosse ball placed between the upper trap and the seat back allows you to lean back and let the ball do the work. Adjust your position to locate the tender point, then hold. A Knobble II trigger point tool gives thumb-level precision without hand fatigue — particularly useful for the suboccipital muscles at the base of the skull. A massage cane (also called a trigger point hook) is the best option if hand fatigue is a limiting factor — the hook reaches the upper trap without requiring you to raise your arm at all, and the leverage it provides means you can apply sustained pressure with almost no effort.

2. Rhomboids and Mid-Trap — Between the Shoulder Blades (2 minutes, tool recommended)

This is the highest-return technique in this entire protocol. It requires essentially no effort and can be started before you've even left the parking spot.

Setup: Place a lacrosse ball between your mid-back — between your shoulder blades — and the seat back. Lean back against it.

The movement:

1. Adjust your position until the ball lands on the most tender spot. The rhomboids sit in the strip of muscle between the spine and the inner edge of each shoulder blade.
2. Lean back firmly to compress. Hold for 30–90 seconds.
3. Shift your weight slightly — up, down, left, right — to move the ball to adjacent tender spots.
4. Repeat for the opposite side.

What right feels like: A deep, spreading ache between the shoulder blades. Noticeably more tender on your dominant paddle side. After 60 seconds of sustained pressure, the intensity should ease — that's the muscle releasing. Breathe steadily throughout; if you find yourself holding your breath, ease off slightly and breathe first.

Common mistakes:

• If the ball keeps slipping: Press your back more firmly into the seat, or place a small towel behind you to create traction.
• If you feel it in your spine rather than the muscle tissue: You're too central. Shift the ball laterally — toward the shoulder blade, not the spine.
• If you can't feel anything distinct: Try a firmer ball or more bodyweight lean.

With a tool: A massage cane works well here as an alternative to the ball — hook it over your shoulder to reach the rhomboid region and apply sustained downward pressure. The advantage over the ball-against-seat method is more precise point location; the disadvantage is that it requires holding the cane, which takes more effort than simply leaning back.

3. Posterior Shoulder — Infraspinatus and Teres Minor (1–2 minutes per side, tool required)

Setup: Place a lacrosse ball between the back of your shoulder — the flat region just below and slightly inside the shoulder joint — and the seat back.

The movement:

1. Cross your working-side arm across your body (like a self-hug). This wraps the shoulder blade forward around your ribcage and brings the infraspinatus closer to the surface of the seat back.
2. Lean back until the ball contacts the infraspinatus belly. The sweet spot is roughly in the center of the triangular muscle mass on the back of your shoulder blade.
3. Hold sustained pressure for 30–60 seconds.
4. Shift slightly to cover the full muscle, spending extra time at any tender points.
5. Release, uncross your arm, and repeat on the other side.

What right feels like: A distinct dull ache in the back of the shoulder — often more pronounced than you expected before you found it. The infraspinatus is a reliably tender structure after paddle-heavy surfing. Breathing should remain easy; if the sensation becomes sharp or radiates down the arm, reposition off the ball.

Common mistakes:

• If you feel nothing: Your arm probably isn't crossed far enough. Pull it further across your chest to wrap the shoulder blade further forward and bring the muscle to the surface.
• If you're pressing on the back of the arm: You've drifted too far lateral. Move the ball medially, toward the shoulder blade.

4. Forearms (1–2 minutes per side, tool optional)

Setup: Seated, rest your forearm across your thigh with the inner forearm (flexor side) facing up.

The movement:

1. Use the opposite thumb or heel of the palm to apply compression to the forearm flexors, starting near the wrist and working toward the elbow in slow strokes.
2. Spend 20–30 seconds at any particularly tender spots using sustained pressure rather than movement.
3. Work from wrist to elbow twice, then switch arms.

What right feels like: A surface-level muscular ache — the forearm flexors are relatively superficial and respond quickly to compression. You should feel mild tenderness across the belly of the muscle, more pronounced closer to the wrist. The sensation should ease within 30 seconds of sustained pressure on a tender spot.

Common mistakes:

• If you're moving too fast: You're not giving the tissue time to respond. Slow down — 3–5 seconds per inch.
• If you feel a sharp, precise pain near the wrist — especially anything that tingles, buzzes, or shoots into the thumb, index, or middle finger: Stop. You may be compressing the median nerve at the carpal tunnel rather than muscle belly. Stay at least two finger-widths above the wrist crease, and if symptoms recur, see the red flags section.

With a tool: A massage stick allows more sustained pressure with less hand fatigue and gives you more control over depth while seated.

5. Lower Back — Lumbar Erectors and Quadratus Lumborum (2–3 minutes, tool required)

Direct hand access to the lower back while seated is effectively impossible. The car seat solves this.

Setup: Place a lacrosse ball — or, if the pinpoint pressure is too intense, a tennis ball — between your lumbar spine and the seat back. Position it at the level of your belt, slightly off-center to one side of the spine (on the muscle, not the vertebra). This targets the erector spinae effectively. If you're specifically after the quadratus lumborum — which sits deeper and more lateral, between the 12th rib and the top of the pelvis — move the ball slightly higher and further out toward your side.

The movement:

1. Lean back until you feel the ball contact the erector spinae or quadratus lumborum.
2. Adjust height until you locate the most tender spot.
3. Hold sustained compression for 60–90 seconds. Breathe steadily.
4. Shift to the opposite side and repeat.
5. For the drive home: you can leave the ball in place as a passive intervention — body heat and sustained compression will continue the work without any active effort on your part.

