You just worked out and your lats are screaming. You try to stretch, but your muscles are a burning, solid mass. A massage would be great, but your masseuse is on vacation, or you do't have time--or money for it. So get on a roll! In Body Rolling: An Experiential Approach to Complete Muscle Release, Yamuna Zake, creator of do-it-yourself massage technique, details how to roll your body along a small, dense ball to release tension, restriction and pain. By systematically moving the ball up and down the spine, joints and muscles, the body is "reeducated" and muscles elongated. "The body needs muscles to be free and unrestricted to perform, which requires flexibility and proper alignment," Zake explains, "Body Rolling is the tool. It helps you safely explore any athletic workout--plus, it creates a great body awareness."

Zake, a long-time yoga teacher, developed "Body Logic," a therapy using pressure and traction, to relieve pain from a muscle injury. She then created Body Rolling, which replicates the therapy, so people could work on themselves, to lengthen muscles and combat strain caused by stress, injuries and even gravity. "I learned after 20 years, if you work with the intrinsic logical order of the body, it has amazing abilities to heal itself," states Zake.

Though it feels a bit strange at first, to roll your body over a 9" ball, after breathing into it and feeling the ball penetrate muscle fibers and get into the spaces between muscle groups, the reward is a primal sigh--as knots release and your body again becomes your own. The ball resembles a toy, but is denser and thicker; like a deep sports massage, the ball works into joints and bone connectors, creating space where muscles have shortened and stuck together in unnatural patterns. After rolling down one side of the body, you can literally feel the difference, and "roll with it" takes on new meaning as you enjoy the roll down the other side!

"I was trapped in my own body" states Maggie Shluter, owner of a Boca Raton, Florida fitness studio, who discovered Body Rolling as a competitive body builder. "It was a tremendous tool to help me get out of my own way. Through rolling, I showed longer and leaner, defined muscles, rather than short, stocky ones--it helps muscles learn to be their own length again."

"People who weight train very often neglect flexibility," states Michael Lechonczak, a personal trainer and yoga teacher at Equinox Health Clubs in New York, "They do cardio, but do cursory stretching, if at all. Body Rolling gives individuals the opportunity to open up the musculature in a really great way."

Zake further explains, "No one ever talks about alignment, about preparing the body before you train it. If muscles are too tight, you get injured. Body Rolling helps you do everything you want to do with better performance--it's not just about going for the burn--it's going with the body--how it goes." Even George Forman has been on a roll--he calls it "powerful" and a safe way to find both energy and relaxation.

A kit with a 9" Body Logic ball, pump and two pinky balls for the feet, costs $35 and a video is in production. Classes are taught in cities across the country and in Europe. Call 800-877-8429 for a list of certified teachers, and 888-226-9618 for balls, books or a catalog. Or visit website www.bodylogic.com.

Tired of nursing 15 years worth of weight training "old war injuries," from pulled hamstrings to torn shoulders and chronic, nagging aches, that are aggravated by a tough workout or run, a class called "Body Rolling" at my local yoga studio intrigued me. Anything that could help alleviate tension--since I couldn't afford to keep the massage therapist on retainer--prompted me to investigate.

Surrounded by men and women of all shapes and sizes, I followed along as the certified Body Rolling teacher, showed how to systematically roll the body over a dense, 9" rubber ball. In one class, I was hooked. I learned how to maneuver the ball into spaces in joints or muscles--at least where there should be spaces--and breathe into it. The a-a-a-h-h-h! sound of relief immediately followed the sometimes, o-o-o-o-o-ow! sound, as I found those knots where the muscle feels like a wad of bone, not tissue.

The principle makes sense--work the muscles from their insertion points to the end, to reeducate and lengthen them, and free the congestion caused by everyday stress, gravity--and the Smith Rack. "Go with the body--how it goes," says Yamuna Zake, the yoga teacher who invented Body Logic, a therapy technique using pressure and traction to deal with her own muscle trauma. She then developed Body Rolling to replicate the method for self-treatment. Zake passed her methods on to yoga students and other therapists, and her international following is rapidly growing.

As she explains in her book Body Rolling - An Experiential Approach to Complete Muscle Release, " ... weight lifters who work to bulk up their muscles may focus only the body of the muscle because it is the part they can see; they do not work the tendon. As they keep bulking the muscle, it shortens, putting stress on the tendons and joints ... Increased bulk in muscle body without an increase in length leads to tendonitis, microfiber tendon tears, and restricted joint movement."

"Why didn't I know that earlier?", I chide myself as I lay on the floor, not exactly graceful in my efforts to get the ball into my aching shoulder. But I can feel the muscle releasing, pulling away from the restriction, which Zake describes as muscles sticking to bone and other muscle. As I listen to a CD, I enjoy the empowerment, of working on my own body, feeling the benefits and paying attention to its idiosyncrasies, rather than going to a therapist to do it for me.

To get on a roll, the Body Logic Ball (similar to a toy, but denser and stronger) cost $35, in a kit, along with a pump and pinky balls for my feet. The book set me back another $20, and I can get a video if I want, but the total is still less than the cost of one massage. And, I can do this any time I want--or need to! How do you spell relief? Just "roll with it baby!"

For information on Body Rolling, books, balls and a catalog of related products, call 888-226-9616. For certified teachers call 800-877-8429, or visit the website, www.bodylogic.com.