“I would not provide sports medicine services for any major athletic event without massage therapists”
M.J. Albohm, Chief Athletic Trainer 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games

Sports Massage Therapy is a deeper and more intense form of massage incorporating various Swedish massage techniques and others such as frictions, soft tissue release, trigger point response (similar to Acupressure) and also stretching.

As a sports massage therapist, my role is to identify and address soft tissue dysfunction and associated muscle imbalances in order to prevent injury through poor posture and other forms of stress presented to the body.

Therefore anyone can benefit from sports massage whether they are an athlete where the stresses are through obvious physical demands placed upon the body, or the relatively inactive office worker whose stresses are occupational, which can also present sports injury type problems or compensational imbalances.

There are three main areas in which Sports Massage can benefit people:

Maintenance

For the seemingly uninjured person or sportsperson, a massage treatment programme is excellent for soft tissue maintenance and can help prevent those niggling injuries that inhibit maximum performance.

Also as a qualified personal trainer, I understand which muscles are likely to suffer more during a particular sport. I am therefore able tailor the treatments to the client, increasing positive performance factors by optimising motion and flexibility and therefore overall function, while minimising those which are negative.

Rehabilitation

Massage can facilitate and support soft tissue healing while also reducing pain during the rehabilitation process. Together with the application of corrective exercise, sports massage can help restore normal function back to the damaged tissues.

Event-Based Massage

Pre-event massage provides the athlete with a feeling of invigoration and readiness by warming and loosening the muscles as well as sharpening up neuromuscular communication.

This is an excellent supplement to the sportsperson’s normal warm up. The pre-event massage may also be tailored to be more relaxing if this is more of the effect that the client wants. N.B. This is not recommended if the athlete is not used to massage as this will be a foreign stimulant to the body and therefore may affect performance.

During the Event massage relieves tension that may be building up within the muscles and therefore promotes recovery.

Post-event massage is geared towards enhancing the athlete’s recovery.

Massage releases tension within the soft tissues while increasing the localised vascular and lymphatic activity. This reduces muscle spasms and allows the quicker removal of metabolic by-products that inevitably occur during exercise.

In summary, some of the benefits of sports massage:

• Eases, stiffness, tension and pain.
• Improves the range of motion and muscle flexibility, improving power and performance.
• Improves circulation and lymph flow.
• Reduces the likelihood of injury.
• Shortens recovery time between workouts and speeds up rehabilitation after injury.
• Provides a sense of well being.

return to top