What right feels like: A deep, spreading ache in the lumbar musculature — typically more intense on your dominant stance side. The sensation should have a satisfying quality to it even when tender. After 60 seconds, the intensity usually decreases as the muscle releases.

Common mistakes:

• If you feel the ball on your spine: Move it laterally. The target is the muscle running alongside the spine, not the bone.
• If the lacrosse ball is too intense: Switch to a tennis ball. This is especially common in surfers 50 and older — softer durometer gives you access to the tissue without the guarding response that defeats the purpose.

6. Glutes and Piriformis (2 minutes per side, tool required)

This is the technique where physics does the heavy lifting — not because it requires skill, but because your body weight provides all the compression without any effort on your part.

Setup: Place a lacrosse ball directly under the glute of the side you're treating, on the seat itself. Your body weight provides all the necessary compression.

The movement:

1. Lower your body weight onto the ball. You'll find the tender spot quickly — it's usually toward the center of the glute, closer to the posterior hip.
2. Hold 30–60 seconds. Shift slightly to cover adjacent areas.
3. For more direct piriformis access: cross the ankle of the working side over your opposite knee. This externally rotates the hip and brings the deep piriformis closer to the surface. Repeat the sustained compression.
4. Switch sides.

What right feels like: Immediate, significant tenderness — the glutes under sustained body weight compression are reliably reactive after a surf session. The sensation should feel like a deep, almost bruising pressure that eases after 30–60 seconds. In the piriformis position (ankle crossed), you may feel the compression slightly deeper and further toward the hip joint.

Common mistakes:

• If you feel nothing: You're probably perched on the edge of the seat. Settle your full weight onto the ball.
• If you feel sharp joint pain rather than muscle ache: You've moved too close to the hip socket. Reposition the ball more centrally into the glute mass.
• If you feel pain shooting down the leg: Stop and reposition immediately. Piriformis work should create local muscle ache, not neural symptoms. If shooting pain persists, leave the area alone and see the section below.

The Two-Tool Kit

If you surf more than once a week, these two items belong in your bag permanently:

A lacrosse ball. Five dollars. Handles the upper trap, rhomboids, infraspinatus, lumbar, and glutes. The foundational tool. Keep two — one lives in the car.

A massage stick. Handles the forearms and, if you're in a parking lot with space, the quads and IT band. Allows linear flushing strokes that a ball can't produce.

If you surf regularly and find hand fatigue limiting how long you can work the upper trap and neck, a massage cane is a worthwhile upgrade. The hook design lets you reach the upper trap, rhomboids, and even the suboccipitals with mechanical leverage rather than arm strength — useful in the car, and even more useful if you're working on someone else post-session. It doesn't replace the ball for the lumbar and glutes, where bodyweight compression is the mechanism.

If you already own a percussion device — a Theragun or Hypervolt Go — it's a legitimate option. A 2025 RCT comparing six post-exercise recovery interventions found that massage was the top performer for reducing inflammatory markers and muscle soreness, with vibration therapy producing moderate benefit — enough to support it as a useful tool, though not the lead one (Wei et al., 2025) [3]. Use it on accessible regions — the upper trap, forearms, and glutes — and keep the attachment away from the spine.

The percussion device doesn't replace the lacrosse ball. It's faster, not better.

The Bigger Picture

There's something almost paradoxical about the post-surf body. You've just spent two hours being completely present — no inbox, no meetings, no to-do list — and then you immediately return to the most compression-positive, posture-destroying environment humans have designed: the car seat.

The drive home is not recovery. It's a sustained insult to the exact tissues you just worked. The muscles that lifted your head to read the waves and pulled your arms through thousands of paddle strokes are now being compressed, shortened, and cooled into the position they'll set in overnight.

Ten minutes of intentional work before that drive doesn't just reduce tomorrow's soreness. It signals something to the system: the session is done, the recovery has begun, the body is being attended to. Drink something while you work — the circulatory and lymphatic mechanisms massage relies on function better when you're not dehydrated from a multi-hour session in a wetsuit.

DOMS in older adults is more severe and more prolonged than in younger athletes — the inflammatory resolution is slower, the recovery window longer. Which means the Sorely reader — the 40- or 50-something desk worker who surfs on weekends — has more to gain from this than the 25-year-old competitive surfer with a professional recovery team. The math favors doing this.

The stretching companion to this article covers the mobility work that picks up where massage leaves off — the movements that restore range of motion and prepare you for the next session. But start here, in the parking lot, before the drive home makes it twice as hard.

Your lacrosse ball has been waiting.

Open Sorely and follow the guided routine: Shoulders | Lower Back

References

1. Dupuy, O., Douzi, W., Theurot, D., Bosquet, L., & Dugué, B. (2018). An evidence-based approach for choosing post-exercise recovery techniques to reduce markers of muscle damage, soreness, fatigue, and inflammation: A systematic review with meta-analysis. Frontiers in Physiology, 9, 403. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2018.00403

2. Wiecha, S., Cieśliński, I., Wiśniowski, P., Cieśliński, M., Pawliczek, W., Posadzki, P., Prill, R., Zając, J., & Płaszewski, M. (2025). Physical therapies for delayed-onset muscle soreness: an umbrella and mapping systematic review with meta-meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 55(5), 1183–1212. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-025-02187-5

3. Wei, M., Liu, X., & Wang, S. (2025). The impact of various post-exercise interventions on the relief of delayed-onset muscle soreness: a randomized controlled trial. Frontiers in Physiology, 16, 1622377. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2025.1622377