What is Sports Massage
Sports Massage is a term applied to the discipline of using massage for the benefit of all sports and exercise participants. Covered by this is the management, manipulation and rehabilitation of soft tissues of the body e.g. muscles, ligaments and tendons.
Regardless of whether you exercise, play sport, keep fit or
compete from club to international level, then sport’s massage
may have something to offer you.
Today more and more people are involved in physical exercise therefore
Sports Massage should be tailored to each individual’s needs to
positively enhance their ability to perform.
Physical improvement usually encourages greater effort in training. Competitive sportsmen and women push themselves to extreme limits and so have special needs which must be taken into account when preventing injuries and providing fine-tuning. Massaging the body warms the muscles due to the increase in blood flow, helping to reduce tension and relax muscles. Warm muscles will contract easier than when cold, they work more efficiently and the chance of sprains, strains, micro tears or other types of injuries are reduced.
Sportsmen often have to be their own treatment co-ordinators but can benefit by understanding the treatment they receive. Coaches should also be aware of the effects and uses of sports massage and maintain contact with the therapist. Sports Massage can offer valuable information not only on the condition but also on the effects of training. The symptoms of incomplete recovery are muscle or joint pain, tendon and bursa inflammation.
With massage the therapist can remove the accumulation of general aches and pains that some sportsmen or women either seem to accept as normal due to their gradual build up or try to suppress with drugs. These aches and pains can lead to more serious problems thus the benefits of massage for injury prevention is great. With specific injuries massage can explore the soft tissue more intimately than any other therapy and problem areas can be diagnosed and treated very accurately.
Here are some of the benefits of Sports Massage:
Sports Massage can be beneficial at various stages of participation e.g.
If you are looking for a Sports Massage practitioner, beware
– standards of training and practice vary enormously – if the
practitioner is not suitably qualified, at best your treatment
could be ineffective and at worst it may cause injury. Finally,
sports massage practitioners work in a variety of settings e.g.
in clinics, on their own or with other professionals (chartered
physiotherapists, osteopaths and chiropractors) at leisure centres,
sports clubs and events.
Contact massage4athletes.com for more information on Sports Massage
