Sports Massage

With the ever growing number of people taking part in sport, combined with the increasing competitiveness and intensity of physical exercise, the demand for sports massage is also increasing and becoming more and more recognised as a skill which may aid recovery and enhance performance.

Who is Sports Massage For?

Sports massage is for anyone, whether you exercise at a competitive level or exercise for fun, sports massage could aid your training and help stop you from feeling the common aches, and tension within your muscles that are associated with training. If you receive sports massage on a regular basis it can help prevent injuries being sustained through using certain body parts too much, these types of injuries are known as overuse injuries. If you train regularly but do not follow a correct procedure to reduce tension that is invariable placed upon the joints, ligaments, tendons, and muscles you could be placing yourself at risk of injury. The best way to reduce this tension is to have regular sports massages following exercise.

How does it work?

Depending on the aims of the sports massage there will be different effects. For example if you are looking to get a massage before a competition the muscles will be massaged vigorously, in order to increase blood flow and heat to the muscles and therefore allow them to be stretched further and adapt to exercise easily. Or if you are looking to have a post exercise massage it will be less deep and vigorous and looking more at releasing hormones into the blood to relax the muscles, and also to remove any waste products such as lactic acid from the muscles to aid muscle recovery.