Sports Massage – What Is It?
Sports massage is a type of massage therapy that uses deep tissue methods to relieve muscle tension, stiffness, and discomfort. Although sports massage is beneficial to athletes, deep tissue massage techniques can be utilized to treat a wide range of diseases, including the following:
- Whiplash
- Back ache
- Headaches
- Tennis elbow and golfers
- Muscle fatigue injuries
- Pain caused by poor posture
- Injuries to the muscles and joints, such as sprains and strains
Sports massage treatments are often fast-paced and include stretching and compression movements. During a session, a sports massage therapist will utilize longitudinal stripping, friction techniques, tapotement, and muscular energy techniques like PNF stretching, active movement, and trigger point compression, among other deep tissue techniques.
Warming up the muscle, increasing local blood circulation, and reducing muscle tension are among ways that are used.
Although sports massage therapy can be tailored to the needs of a sports participant who is about to compete in an event or has just completed one, sports or deep tissue massage can also be used to treat injuries or muscular pain and discomfort by promoting both physiological and psychological benefits.
Therapeutic Sports Massage Benefits
- The following advantages can be obtained by employing sports and deep tissue massage techniques:
- Muscle tension, soreness, and discomfort are reduced.
- Improved performance due to increased range of motion.
- After exercise or physical activity, muscular stiffness and pain are reduced.
- Post-injury healing time is cut in half.
- Relaxation levels are higher, while physical and psychological stress levels are lower.
- Helps you get more and better sleep.
These advantages are mostly due to an increase in local blood circulation, which aids in the removal of chemical irritants and waste materials that have accumulated within the muscle. Fresh blood flow improves oxygen and nutrition content within the muscle at the same time. As a result, muscle healing can be aided, and muscle tension can be reduced.
Compression techniques can also impact blood flow and nerve reflexes within the muscle, which, when triggered, causes the muscle to relax.
When a muscle is tight, nerve receptors within the muscle might get irritated. As a result, you may have muscular pain and discomfort. As a result, lowering muscular tension can help to reduce nerve irritation as well as muscular pain and discomfort.
Increased range of motion around the corresponding joint can be achieved by reducing muscle tension and boosting localized blood flow. This is great news for sports and fitness enthusiasts, as an enhanced range of motion has been linked to improved athletic performance and lower injury rates.
Treatment given after an incident can help to speed up recovery by increasing circulation, which helps to lower waste product concentrations and boost oxygen and nutrition content inside the muscle.
Massage can help improve healing by improving nutrition and oxygen levels and lowering any excessive edema associated with injury when utilized to treat a specific ailment.
Manual massage techniques can also aid in the alignment of new collagen synthesis within the muscle, resulting in improved scar tissue realignment and a lower risk of re-injury.
Finally, massage treatment has been demonstrated to reduce daily stress and anxiety levels, whether as a consequence of a placebo effect (believing that something will change), taking time out for yourself, or the physical reduction of pain and muscular tension. As a result, the quality and quantity of sleep, which is necessary for daily life, may improve.
It is clear that Sports Massage Therapy offers numerous advantages. If you are an athlete, lead a very active lifestyle or work in manual labor, or experience muscular tension and pain as the result of your occupation- it could be time to consider Sports Massage Therapy for yourself. I’ve outlined some of these benefits below but there are many more reasons why this type of treatment can benefit you! What do you think? Have any of you experienced relief from muscle soreness with regular massage treatments like those offered at our clinic? For more information about what sports massage click on the link here.