You should get a Sports Massage – but I can hear you ask “but why not a Swedish massage”?
Whether you are training for marathons, going to the gym twice a week or sitting at a desk all day, sports massage has many benefits that can improve your wellbeing.
Our muscles go through a lot daily and the strains of these can manifest in several ways: -
Sports Massage addresses the condition of the soft tissues that are contributing to your pain and has numerous benefits including:
Reducing muscular tension, stiffness and spasms – through a variety of techniques a sports massage can breakdown areas of tension and return them to a more natural state allowing our bodies to function to their optimum level.
Breakdown adhesions and scar tissue – adhesions, or as they are more commonly known as “knots”, occur in muscle fibres regularly and through applying the right pressure at the correct sports massage can remove the “knots”. The same can be said of the scar tissue which occurs due to a trauma of our body.
Figure 1:- Adhesion in muscle
Improve range of motion – tight muscles can restrict range of motion of a joint. Regular use will shorten muscles, meaning that when we attempt to move in the opposite direction our muscles do not have the length required to allow that movement. Sports massage works to restore muscles to their optimum length by utilising several techniques to breakdown adhesions (“knots”) and lengthen the shortened muscle fibres.
Reduce pain – our body harbour’s tension and waste products in a way that causes pain. Sports Massage can help to reduce pain by breaking down the areas of tension and encouraging the dispersal of waste products.
Promote faster recovery and prevent injuries – by ensuring muscles are kept mobile and able to perform their function, we reduce the risk of injury. It also ensures our nervous system can interact with the muscles more effectively meaning, we can react quicker to situations, such as the boiling water or pothole in the road.
Improve performance – Sports Massage can improve the efficiency of muscles by allowing them to perform at their optimum level. It can also help improve the efficiency at which nutrients are exchanged at cellular level making processes such as energy production that much easier.
Improve muscular balance – when a muscle is stronger than its opposing muscle it can pull other body structures in to misalignment. Sports Massage will help to create balance through lengthening the strong, shortened muscles and strengthening the weak muscles opposing it.
Improve proprioception – our awareness of our body improves with touch, making us more aware of each part. Deep tissue massage can help to identify those points in the body that we didn’t know are tight and help to restore balance allowing our body to respond to stimulus more effectively.
Promote relaxation & a sense of wellbeing – the process of Sports Massage releases endorphins in our body’s that help us to relax and let go of the tension we have been carrying around.
Why not book into see one of our sports & remedial massage therapists and can see for yourself? One body, make it count.