Sports massage is a type of deep tissue massage that focuses on soft tissue including muscles, tendons, and ligaments to achieve optimal physical, physiological, and psychological benefits. Despite its name, it is beneficial to everyone, not only athletes. It will enhance your physical performance whether you are physically active or with a desire to improve your health and well-being. Sporting, occupational, and recreational activities can place unnatural stresses on our body resulting in injuries and poor posture. Sports massage promotes recovery by increasing blood flow and aims to relax tight muscles, break down scar tissue, and adhesions. While removing metabolic waste products from the problematic areas, overall speeding up your recovery.
Benefits:
- Improves blood circulation, delivering fresh oxygen and nutrients
- Aids the elimination of lactic acid and waste products
- Decreases muscle fatigue and soreness
- Release of endorphins and reduction of pain
- Increased joint mobility/range of movement
- Reducing tension in muscles, tendons, fascia, and ligaments
- Increase in the elasticity of scar tissue
- Reduces oedema/swelling
- Improves posture
- Relieves muscle spasms/cramps
- Stimulates or calms the nervous system
- Helps to tone and condition muscles
Different types of sports massage
Maintenance
Regular sports massage helps to keep the body healthy leading to the prevention of musculoskeletal injuries and problems by detecting muscle fatigue, postural imbalances, inflexibility and strains and sprains.
Pre-event
Sports massage can help the individual prepare for their specific competition or event by focusing on specific muscles and joints enabling increased performance levels through reducing pre-event anxiety and stress.
Post-event
Sports massage helps the body to recover more quickly from sports and exercise by easing fatigued muscles. Blood circulation and lymphatic drainage are maximised to increase the removal of lactic acid and waste products that build up naturally during extensive exercise.